Compelled to Move Forward - Thoughts on US Policy

October 31, 2025October 31, 2025

A CONSERVATIVE’S CALL TO QUELL THE VITRIOL AND VIOLENCE

As a conservative for over 40 years, I’m compelled to call out fellow conservatives for driving divisions among us and stoking violence. When tragedy strikes, like a shooting or assassination, all should know to restrain impulses to disparage the deceased and refrain from a rush to judgement. Tragically, our nation’s leaders, President Trump and VP Vance chose to quickly and very publicly blame “the radical left” and “left-wing radicals who gunned down Charlie Kirk”.

August 31, 2025September 3, 2025

TURNING TOWARDS THE GREATER GOOD

As a lifelong conservative, it grieves me to witness how the vast majority of political “leaders” have abandoned the values that once defined them, chosen to play to a base they’ve radicalized for their own purposes, and failed to articulate, let alone champion, policies that would serve the greater good. While “Republican” leaders seem to have won the day in taking from the poor and giving to the rich, and Democratic leaders press into righteous indignation against Republicans, I submit that we need to step back, at least a little, from what we’re against and step into what we’re for. That’s a hard thing to do when President Trump has marshalled the whole of government to forcefully advance an agenda thoroughly antithetical to our core values. However, for the sake of both our mental health and our civic effectiveness, we need to turn, at least partially, away from all the zero-sum negotiations and law suits being battled out, and focus on win-win, non-zero-sum opportunities to improve the lives of people and our country.

June 21, 2025June 21, 2025

ECONOMIC MALFEASANCE

As a conservative and a student of economics for over 40 years, it’s been downright painful to witness the economic malfeasance of the Trump Administration. Were it not happening in real time, it would be hard to believe any President would intentionally initiate trade wars with our allies, reduce the pool of labor needed to sustain growth, dismantle teams of experts working on our most pressing problems, reduce funding for public and higher education that underpin future economic prosperity, cut the overseers of our fiscal integrity, and damage the confidence our economy is built on. Tragically, it’s inevitable that these actions will create more uncertainty, stoke inflation and push us into a recession.

May 8, 2025May 8, 2025

THE AUDACITY OF EVIL

While former President Obama lifted us with “The Audacity of Hope”, tragically today, we are witnessing daily the audacity of evil. While none should find it difficult to recognize the conduct of my fellow Republicans in Congress as self-preserving cowardice, and the conduct of wealthy MAGA supporters as greedy, the conduct of President Trump seems to be in an altogether different class.

March 7, 2025March 10, 2025

“WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE”

With the holidays and songs of “peace on earth” having wafted well behind us, and years of political turmoil before us, perhaps it would be worthwhile to inquire, how can we find peace when lies, greed, and gross injustice, run rampant right under our noses?

October 30, 2024December 10, 2024

DECEPTION

Deception. It’s been a plague on humanity since Eve was beguiled to take a bite from the apple. Whether self-induced, or seeded and cultivated by those determined to profit from it, deception has driven many wars and resulted in incalculable destruction, heartache and loss of human potential. Hitler lured Germans into believing Jews were to blame for their economic problems, President Johnson told the American people not to “worry about Vietnam” and sent tens of thousands of young men into a war he knew we wouldn’t win, and George W Bush pressured us into believing Iraq had WMDs while the CIA warned him they didn’t. These are just a few examples of “leaders”, bent on their own self-serving agendas, bent on gaining and holding onto power, choosing to lure people into believing falsehoods, with disastrous consequences.

September 29, 2024October 3, 2024

A PATH FORWARD FOR CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS

As we wade through this ever more divisive election cycle, the challenge of who to support has grown particularly acute for conservatives and ProLife Christians. This challenge has been festering for years and will reach far beyond this election cycle. We who are ProLife, who believe in the sanctity of life, are now facing a near impossible dilemma. Those political figures who advocate for protecting fetuses, are the same people who have acted with a callous disregard for the health and well-being of children, teens and adults. While I clearly lack the wisdom of Solomon, below is a path forward that largely aligns with ProLife principles and can pragmatically serve all life from conception through death.

August 8, 2024August 10, 2024

PUTTING PRINCIPLES ABOVE POLITICS

Given the near exponential growth in political disinformation and an unrelenting onslaught of highly polarized opinions coming from news channels and candidates, making political choices sometimes feels so onerous that many of us would like to either give up and either sit this one out or just retreat into our traditional political affiliation. I submit that if we want our choices to reflect who we are, what we want our nation to be, both in our lifetime and for future generations, and something we can be at peace with, it’s essential that we step back from all this rancor and reflect on what are the principles we hold most dear. Instead of trying to make choices based on who might help us financially in the short term, or who “we like” and “don’t like” for each office, I submit we’ll be much better served by measuring candidates by how likely they’ll be dedicated to policies consistent with the principles we hold most dear.

April 22, 2024May 11, 2024

A TRAGIC SYMBOSIS

Most of us learned in public school how a symbiosis is a “close biological relationship between different species”. Most of the time these relationships are co-dependences that benefit both species. Sometimes they’re fatal. Tragically, as a growing number of Christians have tried to assert their influence in political arenas, the accelerating ties between those who call themselves Christians and most Republican “leaders” dependent on their votes, has devolved to the detriment and mutation of both.

March 14, 2024March 14, 2024

INFLATION AND THE ECONOMY

While we often like to think America is “Number One”, underneath that veneer of bravado, we often feel like important aspects of our country are far from stable and fair. Inflation has undermined family budgets, and our economy often feels far from stable and prosperous. As we try to cope with these challenges, rather than follow in the footsteps of politicians whose dominant response is lashing out at political rivals, perhaps it would good to step back, examine why these aspects of our country are running far from what they ought to be, and what can be done to make things better.