One may legitimately wonder why a reasonably sane 80 year-old would begin writing a blog. In my case, it narrowed down to three things:
1. As a religious person, struggling to develop a meaningful faith, I have advocated action as a requisite part of the process. I need to take my own advice.
2. As a political scientist and military intelligence officer, I have convinced myself that I have a perspective that is different from those of most commentators – on line and on the air.
3. Finally, I swore an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” This seems to be a time in which that promise is most binding.
I will be sending the address for this blog to relatives and friends in the hope that it will be charitably received. Anytime someone feels like reading it and passing it on to others, you have my blessing. Of course, that may open me to the comments of “trolls.” I will try to keep my entries civil and non-partisan in order to avoid some of that. However, such responses are probably inevitable, and I really do not think that they can call me anything that I have not been called before.
Finally, I should attempt some measure of full disclosure by telling you where I stand on issues social and economic and, therefore, political. For almost 60 years, I identified myself as a Republican. In fact, the last primary in which I voted was a Republican primary. I have come to recognize that the current Republican party seems to be quite different in many ways to the party to which I first subscribed. My problem is that I am a social liberal and an economic conservative. In my case, that means that I take seriously the duty to care for those less fortunate and to regard all liberties guaranteed by the Constitution to be universal. It also means that, because of its obligation to protect the health, welfare and safety of its citizens, government has an important role to play in this process. My economic conservatism leads me to believe that programs and policies of government must be paid for in a specific and thoughtful way. Revenue projections must be based upon solid systems of taxation supported by evidence. If anyone reads this blog, they will surely find reason to quarrel with my assumptions and my reasoning, In fact, such responses are welcome.