Introduction to the Blog

2009 was an extraordinary year, both for me and for my country.

As for me, I was rocked by something that had never happened to me before as an adult. I lost my job. This blog will not be about that personal experience. Losing my job is purely incidental to the birth of this blog. I am, after all, one of many who have recently experienced job loss – perhaps 1 in 5 of all Americans by some measures. I fully expect to land on my feet and anticipate 2010 will be a much better year for me personally. This blog is not about me.

This blog will be my way of organizing my thoughts on the extraordinary and historical American political trends that began in 2009, and seem poised to come to a head in the years 2010 – 2012. I will use it to make occasional postings on the current events of the day, with a particular focus on fitting them into what I consider to be at the core of contemporary American politics – quite simply the popular understanding of Liberty and Constitutional Government.

The events of 2009 gave birth to the idea of maintaining this blog. It is not in my nature to use social networking media, at least not in the way it is typically used. It seems to me the assumptions underpinning everyone tweeting what they had for lunch today might be appealing to extroverts. I am, however, an introvert. I don’t care what you had for lunch today, and it is none of your business what I had for lunch.

However, “web 2.0” technology certainly does afford anybody the possibility of reaching anybody else with information and personal opinion that can affect general opinion. It seems to me this is a powerful modern tool for Liberty and Constitutional Government, and I intend to use it throughout 2010, maybe beyond.