On the eve of Donald J Trumps’ Inauguration I sit to write my first ever blog post on a site that I expect very few people to ever read. I think on why I have chosen to do this, in a day and age where everyone is busy yelling at each other behind the keys of a message board, why did I want to create a site where people could anonymously hold discussions and write blogs about their political beliefs and maybe, just maybe, find that they have common ground with the other side of the aisle. I have done this because we have lost the ability to communicate with each other about the real issues, politics, race, gender, religion, inequality, and instead have fallen victim to a political / media machine that is set on polarizing issues and forcing us as citizens to pick a side and hate the other for their opinion. This is a classic war technique of demonizing your opponent to strengthen the resolve of your soldiers, but in that we forget that we as human beings, and as Americans, have a common core of values that we share with one another. I am not talking about religious or moral beliefs but civil beliefs, beliefs that are in the constitution that we cling so dearly to, our unalienable rights if you will. What we want is simple really, we want our economy to thrive, we want safety for us and our families, we want jobs, a good education, a good infrastructure, all things that we can easily agree upon but we have lost sight of in the past two decades. We have forgotten what it means to compromise with each other in life and in politics. I have started this blog, here today, to find compromise once again with my fellow men and women, to remind us that we all seek a common good no matter if you are a Republican, Democrat or Independent. To that end I encourage those of you that wish to read this site and participate to do so with an open mind and with facts about real issues, do not come here with political gossip or to rail against one side or the other but come here to discuss, debate and learn. To that end let me launch this blog with my first post about the forthcoming election of Donald J Trump as the 45th President of the United States.
Tomorrow afternoon, Donald J Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States, the most unpopular President in decades (based on popular vote and poll numbers). I personally find the man to be the opposite of what this site stands for, but I hold out the smallest sliver of hope that he can cause a change in this country to stop the very thing that he ran on, fear, anger, and deep seeded polarization. I find that sliver of hope growing smaller though as I watch his nominee’s flounder before Congressional hearings, as I hear differences in opinion between the President-elect and his cabinet picks and the unsettling relationship with Vladimir Putin. But none-the-less Donald Trump has done something for this country that I do not think he expected when he started running and tweeting. He awakened a sleeping giant of a moderate independent class of people who can no longer stand either side of the aisle and seek change, myself among them, and as much as I fear some of the things soon to come over the next four years I hold out hope that with each passing year the people start to take back their country, start caring again, and start forging ahead and dragging this country up out of the mud that it has been dragged through since the second World War and back to a shining symbol on a hill that the rest of the world wishes to model itself after. So in closing my first ever blog I say to anyone who reads this, how do you want our generation to be remembered? And what are you willing to do about it?
Thomas Paine
Progressive Politics Forum 