At this time of this post, I am not member of a political party (* SC did not allow me to register in the Libertarian Party; AZ and MD have; however, I'm not an active party member.) I am an activist in the sense of restoring a limited government and generally oppose policy interventions contrary to free markets and individual rights, including the right to contract and the right to migrate.
It's difficult to explain the nature of my conservatism; I am mindful that many classical liberals like me reject the term out of hand (e.g., Boudreaux and Hayek). I see major social institutions (like church, charities, marriage and family) and cultural virtues as the foundation of a liberal, i.e., free society. I sometimes refer to this as the social context, I worry that the State can morally corrupt society, e.g., by undermining virtues like self-reliance and responsibility, Bastiat's famous distinction between things seen and unseen.
I have always been skeptical of authoritarianism, even though I was raised as a military brat. During my salad days, I was more politically "progressive" mostly because I tended to identify with the intent than the reality of legislation and the generally progressive tilt of academia. It wasn't until I became more aware of economics in pursuing my MBA that my political conservatism/economic liberalism emerged; I also had started growing more skeptical over efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of government programs. The final phase of my political migration occurred between Bush's second term and Obama's first term inclusive. The blog started during this period; I started to question activist foreign policy as consistently as domestic policy. There was still a pragmatic edge to my politics because the GOP was the only alternative advocating a more limited state. I once explained it was the Dems' sabotage of the Bork nomination which was the final straw leading me to quit the party. The anti-trade, anti-immigrant Trump nomination was the final straw with the GOP.
I had toyed with the idea of a political blog with months before I finally started it in 2008. In part, I see publication as a form of self-discipline; I wanted to do due diligence in researching political issues. There was no intent to publish daily; I initially published commentaries on an ad hoc manner and remember at one point early in the Obama presidency thinking I had had my say and thought subsequent publication would be sporadic.
Types of Posts
- One-Off Posts. These may be self-contained, single-part essays, commentaries, replies, critiques, rants, lists, etc. In some cases, one-offs may become part of a series, e.g., GOP Presidential debates.
- Series. These could involve a planned multi-part sequence on a topic, a connected sequence (debate reviews) or periodic posts, like my annual mock blog awards (jackass, bad elephant, bad judge, bad public servant, etc.)
- Miscellany. (* I started renaming my posts with a count in the interim; these are signified by an ending M.) This is the most common post, typically published daily, with a signature newsletter-like format, which evolved over time. Typically each post has an opening quote and a closing musical video segment I call 'musical interlude', nearly always a political cartoon or humor segment and 2 or more segments. While I occasionally touch on cultural topics like sports, music, television or movies in my 'entertainment potpourri' segment or certain celebrity death tributes, most segments focus on pro-liberty topics, often featuring embedded videos, usually from Youtube or Facebook. I often republish my comments on blogs or social media like Twitter and Facebook and have other recurring segments like 'political potpourri'.
- * Journal. These include a more freestyle, varied format which is more personal and may include comments on less political topics like the stock market or the culture.
- * Rant of the Day. I have done a lot of more abbreviated content like tweets or journal comments. This is meant for longer commentaries based on current topics, often triggered by something that pisses me off, like a "progressive" meme, a court decision.
I generally don't allow other comments. (I live for a good argument, but I don't suffer fools gladly. I'll sometimes stir the pot on National Review threads, my being pro-immigration, non-interventionist, etc.) I'm very aware that there are other points of view, and I usually can rephrase them better than the antagonist. In part, I have found that comments in forums aren't constructive or relevant, e.g, in Facebook, and I don't have the time to moderate them, (In fact, I've tapered down my Facebook comments lately for similar reasons). I do provide an email address (guillemettera@gmail.com), but I don't promise replies, particularly on a timely basis, given work and/or publication scheduling.
I try to make fair use of sampled content, like political cartoons or videos; usually I limit myself to one cartoon a day which has more to do with my preferences of content across cartoonists. I'll usually provide a link to the original content. If you want to make fair use of my content, please acknowledge me and provide the original blog post link. You might want to email me about any such use.
I've embedded or linked to literally hundreds, if not thousands of videos, cartoons or other content. The content owner may withdraw content without my knowledge; I apologize for any broken links, etc., caused by withdrawn material which is beyond my control. All links are verified as of the date of publication.
