I have had a hard time getting started on this week’s entry here. I have had a number of false starts mainly due to my recent change in attitude towards how I approach social media. The last few years, I have spent a lot of time on social media mainly sharing photos that I take while out on hikes or runs or during backyard stargazing.
I have also shared my views on politics and world events. I have been sharing more and more of my views in this area and realized that all this talking, arguing, and worrying about politics on social media was not beneficial or relevant to anything that I actually care about. I was caught up in all the meaningless back and forth fear mongering and sales pitches.
I took a break from social media at the end of last week and have not been back since. It is refreshing to be away from all that noise and blather and I highly recommend getting away from it. Nothing, truly nothing, is being accomplished on any of those platforms, except for the further dividing of us. No good comes from arguing and worrying about things that are beyond our control. Trying to convince another of why you are right and they are wrong is not productive or healthy for yourself. The best that you can do, is to talk about your views and why you have them and let others take it or leave it.
Being away from social media has given me time to think and take a step back from the gladiatorial arena that social media has become.
The tag line for my blog comes from a quote that was attributed to astronaut Dave Scott, the commander of the Apollo 15 mission, in the HBO series, “From the Earth to the Moon.” “Exploring beautiful places is good for the spirit,” has been a guiding thought for me these past few years. Up until recently, I have tried to reflect that in my posts on social media. I let politics and division get in the way of my true interests. This weekend helped me to see that I had strayed and allowed me to get back to what is really important for me. I am going to get back to that path and share more of my exploration of “beautiful places,” wherever they may be.
This does not mean that I am any less concerned with the way I see things going or changed my political opinions. It just means that I will no longer waste my time in social media arguing. My views are what they are and I do not have to justify them to anyone.
So, with that said, I highly encourage everyone to take a break from social media. Go find those “beautiful places” to explore. We’ll talk more if you like…Thanks for your time…
Now is the Time for the Loyal Opposition
This country is bigger than one man or one party. In my experience, the political party of your choice will let you down. That was my experience years ago with the Republican Party. It is my experience now, although I am not a member of either party. I left the Republicans years ago during my run for sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona (again, a story for another day). The following is a few thoughts on why I support President Trump and why I think it is now time for him to withdraw and let us as a country move forward in our grand tradition of peaceful transfers of power. This was a very difficult conclusion for me to come to. I love my country and I wish for it to continue as a nation. I would rather be part of the loyal opposition than see our nation dissolve.
I became a member and supporter of the Republican Party when I was a teenager and followed the activities of a governor of California, who in 1976, became the unofficial leader of the conservative Republican movement. These Reagan Republicans were different from the rest of the party in that they looked to serve the people and bring the United States out of the misery of the past decade and into being a world superpower once again instead of maintaining the status quo.
The Republican Party fought this new leader wishing to maintain the truce between them and the new left that was slowly rising in the Democrat Party. That truce maintained the steady flow of power and cash to both sides of the aisle. Ronald Reagan dragged the Republican Party out of their comfort zone and established a great comeback of American influence and power. For the next two decades, the Republicans were the loyal opposition to the rising leftward movement of Congress.
Of course, there were setbacks, no one is perfect and mistakes were made. President Reagan’s successors could not fill the gap left by the Gipper. They had no stomach for fighting the good fight to maintain the spirit of the American people. Without a leader like President Reagan, the Republican leadership once again fell into that uneasy alliance that maintains everyone’s power and cash flow. With few exceptions, the last 30 years has shown all of us that the major political parties are rife with corruption and all about the maintaining of power and money with little thought towards how we the people were feeling. We became complacent, simply voting for someone based on the letter after their name without much critical thinking. That’s on all of us.
Up until 2016, it didn’t much matter who was in the White House or who held the speaker’s gavel in Congress. It was all the same and nothing would change. We were told that there would never be peace, that we had to be taxed more and more to maintain various programs that were inadequate or never really seemed to launch, that our jobs were gone and never coming back, that our military had to be on a constant state of deployment overseas, etc. No one in our country’s leadership disputed these statements. Not Republicans and certainly not the Democrats, who are now so fully infiltrated by the left that they are nothing close to the party of Jack Kennedy and Harry Truman.
In 2015, Donald Trump entered the scene and was disliked by Republicans and Democrats alike. He was saying things that us disgruntled people had been thinking for a long time. Beyond all odds, the people heard him and he was elected. I must admit, I had my doubts. What could a TV reality star, real estate mogul with an incautious use of language really do to turn things around? I voted for him mainly because the alternative was way worse in my opinion. He put my doubts to rest by doing the things he promised to do and despite 24/7, non-stop attacks from both political parties, the media, other world leaders, and problem employees throughout his own administration, got things moving in the right direction, economically and foreign policy wise.
His failing is in his apparent inability to understand that economics is not the only thing Americans concern themselves with. Not everyone is or understands a brash New Yorker who thinks out loud and says outrageous things as part of his deal making strategy. The same middle-America people the president was winning over with his economic solutions and foreign policy advancements were recoiling from the perceived harsh way he conducted the affairs of state. Now, in his defense, I am not so sure many of us could have as many successes as he did while withstanding daily personal and political attacks and misinformation dumps from the so-called news media and not slapped back at our tormentors. Be honest. In his position, you may have gotten surly yourself. I did not vote for him to be my pastor or demonstrate social etiquette for me. I voted for him to do the things he said he was going to do and he did what he said…
I still wish for the return of Ronald Reagan, who could eviscerate his opponents with a smile, a twinkle in his eye, and a cutting, but polite turn of phrase. President Reagan would do battle with a Democrat Congress during the day and share a drink and conversation with Speaker Tip O’Neill, his political enemy, after dinner at the White House.
But I realize, that Ronald Reagan never had to endure the barrage of the 24/7 news media and the wild lands of social media. I wonder how the Great Communicator would have weathered that environment. He never had to deal with the empty and borderline treasonous suits that are the Democratic leadership and makeup the congressional leadership, now. I wonder how President Reagan would have handled Nancy Pelosi’s crude and self serving rants from the speaker podium or a senator’s “Spartacus moments,” or the almost daily backstabbing from people in his own administration. The Democrat Congress of President Reagan’s time fought him politically, but never gave signs they were seeking to “burn it all down” because he had won the presidency over their favored candidate. These are different times. The Democrats are willing to burn everything down because of one man.
So, I still support the change President Trump brought to our country. I support his efforts to bring back American industrial power and energy independence so we don’t have to go off to war in foreign lands to fight for resources we have right here in our great country. I support his efforts to make life a little easier for us here on the ground through tax reform and support for law enforcement. I support the effort to get our allies off their collective backsides and participate fully in all of our alliances and not just let the U.S. do it all. I support his efforts in the Middle East to bring stability and conversation between our allies there and decrease the influence of the bad actor nation in that region. I support his historical support of the pro-life movement and his respect for our ways of worship. I support his efforts to secure our borders for our security both politically and economically. He gets things done and I appreciate his efforts and thank him for his service these last four years.
I am fully cognizant of the devolved state of our communication because of the constant barrage from all sides onto us. I am fully aware of those that just automatically write my opinions off because I support and respect President Trump without ever giving me and my opinions the respect one citizen should give another. I do not ignore faults or misdeeds, but I understand that we are all flawed human beings. There is only one perfect person that walked this Earth that has my devotion.
All of those we respect or admire have “feet of clay,” as do we. Again, I love this country too much to see it go down because my favored candidate did not win an election. If you cannot put aside your partisan hatred and engage in a reasoned dialogue about what went wrong, respect the grievances of fellow citizens, and seek solutions, I ask that you respectfully withdraw from the conversation.
Now is the time to withdraw from this particular field of political struggle. I do not say this lightly. I say this with the full knowledge that there was egregious wrongdoing in the way our elections went in November and that needs to be remedied before we can go forward. I say this believing that the new administration got to power through cheating on a scale we have never seen before. The country needs to push forward.
We of the loyal opposition must become vigilant and fight the agenda of the left with every Constitutional means at our disposal on the federal level, but also at the state and local level as well. To engage in that fight, we must keep our heads and speak our case calmly and reasonably. (I’m working on that. It’s why I’m writing this all down.)
I ask President Trump to do as he said and insure a peaceful transition of power. Doing that will maintain the credibility and political capital for the loyal opposition movement he started and I anticipate that he will continue to lead as a former president and private citizen.
We of the loyal opposition do not burn it all down, disrespect law enforcement or the military, or violently storm the seat of our Republic. We get angry and we take legal, reasoned action to protect our country, our families, and each other.
Thank you for your time.
My View on the Riot at the Capitol
I am writing this in the wake of a very rough and tumble week for the Republic and after much arguing and alienating people on social media with my posts. I wanted to take a step back and just write something to explain my perspective, why I believe it, and why it is essential for someone with differing views to just listen and understand where I’m coming from. If you don’t agree with me that’s fine. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me or I to agree with everyone but I do try to listen and understand where you are coming from. Listening and discussing does not obligate to agree. The only way to come to your own conclusions is to be as fully informed as possible.
The disconnect comes when I am attacked as being stupid or evil simply because I do not conform with another point of view. That is when my baser side comes out and I become snarky and mean and clap back. I know, I shouldn’t do that, but hey, I’m human and that’s what happens. Not an excuse, an explanation. I usually do not respond well to such statements as, “You can’t seriously believe the garbage you are saying…:” or “I can’t believe you drank the Koolaid. You’re better than that…,” or “…orange man bad…” arguments, and variations. I also do not respond well when I am attempting to explain my perspective, the other party exits the conversation with, “I’m done with you…” and runs off offended because I don’t immediately cave to their perspective.
I am writing this over a period of a few days so that I can get it all out and see how it sounds and try for as much clarity as I can. This will probably be a long article so I’m trying to take my time. I am doing this because I value discussion and the connections that I have on the various social media platforms I am on and I am trying to repair some of those connections with explanation and not excuse.
A little bit about me for those of you who don’t know me well. I am a retired law enforcement officer. My career spanned thirty some odd years and two jurisdictions. I have experience as a patrol officer, a canine officer, a narcotics investigator, a patrol supervisor, a patrol watch commander, a chief of staff supervising Internal Affairs, Public Information, and Budget office, a police academy instructor (Constitutional Law). After retirement from law enforcement, I taught criminal justice classes at a national university for several years. I also was a fraud investigator for an airline for a few years. In addition, I ran for sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona, first as a Republican and then as an independent (a whole other story for a different discussion). I tell you all this so that you will have an idea that I form my conclusions not from hokey Internet sites (although I do peruse those for additional perspectives and entertainment) but from a place informed by experience and research. My concerns and calls for alarm come from a deeply embedded love of God, of my family, of my country and for our way of life.
I have many things that I can talk about concerning my growing alarm and dismay at what I am seeing happen, but I want to address the event of January 6, 2021. This seems to be the catalyst for some of the contacts that have written me off and refuse to talk to me any more. Before I go on, I want to take some responsibility for the deterioration of some of the conversations on my own social media feeds. I posted some things that were me thinking out loud so to speak and may have been misconstrued. When confronted, I reacted defensively and for that, I apologize. I do not apologize for my perspective or opinion. So here is my take without us shouting at each other:
After almost an entire year of riots, attacks on law enforcement, cities being burned down, people’s businesses and lives being burned to the ground, autonomous zones, attacks on federal courthouses, etc., all occurring with either tacit approval or outright encouragement from so-called Democrat leaders and activists, the idea that political violence is the only thing that will be heard and responded to was firmly engrained in our collective consciousness.
We all knew that there were objections to how the corona virus response was used to change election procedures. We all knew that a great many people were dubious about counts, poll watch procedures, Internet connected voting machines, algorithms, etc. The same people who spent the last 4 years telling the world that the current president was illegitimate now said that there was nothing to see and to just be quiet and accept that now there were no such problems. Censorship became a norm and discussion was shut down. Historically speaking, when there is no outlet for discussion and objection, there is a danger of less appropriate forms of expression being utilized. In fact, this was one of the arguments used to defend the rioters burning down American cities.
We knew that the Electoral College count was coming on January 6 and that a great many people expected to have those objections aired and debated. I knew that there was little chance of any overturning of the Electoral College’s decision. That has never happened in our history. We have only had two times where the House of Representatives had to make the choice and once where an agreement was struck. We have had objections to the counts in recent history. The difference this time was that there were Senate sponsors to the objection so there would be some public debate and the grievances could be aired. I was looking to that debate to further inform me if I was on the right track or not in my issues with the election in November. This would be the first time that the discussion and evidence would be in full view with institutions that had official authority from the U.S. Constitution. Most of the previous court cases were dismissed for standing without the merits being reviewed officially. The states in question refused to call their legislatures into session for official hearings so we were left with unofficial meetings that were not aired universally and were mocked by the very people that had put us through four years of Russian collusion, Ukrainian phone calls, and a constant drumbeat for impeachment. This would have been the first time that the discussion was going to be had officially and in full view. Is there a connection between this and the disruption that was caused? Who’s to say now, but I am asking the question.
We all knew that tensions were high and nerves were frayed. We have been hyper stimulated by a corrupt 24-hour, bread and circuses “news” media for many months. We have been barraged with all sorts of doomsday for the Republic scenarios from both sides of the political spectrum.
We also have a population that is not fully educated as to the actual operational procedures of our government. Civics class is a thing of the way past at this point and Constitutional government operation is seen as arcane. The corrupt news media convinced the uninformed that the objections to the electors was a constitutional threat when this remedy is written in the U.S. Constitution.
Tensions running high, a president with a flair for the melodramatic, a passionate crowd, what could happen? Stir in some troublemakers from the mob that torched cities over the past year who have been green lighted (green lit?) by Democrat governors, mayors, and members of Congress. Add a woefully, either unprepared or incompetent public safety team and disaster is all but certain.
After witnessing what happened and looking at the video that is available I believe that a sprinkling of agents provocateur in the crowd are the ones responsible for the spark that led to the chaos. I also believe that the actual damage to the building was done by members of a group that was not part of the pro-President Trump group.
I use “Antifa” as a catch all for these chaos causers because I do not believe that these people actually have a political agenda and are agents of chaos who go to these events to stir up trouble for the sake of chaos or whoever is paying their expenses. They are never articulate enough to string together a cogent thought whenever they are interviewed by the unintelligent talking heads of the news media. I believe that the leftist “burn it all down agenda” most comports with these agents of chaos, but they are not smart enough to have an actual thought. I point out that this “burn it all down” philosophy also applies to the racial suprematism movements, the various separatist movements, and the political radical movements as well. They are primarily identified as being “leftist” in my mind because that is where most of the visible support and apologetics is coming from these days.
I view the political spectrum more as a clock face than linear right and left with socialism/Marxism/communism falling at the 6:31 position, fascism at the 6:29 position, “American liberal” at the 11:59 position, and “American conservative” at the 12:01 position, with all the variants along the dial. “Far left” and “far right” are actually very close in ideology and tactics.
I do not excuse the mayhem, destruction, and death that occurred at the capitol building on Wednesday. Those responsible for all the crimes committed from vandalism to murder need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. However, I refuse to hold the President responsible for the criminal behavior of those individuals. Just as I did not blame Bernie Sanders for his supporter’s attack on Republican members of Congress at a baseball field.
Watching the available video, I observed actual President Trump supporters attempting to restrain the bad actors from fighting, breaking windows, and damaging property. The pro-Trump people who made it into the building (again, trespassed and should be prosecuted) for the most part walked around and took pictures. It was a few, not part of the group but wearing what is considered “MAGA” gear, that broke windows and battered at doors. There is no excuse, but there are explanations and there were outside forces that took advantage of an already “passionate” atmosphere to spark chaos.
Those that broke the law must be prosecuted and punished. I said that all last year about the riots and I’m saying it now. There is a great deal of hypocrisy from the left side with regard to their reaction to this event as opposed to their reaction all last year during the Seattle and Portland multi-month long riots, and all the other cities that burned. It was excused and now these same individuals are clutching their pearls and heading to the fainting couches over this event. Spare me your outrage, you’re a hypocrite if you excuse one and not the other.
I know this has been a long discussion but I felt that it was necessary to reach out and attempt to discuss where I’m coming from on this one issue. Thank you for your time.
Debate With Respect
Today is “Bill of Rights Day.” On this day, 229 years ago, the U.S. Constitution was amended to include the Bill of Rights. This was significant and showed how we, as a nation, could further develop our great founding document.
I mention this because we are, today, still developing as a nation. This past election season has given me some insight into why we are so divided.
I see a whole bunch of reasons for this division, but I want to touch on a personal one that has been bothering me for quite a while.
This issue became somewhat more focused for me just this morning while reading through a friend’s social media post and the comments that followed it. My friend was disturbed that two old friends of his had defriended him after a discussion about the current debate over the presidential election. He indicated that he considered the opinions of these old friends were invalid and they had defriended him because he had countered their statements with “facts.” The terms “cowardly” and “their arguments…were nonsense…” were included in the post. I do not know what their arguments were, but injecting these terms into the conversation may have been the reason for the defriending. The comments that followed degenerated into an argument over vote counts. My reading ended when someone posted a poem that ended with “I will hug your elephant but you can kiss my ass…” This is why we are divided.
Over the last few years, I have not defriended, but I have certainly muted people on my social media platforms, not because of their opposing viewpoint, but because of their belittling of my viewpoint. This is the very core of what is dividing us.
I have experience with this. There are people in my various social circles who are so sure of their own superiority as far as morality and education that they belittle and condescend to others who disagree or possess opposing views. Instead of discussing, they insult and demean. Any sources used to defend my opposing position are dismissed as liars and corrupt, as well as being “stupid” and “ignorant.”
In most cases, I back off in order to preserve the peace. I found that this only makes things worse. It normalized the bullying and allowed it to continue. Now, when I finally do speak up, I am “privileged,” “ignorant,” and a bully. They don’t like the fact that I am engaging them and instead of discussing they resort to ad hominem attacks (e.g. “nazi,” “racist,” “fill-in-the-blank-phobic”) against me or my sources, not the issues themselves.
I believe it is this condescending, superior tone that insights the division more than the disagreement over the issues. I perceive the dismissal of my views as “…just wait until we get into power and can have our revenge and force all these ignorant people to do as we say…”
I am working on my own attitudes and awareness of my “debating tactics” in order to insure that I do not engage in this behavior. However, I will not tolerate being demeaned, insulted, or attacked for my opinions or views any longer. I will not be quiet to avoid a debate.
This country is based on debate, compromise, and respect for differing opinions. The main point of our Constitutional Republic is to protect us from the passions of mob rule and respect for the loyal opposition. The sooner we get back to the spirit of our founding, the better off we will all be.
Starting Over
Two presidential election cycles ago, I ran for sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona. I started my run as a Republican. My experience there, which will be discussed as this experiment progresses, caused me to leave the party and complete my campaign as a “no party preference” candidate.
After the end of the election of November 2012, I gratefully left the world of politics behind. I was disgusted with what I had seen and wanted no further part of it.
That was an error on my part and I take full responsibility for that error.
The election of 2020 and all the events surrounding the last four years has shown me that we must stay engaged and informed. We must always be open to differing viewpoints and bear the responsibility of doing the research and thinking for ourselves.
This will be a forum for ideas and for me to share my experiences and researching with whoever wants to read it. This will be a sharing of MY conclusions from my research. Where appropriate, I will share my research sources. I reserve the right to moderate any and all comments.
So, welcome to a restarting of my participation in the great adventure that is life in the greatest country, the United States of America.
NYAZ Blue 