Why I write

I see so many hot takes online, in newspapers and on TV and can't stand it. So many people who write and talk about politics for a living offer garbage takes. My goal here is to dispel popular myths, promote pragmatism and actual policy solutions and to discuss the tradeoffs involved. I feel there is a big void among political writers in that area and I'm aiming to fill it just a little.

My area of expertise is US electoral politics. It's the one area I'm bold enough to call myself an authority on. I like to write about all kinds of policy issues, but I wouldn’t call myself an authority on any of them.

I can't make many promises to readers, but one is humility. Another is conditional optimism. Too many people in politics today have way too much confidence in their prognostication skills. I'm not one of them. I don't know what the future holds and that's a regular theme of my writings. Throughout politics today, doomerism and catastrophism are in vogue. I don't subscribe to that. I believe tons of progress has been made and is still being and I will seek to highlight it here.

In writing this blog, I don’t want to just be against things. I want to promote a positive agenda, too. Being against things is necessary, but not sufficient and just being against things is a great way to wind up in a bad place. Many political writers have fallen victim to letting their dislike of things drive them insane. Having a positive agenda is a way to stay grounded and avoid that.

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