Late Nite Neal
I’ve been working through an internal struggle since McCain introduced us to Palin. I don’t like being political in my public life because politics is so personal and I don’t want to risk alienating folks who disagree or don’t enjoy rational, political discourse. With Palin, I’m all-in at least one more time. If she disappoints me by using power to restrict liberty, I will go back to ignoring politics.
Twitter serves as an amazing pressure valve, but it’s much less satisfying that I would like because someone might follow my tweets because of what we do professionally and have no interest in my late night ranting. This morning I woke up with a great idea. I created a different twitter account for “Neal After Dark.” The new Twitter account is where I’ll stand on the porch yelling at the kids to get off my proverbial lawn.
The idea of having place to blow off political steam, where people know what they’re getting if they follow that account seems kind of liberating.
The “After Dark” account is Twitter.com/lateniteneal. Follow at your own risk.
Read MoreHow Do You Cope?
I’ve writen about my need to stay away from politics in order to maintain mental stability. There are things done and said on the left and the right that totally throw me off my game. I haven’t called myself a conservative since President Bush called himself one, but this election year, putting on the old jacket of Reagan conservatism feels pretty comfortable.
I’m a Christian who loves science. In school, one of the things that drew me to science was the scientific attitude of skepticism. My teachers taught me there are very few irrefutable laws in science and it’s the job of a scientist to continual test what we know what we don’t know. I LOVE that! Skepticism is the guide. Since my university was a Christian university, it wasn’t all that difficult to keep matters of faith and science separated.
The science I fell in love with in school was never self-assured. It is a constant quest of discovery because the moment a scientist becomes sure, the motivation to keep searching begins to die.
From my perspective conservatives separate faith and science well, because faith in God does nothing to squelch the desire to learn why and what this world and beyond is all about. Progressives seem to take scientific ideas and turn them into absolutes. They take it for granted that evolution is a fact and global warming is caused by human activity and then adopt an air of superiority that says, “anyone who disagrees with evolution or global warming is a backward idiot.” If you’re on the left and you want to understand why we love Sarah Palin, this is exactly the reason. We’re tired of our opinions being dismissed by the media when they determine our positions to be inferior.
Charles Gibson interviewed Sarah Palin with such an overwhelming air of superiority that I want to slap the man. He asked questions with a tone that said, “You don’t really believe that …” or “You can’t possibly think that …” and “Are you sure you want to answer this way?” Sarah, for the most part, stood up to him, but the reason Gibson infuriates me is that he asked questions with the implication that conservatism is an invalid foundation for political discussion. Conservatives have no responsibility to answer to a media who hates them and I think they should stop trying.
Normally I cope with politics through distance. I can listen to NPR and rarely get upset (the exception is commentary from Dan Shore), and I can listen to Rush Limbaugh (but when Rush ends and Hannity starts, I can’t turn the radio off fast enough). Distancing myself keeps my blood pressure in check. I focus on technology and I’m happy.
This year is different because I’m emotionally investing my heart in the success of Sarah Palin because she echos the Reagan idea that government isn’t the solution. Government is the problem and the best thing government can do for people is get out of our way. Her record in Alaska is one of slashing and killing wasteful government programs that don’t work or don’t matter, and I trust her to do the same on the national stage. There’s precedent for that type of vice-presidential role, too. Love him or hate him, that’s what Al Gore did as vice-president. Clinton gave him the task finding and exposing government waste. I want John McCain to give Sarah the same task. I want her to dress Washington waste like one of those moose (mooses? meese?) she hunts.
This year is different also because I’m reading a ton of left-wing blogs, which oddly enough, I find more comforting than infuriating. It’s Big Media that frustrates me because they claim non-bias. The left-wing bloggers see Big Media as biased in a completely different direction than I see it and I find that heartening.
Here’s my question to anyone nice enough to stop by my psychology experiment of a blog… How do you cope with politics? I hate it because it separates people? I hate it because it puts me in a mental state where I feel out of control. I hate it because it raises my blood pressure. Whether you’re a conservative, a liberal or a crazy mixed-message Libertarian like me, how the heck to you cope?
Read MoreMy Sarah Mania
Sarah Palin has hit a nerve with me. I’m trying to understanding it by writing about it.
In just over two weeks, I’ve gone from being a non-registered, non-voter with a 90% laissez faire attitude about what government does to being all-in for a person I want to see become president.
Being disaffected by politics didn’t mean I was without strong political beliefs. It meant I was without hope that anyone strong enough to articulate and push a strong Libertarian message would ever be motivated enough to run for office. My political foundation has been shaped by the speeches of Ronald Reagan and the writing of Libertarians like William F. Buckly and Camille Paglia. I believe God created us as vessels of free-will. We can do good. We can do bad or we can do nothing. I believe in freedom of choice across the board because that’s the system illustrated in the Garden of Eden.
Coming out of school, the Republicans held sway with me because their rhetoric was closer to Libertarianism. The Contract with America gave me great hope that I could see wasteful government spending come to an end. When that didn’t happen. I gave up and dropped out. If the political system’s intention was to screw itself, I wasn’t going to hang around and watch.
I had a little (unfounded) hope that Democrats would learn from Clinton’s Republican-Congress-Assisted fiscal restraint. As my fellow Christians seemed to grow more and more enamored with political power, I hoped for a new kind of Democrat party … one that was socially liberal and fiscally conservative. That hope was very short lived. It’s clear that the roots of socialism are too well established in the Democrat party.
I didn’t plan to vote this year, like I haven’t voted for the past several years, and then along came Palin.
It starts with the fact that she’s a woman and I’m a feminist. I don’t have much respect for men in general so men have to prove themselves in my life, but I’m likely to give a woman the benefit of the doubt. Margaret Thatcher said, “In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.” Oh Man! I can’t tell you how much I believe that, but for me, it goes beyond politics. I’d rather follow a woman than a man in almost any circumstance.
Beyond being a woman, Sarah Palin is a strong communicator who warmly and smoothly articulates her message in a way that attracts even people who disagree with her. It isn’t a quality that can easily be faked. She comes across as a politician who is genuine and I trust her. That never happens with me so I’ve been reading every blog post and news story about her. Memeorandum has overtaken Techmeme as my favorite Web site.
What I’ve learned about her, is that her enemies fear her because she is so damn effective. Lies about her record in Alaska are jumping up like popcorn, but they don’t stick because all they are just popcorn. She’s slashed government spending on things that don’t work or don’t matter in Alaska. That’s something I’ve always longed to see a politician do. She stood against and exposed corruption in the good-ol-boy networks and I don’t even want to get started on what I think about good-ol-boys. She learned from mistakes. Yes she originally supported the Bridge to Nowhere, but realized it was wrong and killed it. The Alaskan Democrat Party Web site credited her with killing the Bridge to Nowhere (and then took down the page after her nomination).
Camille Paglia is a lesbian, feminist, pro-abortion writer who supports Obama. She writes more eloquently than I ever could about why my friends on the social left don’t have a legitimate reason to fear Sarah (based on her record) and why feminists in particular shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss her.
I want to see someone go to Washington and kill programs that don’t work or don’t matter. Sarah Palin is the first person I’ve seen who just might do it.
This year I’m going to vote for John McCain, but I’m really voting for a future Sarah Palin presidency. I want to have a daughter one day and I prefer a woman in the White House when my girl (or boy) is growing up.
Read MorePalin’s Church and the Gay Thing
I feel like I have to weigh in on this. The church Sarah Palin once attended appears to believe people can be “healed” of homosexuality.
Background: I’m a born-again Christian who loves … is that the word? I value gay people. I believe God blessed the planet with gay people and I don’t care if anyone agrees with me. Gay people make the world a better place in many, many ways. As a Christian, I cannot deny that the Bible calls homosexuality a sin, but I don’t care. My position is that, if God thinks it’s a sin, He has the power to change it and if He wants too … I’m okay with that, but I haven’t seen evidence of it, and I hope He doesn’t.
In my life, I’ve seen gay Christians who love God and their committed relationships are blessed by God.
Let’s just call it a sin since the Bible does. So is gluttony and we share God’s grace for that. Divorce is a sin that Jesus talked about (He didn’t talk about homosexuality), and the church has largely extended God’s grace to divorced people.
Sarah Palin may or may not be where I am in my belief that we should love gay men and women whether they stop being gay or not. I hope that isn’t what God wants. Lots of Christians hope God wants them to change. Either way … it isn’t up to us. It’s up to Him.
What is up to us is that we love each other the same as we love ourselves. I extend a bunch of grace to myself and therefore I extend almost an unlimited amount of grace to anyone who doesn’t hurt me personally.
I believe the church will move toward extended unconditional love to every person who walks the planet. Sarah will too. Is she there yet? I don’t know, but if she loves Jesus, I know she’ll get there because He loves and died for me … just as I am.
Read MoreDon’t Call Us Middle Class!
I’ve taken a break from the Internet over the past week. I haven’t checked email or twitter in days. My goal is to avoid political discussions because no one is going to change my thinking, and I’m not really interested in trying to change anyone else’s thinking.
Sarah Palin has inspired me in the past week. I haven’t experienced it before but it helps me understand how Barak fans must feel. Sarah hasn’t inspired me because I share her political beliefs. I share some of them, but as a Libertarian, I’m pro freedom across the board and my sense of Sarah is that she isn’t. I like her because she seems to stand for getting the government out of my way so I can succeed or fail in contrast to Obama and Biden who think I need their help.
Both Obama and Biden have shared their dissapointment that the Republicans didn’t talk about the middle class at the RNC. I’m blown away that politicians, who think they have my best interest in mind, don’t understand that the term “middle class” is offensive. Maybe that’s a big part of the reason those of us with Sarah mania sees her critics as a big bunch of elitists.
Read MoreMy Name is Neal and I’m a Politiholic
Alcoholics describe their experience with alcohol in a way that very nearly mirrors my experience with political news. I have to try very hard to avoid partisan political discussion because even a small amount of exposure can send me spiraling into depression and ultimately a sense of despair. Some people can handle it. I cannot.
Growing up, I watched This Week with David Brinkley with my grandfather on Sunday mornings. I loved Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts and George Will. That was where my addiction started and by the time I was in college, I was a political news junkie. I listened to Rush Limbaugh for three hours a day and National Public Radio the rest of the time. On Sunday mornings I recorded the political shows so I could watch This Week, Meet the Press and The McLaughlin Group back to back.
At some point there was a shift away from politics being a positive form of entertainment. It because a source of frustration for me, especially as I began to think of myself as more of a Libertarian.
When Rush Limbaugh returned to his show after re-hab, he talked about how it’s much easier to be a happy person when you distance yourself from politics. That was it. I walked away and now, as much as possible, I try my best to stay away from it. I’d rather be happy than right.
I’ve exchanged politics for technology because technology offers real solutions rather than false promises and power grabs. On Brief 377 we covered a Silicon Valley company called LS9. They’ve genetically modified bacteria to feed on wood chips or straw and excrete crude oil. Within just a few years their technology very well may eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. The political arguments haven’t changed much in years and years. Technology can transform our lives virtually overnight.
I won’t always be able to avoid political discussions, but I’m trying as hard as I can. Live is much more fun without it.
Read More
