She's Worth It

The Men Behind the Curtain

Rupert Murdoch. The largest threat to truth in the 21st Century

One of my main frustrations with the state of politics is the absolute absurdity of it all. This absurdity is not any one persons fault (although the man in the picture above deserves a lot of the blame). It is not entirely our fault as consumers, nor is it entirely the fault of the media. We all have a part to blame in turning our political culture into one of absurdity (Jon Stewart tried to warn us). We owe it to ourselves and our country to be more critical when we consume information. Especially as we live through an age where information and misinformation, are not only more available than ever before, they are impossible to avoid. Through a critical lens, we will be able to reclaim our sanity when consuming information.

In 21st century America, everything is about entertainment for us. We have lost our ability to just be mindless for a few seconds. We took our material consumer culture, made it digital, and found a new way to make our brains consumers. You may not know it, but you crave information. We are constantly scrolling twitter or facebook seeing information flash across our screens. Don’t feel guilty, consuming information isn’t the bad part. What’s bad is our ability to differentiate between what is factual and what is fictional, what is productive and what is misleading, and what are the intentions of the information. Too often, we are drawn to what is interesting, fun, or exciting, rather than what is correct, productive or informative. We must be better, in order to rebuild a climate of knowledge, rather than the current climate of reaction.

Politics are supposed to be boring. Cable news networks have made it not so. We are constantly flooded with “the end is near” type analysis from all sides that is mostly not genuine, fear mongering, aimed at making us tune in for more info about whatever is on the docket for that show and advertisers. Depending on what show you watch, you may end up afraid that Democrats are going to take away your right to say “Merry Christmas,” a migrant caravan from Central America is full of criminals ready to invade and commit crimes, or communism is one election away from seizing all your personal goods. Obviously, none of this is true. Companies have a right to acknowledge the holidays anyway they please and in behooves them to be inclusive. It’s just good business. Secondly, migrant caravans are not “invading.” They are mostly people forced out of their homes, or people looking for more opportunities elsewhere. This may sound familiar to your own ancestral stories. Finally, not even the most socially democratic members of congress want to privatize the entire industry of the U.S.. I find that most people sharing memes on Facebook don’t have the slightest idea of what communism and democratic socialism are nor do they understand the impact of capitalism in America today. I digress.

I may have gone hard on Fox News and right wing talking points there. On their best day, Fox News is a hypocritical conservative news outlet. No different then their counterparts for sure. Chuck Todd from NBC though Hillary Clinton was “too prepared” during one of the debates in 2016 (in hindsight, over-preparedness sounds great in these times). However, on their worst day, Fox News is purposefully misinforming their viewers. Some of these can be abhorrent and racist, like the Obama birther conspiracy, also parroted by President Trump. During times like these, they can be deadly as well. Look no further than the “miracle cure” hydroxychloroquine. Fox News was trumpeting the malaria drug while actual doctors were advising to only take it under extreme circumstances under the supervision of a doctor. I’m under the impression that nobody, should ever, under any circumstances, watch Fox News in order to figure out what is actually going on in the country and the world. I would not watch it even for entertainment reasons, but entertainment is up to y’all. I don’t care how you get your kicks.

Fox News and their blatant dishonesty, combined with other media outlets going for entertainment over preparedness, looking at you again Chuck Todd, has left us needing to be more critical with what we are consuming for news. We cannot allow our short attention spans and need to consume entertainment get in the way of our democratic values. Here are a few things we can do.

Know What you are Consuming. If you are getting your news from memes, try again. You have to be better. If you are sharing from an unverified account, find some corroboration. It is so important to take politics seriously at this moment in our history. We have a President who became elected partly due to a misinformation campaign from Russia. It didn’t have to work. Instead of blindly sharing memes about “Hillary’s emails.” You could have read an article about how she voluntarily testified for hours in front of a Republican controlled congress and was determined to have done nothing wrong. Remember, actual reporting still exists, and is actually informative. If you want to scream fake news at the NYT, Washington Post, or CNN, those screams are misplaced. If you open an opinion page, take it for what it is, an opinion. Yours is as good as theirs if you have supporting factual evidence.

Media bias chart. Use this to know the overall bias of what you’re reading.

Read over Watch. This may come down to personal preference but I always prefer to read rather than watch the news. Reading the news rather than watching it, requires more of your attention. TV demands your attention. Of course there can be sensationalized written work, but you are reading it in your own voice at your own pace, rather than that being dictated to you. This can allow you to be more critical. (As the world of sports journalism “pivots to video” I am continually frustrated.)

Find an Additional Source. Is it being said in multiple places in the same manner? Are those places all near the apex of the pyramid in the “media bias chart” I placed above? If so, you’re good! What you are consuming is factual. With politics it’s even easier. Every single candidate running for office has a website where they are telling you where they stand on the issues. You don’t even need those stances run through the corporate media washing machine. Also, Congressional records and court cases are all public. If a candidate is saying they want to do something, but have voted the opposite or are litigating the opposite, you can actually see that. For long term politicians, this may be problematic as the landscape has evolved over the years. use your own discretion for that.

Take it Serious. Politics isn’t a joke. Our democracy isn’t something to take for granted. Don’t share misinformed political memes. Write your own thoughts after doing a little bit of research. You may find out that you are being either duped, distracted, lied to, or misinformed. Zuckerberg, Murdoch, and other media executives aren’t going to keep you safe from it. They only care about eyes and clicks on their sites and networks. Use platforms like Facebook for good discourse and actual news sharing. Be honest with yourself because they will not be honest with you.

Defend the Truth. One of the great ironies of the current political climate, is having the head of the “Constitutional Conservative” Republican party constantly scream “Fake News” and call the media “the enemy of the people.” Freedom of the press was so important to the founding fathers they mentioned it as one of the first “rights” in the Bill of Rights. The President does not like to be held accountable by the press when that is their job. If you aren’t acting in the best interest of the people, they will let the people know. That’s why freedom of the press exists. The president has only found friends with Fox News and OAN (OAN is One America News network and it makes Fox News look like CNBC) because they play nice with him. Even local reporters are not immune to this culture of hatred for the media that the President has enabled. It should worry you. The President doesn’t believe in facts or science and would rather use conspiracy theories to back up policy, than actual information.

The 60 minutes interview linked in the sentence before should serve as severe warning enough. Our own lack of critical thinking and ability to sift through dishonesty combined with our need to consume entertainment at all times, got us a failed trust fund baby turned reality TV star in the most important office on the planet. We have to be better people. Use all the platforms for good. Use your voice for good. Information have never been easier to find, don’t let the men behind the curtain confuse you.

Thank you for reading for the sake of democracy

John

The Thin Red Line

Like most history nerds, I have a regular rotation of history podcasts I listen to. One of the best Historian pod-casters in the business, and a regular of my rotation, is Mike Duncan. Duncan is a best selling author, his best selling book being about the collapse of the Roman Republic, leading into Julius Caesar, in the first century B.C.E.. Something he has been regularly tweeting struck a chord with me today as the GOP leadership in Congress, McCarthy in the House and McConnell in the Senate, came out with their “line in the sand” for the next negotiations leading up to another bill to help Americans get through the pandemic. Duncan’s words are “The health crisis is a political crisis and the political crisis is a health crisis.” The words of the GOP leadership in congress make Duncan’s unsettling words reality.

I have been writing this blog in my head for the better part of 15 years. Today is the catalyst for it. Below is an image from the publication POLITCO with statements from McCarthy and McConnell on employer liability for workers returning to work during the pandemic

At first glance, this may not seem too controversial. It may look like they are trying to protect essential workers from liability. This assumption is incorrect. What this is, is protections for business owners from being sued by employees for being forced to work while risking contracting a deadly illness.

Imagine for a second, and you may not even have to imagine, that you work as an employee for a company that had to close operations due to the pandemic. Your typical day would have consisted of a long commute using public transportation with thousands of other people then sitting in an office or working at a factory with hundreds of other people and/or clients. During the pandemic, you are either working from home, still making a paycheck, or you are relying on unemployment. Less than ideal for you an your family and your employers business, but you are safe, taking precautions to keep you and your family healthy. What McConnell and McCarthy want to do, is tell you employer its OK to open during the pandemic and just risk your employees getting the disease. Your employer needs to make rent and fix the bottom line so they re-open and you are forced to go to back to work. You are forced because your job is back, unemployment is not an option. Your binary choice is either risk sickness/death in order to get a paycheck to support your family or, lose your job along with any benefits and not know where your next meal is going to come from. Also, if you do get sick, forget any legal recourse you have to hold an employer accountable for making you show up during a pandemic, perform your job without proper PPE to prevent the disease, or make any adjustments to working conditions to prevent the spread.

This is where the overlap between the political crisis and the health crisis exists. This is where the GOP and late stage capitalism have been taking us for the better part of 40 years. Essential employees are already going through this to an extent, hence the reason for the comments from the GOP leaders. This week, a Tyson pork plant in Indiana had almost 900 workers test positive for COVID-19. Additionally, the President called on the Defense Production Act to keep open the meatpacking industry. The supply line of food is obviously essential, but essential enough to risk the deaths of employees working in conditions where there is very limited sanitation and social distancing? How many meat plants will end up like the Tyson one in Indiana? Even if you allow the workers to be litigious, does it matter if they are sick and dying?

These are questions that should make everyone reconsider their own beliefs. The pandemic has brought out the absolute worst in the Republican Party. Even this threat to prohibit litigation is purely politics. The GOP knows this won’t be liked. This is simply the party of cynicism in action. They will use this against the democrats in order to get them to remove things form the bill that actually will help people like, arguably the most important part of the next bill, universal vote by mail.

This should be sickening to everyone. It should be eye-opening to everyone. Let me make it clear, and as frank as I can. The Republican Party does not care if you live or die. They only care about protecting corporate america. They work in tandem with these large corporations to enrich themselves, securing their ability to be re-elected, while giving outrageous tax cuts to the corporations. They don’t care about your uncle that runs his own contracting company, nor do they care about your cousin who opened up her own cafe. They care about the deposit from the Koch brothers or how their own share holdings are doing. In the summer of 2008, they secured a bailout for the all the banks and lending companies that were preying on consumers with predatory loans and forced the collapse of the market. When the White Changed parties shortly after, the federal deficit existed all of a sudden. They are not “pro-life.” They never have been “pro-life.” They are war mongers, who sent my generation to die in the Middle East. They care more about a cluster of cells inside the uterus of a woman they will never meet than they do about minorities and minimum wage workers. “All lives matter” should be heard for the hollow phrase it is. Clearly they would rather have you risking your life for Tyson chicken’s bottom line than you surviving. They don’t care about unions or collective bargaining rights. They squashed that with their “Right to Work” act and after 9/11 when TSA employees weren’t given those rights, rights being fought for them by the democratic party. They are not the party of the blue collar worker. They have done nothing but act against blue collar workers for my entire life. They are the party of hypocrisy, corporate welfare, and fear.

The thin red line McConnell and McCarthy are drawing in the sand over the next bill is drawn with the blood of American workers who are being forced to work in unsafe conditions during the pandemic. If you haven’t broken with the GOP and you aren’t sitting on the board of a major financial institution or energy company, you are working against your own self interest. There’s a reason why “life” was before “property” in the Declaration of Independence. We only get one. The GOP would have you believe that your life is worth giving up so corporations can keep making money of chickens.

As next round of negotiations happen, take note of which people in our government are looking out for the one life you have to live. Take note of the ones who are trying to secure protections for average working people like you. Take note of who wants to help you keep the lights on and put food on your table. We are living through the single biggest global shake-up since 1945. Whether you like it or not, the pandemic is a political crisis as well. During times like this, power is always in flux. The American story is about to change. The story of the last 75 years, the last 30 years, is closing. Who in Congress is telling the story of how you want America to come out of this? it’s happening right now. Pay Attention.

Thank you for reading for the sake of Democracy

P.S. Mike Duncan went on another one of my favorite podcasts, Tides of History, to discuss how the pandemic is linked to political and social changes of the last 20 years. Give it a listen here: https://wondery.com/shows/tides-of-history/#

Voting like your Life Depended on it

Today, thousands of Wisconsin residents will head to the polls to vote in the middle of a worldwide pandemic that has already claimed the lives of over 10,000 people in the United States. They will go to the polls and vote for the Democratic nomination for president as well as a crucial seat on their state’s supreme court. The Democratic nomination is all but a foregone conclusion, with Biden having a healthy lead over Sanders in the race, but the supreme court seat that is up for grabs between the conservative incumbent, Daniel Kelly, and a liberal challenger, Jill Karofsky. Their is crucially important to Wisconsin residents.

Currently, the Wisconsin supreme court is made up of four very conservative judge and two liberal judges. The conservative majority has been a harbinger of doom for civil liberties in Wisconsin. The State supreme court is currently trying to purge 200,000 voters from the rolls. A conservative majority would mean this would become a reality, in a state where voter ID laws already suppress voters. According to an NY Times article on this subject, 17,000 voters were turned away in the 2016 election for not having a proper ID. Voter ID laws are a different debate for a different time. They disproportionately effect minority and low income voters and act as a barrier for non voters becoming first time voters. I digress.

Wisconsin should not have in person voting today. People are, quite literally, risking their lives to work the polls and cast their vote. It was not going to be this way. The Democratic governor, Tony Evers, signed an executive order yesterday that would have postponed the in-person election and allowed more time for people to apply and receive absentee ballots. The Supreme Court of the United States, overruled that order along partisan lines in a 5-4 decision. The conservative majority of SCOTUS is the reason some people will contract COVID-19 at the polls in Wisconsin today. Their decision also required that all absentee ballots be returned to polling places today as well, meaning, people who applied in the last week will not get their ballots in time to turn them in.

If this seems unfair and enrages you, it should. Republicans are brazenly suppressing votes in the middle of a pandemic while making people risk their safety in order to vote. Unfortunately, this is should not be a surprise if you have been paying attention. Republicans have been suppressing voters for a long time and Wisconsin is ground zero.

In Wisconsin, the republican party holds a 64% of the seats in the state legislature but they only won 47% of the vote in their last state elections. This is a product of partisan gerrymandering that has seen legislative districts drawn to favor republicans. That is how they get away with suppressing voters, stripping the Democratic governor of his powers as he enters office and refusing to pass common sense gun laws.

Wisconsin is not as conservative as an outsider may assume, at least their most recent national election would leave you to believe. In 2018, Wisconsin residents voted for a Democratic governor (Evers) and a progressive Democratic senator (Tammy Baldwin). Their residents are ruled by a conservative minority.

This election, if won by Karofsky, would be huge in undoing the partisan gerrymander that as led to this reality. It would also keep voters on the register in a state that President Trump has to win in order to remain the President. Wisconsin residents should have been allowed to vote by mail from the safety of their own homes, the same manner in which the Supreme Court voted to force them to the polls today.

Wisconsin should be the “canary in the coal mine” for what the future of democracy holds during a pandemic. If the conservative, republican, “trumpian” minority continues to hold power, one day it will be you that has to risk life to participate in democracy. Voting should not be a partisan issue yet republicans continually suppress turnout in ways like this in order to maintain their power.

The Republican party wins when less people vote, which is why vote by mail, is not a position they take. This position should, again, should be universally accepted in any form of democracy. Democracy only works to its fullest when everyone participates. Some people will argue about voter fraud in order to speak against vote by mail. Voter fraud is entirely a myth. A study from the Washington Post analyzing voter fraud claims from 2000-2014 found their were only 31 credible instances of voter fraud out of over a billion ballots cast. This is what makes these arguments against vote by mail or same day voter registration or automatic voter registration and this SCOTUS ruling so frustrating and infuriating. There is no reason for people to be risking their health and well being to vote in a functioning 21st century democracy.

Luckily, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren have already come out in the last 24 hours saying the next bill to help cope with COVID-19 will include provisions and funding for voting absentee in elections in the near future. Knowing senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, President Trump, and SCOTUS, it is hard to be optimistic about a bill containing ways ensuring maximum voter turnout passing and being signed. However, states control their own elections so I implore everyone to reach out to a state rep and demand they begin expanding absentee voting for future elections. Below, is a letter I have already sent to my state Senator, Bruce Tarr.

Hi Bruce,

This is John Fosberry Jr., long time Gloucester resident and constituent of yours. First, I applaud your bipartisanship in the state legislature as the minority leader. I’m proud to be from MA, a state that serves as a leader for common sense governance. Thank you for your hard work during your tenure.

These times we live in are different. I’m worried for the future of democracy during this time of emergency. Already, we have seen issues with being able to vote in state primaries due to the current pandemic. I know our next state elections aren’t for a few months but I think it best to be proactive and push legislation making universal vote by mail an option for MA residents. It is a no brainer in my opinion. The more safe access to voting, the higher turnout will be, meaning democracy is practiced to its fullest capacity. I hope this finds you well and you consider this when discussing voting alternatives for the fall with your colleagues in the legislature.

Take care and stay safe.

-John

Thank you for reading. This was a long one but an important one. Please take care and stay safe.

Trump’s Coronavirus

Nobody knows what is going on. There is a very infectious disease circulating humanity and nobody, at least in the USA is sure of how they should be going about daily business. In times of crisis, people need transparent leadership. In the United States, we have gotten the exact opposite. The Trump administration has mangled their attempt at preventing widespread outbreak here in the United States. Schools are closed, primaries are being postponed, sports have come to a complete halt and the market is in the middle of a historic collapse. Since cases started growing, Trump and his Fox News state media arm have been trying to downplay the whole thing by claiming it is a Democrat hoax, and telling people it’s not a bid deal. The grifter in chief has been doing this for one reason: to calm markets and keep case numbers down across the country all to help benefit his re-election bid. The latter was confirmed by a Politico correspondent to the White House when talking to Alex Azar, the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

From an NPR podcast interview with the Politico correspondent

Honestly, it is hard to stay level headed when these things pop up. The President does not care about anybody but himself. People have died and will continue to die because of these actions. People will continue to catch the virus unknowingly and not be able to get tested all because he’s afraid high numbers will hurt his election prospects? It’s despicable, despotic, and something that should turn off even the most fervent supporter.

In the interest of keeping this short, and trust me, it could get a lot longer, I will only mention casually that this pandemic is of the administration’s own doing. Trump has gashed the CDC’s budget and fired positions put in place by the Obama administration during the Ebola crisis in 2014. He left us unprepared.

To conclude, the president has, once again, abused his powers. This time, it has led to American deaths on American soil. If you have a member of the GOP as a congressional rep, call them and tell them to get their head out of the sand and do their job by putting pressure on the President to do his job.

Thanks for reading for the sake of democracy

-John

Stoned

The Importance of Maintaining an Independent Judiciary

Perhaps the most important part of maintaining democratic values and liberalism in a society is an independent judiciary. Judges, attorneys, jurors and other members of the court system are expected to deliver blind justice, answering only to the law itself. In “a more perfect union,” the rule of law applies to everybody equally. Every court from the Supreme Court, down to smaller district courts, is expected to treat everyone equal under the law. Recent events around one of President Trump’s campaign members, Roger Stone, have shown a breach in this tenet. This breach has followed a pattern of other occurrences in which this administration has forcibly opened the eyes of justice to bias. If continued, the separation of powers will cease to exist and the institutional fabric of the United States will be destroyed.

Roger Stone is one of almost a dozen members of President Trump’s 2016 campaign team that are convicted felons. Roger Stone, was convicted of witness tampering and lying to congress. These charges were related to the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and the investigation that followed. The Department of Justice (DoJ) recommended a seven to nine year prison sentence for Stone. The President then proceeded to tweet his opposition to the sentencing and Attorney General Bill Barr overruled the prosecutors’ recommendation. This act of the AG to do a judicial favor for the President should not be taken lightly for a number of reasons.

The Judicial Branch is meant to be independent. This meddling by the President and the AG set bad precedent. If this becomes the norm, the President and his allies in his campaign and the GOP will be able to engage in criminal activity without fear of true accountability. Stone will still get prison time, sure, but only after the President has had a say. This is banana republic type stuff. The justice community was so taken aback by the executive meddling that the entire prosecution team on the case resigned, and over 1000 former DoJ officials called on AG Barr to resign.

“Such behavior is a grave threat to the fair administration of justice. In this nation, we are all equal before the law. A person should not be given special treatment in a criminal prosecution because they are a close political ally of the President. Governments that use the enormous power of law enforcement to punish their enemies and reward their allies are not constitutional republics; they are autocracies.”
-Letter from the DoJ officials calling for Barr’s resignation

These DoJ officials served both Republican and Democrat administrations. Bipartisan warnings of this magnitude need to be taken seriously by us as residents of the United States. They are the canary in the coal mine for our democracy.

If we fail to heed this warning and push back through elections and protests, who will be there to speak for us when judicial bias comes for us. Who is to say, the President will not demand harsher penalties for people who disagree with him and at the same time request leniency with his criminal allies? If there is no unbiased accountability for the actions of the executive branch, than the separation of powers between them and the judicial branch evaporate. Our justice system would become no better than authoritarian regimes or classical monarchies that plague and have plagued humanity for millenia. Of course, it is easy to argue that justice for everyday people is not applied fairly as it is. Different groups in society have been treated unfairly since the founding of the nation. Now imagine this type of justice on a more macro level. A level in which there is very little accountability at the highest levels of our government. How long does it last before executive power is used to undo all the good that has been done over the past two and a half centuries of progress? That is something that should worry you no matter where on the political spectrum you fall.

The Rule of Law is something to be cherished. No president has ever done more to erode it. The GOP covered for him during the impeachment trial and now he is seeing how far he can do with executive power. I long for a United States where, once again, everyone is equal under the law, including the chief executive. That is how it has always been.

Article I.

Elections matter. All of them are supposed to be taken seriously and treated as sacred. I remember being in middle school and riding in the car with my Nana talking about voting. Oddly enough, our conversation is so memorable to me that I remember specifically going around Blackburn circle in Gloucester when she said she votes in every single election simply because there are millions of people around the world who do have that type of voice and millions have died to make sure that we continue to have that voice in America. From that conversation, I knew that I would be voting in every election I had a chance to vote in.

I kept that promise to myself. I have voted in every election since my 18th birthday. I have absentee balloted and everything to make sure my role in democracy was played. I take the process seriously and do proper research when making my selections. I have voted for Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Every election, big or small matters.

The 2018 midterm elections mattered more. Anybody with any understanding of eighth grade civics knows that a trifecta in the house, senate and White House means very little check on executive or legislative power or judicial confirmations. From 2016-2018, this was the case. In 2018, Democrats took the house by flipping 41 seats including many in traditionally conservative districts like ME-2.

This election mattered. In the fall of 2019, the Democrat led house launch an impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s conduct surrounding a conversation with the Ukrainian President about military aid to Ukraine. Upon completing their bipartisan inquiry, the House Judiciary committee charged the President with two articles of impeachment. Article I on abuse of power and Article II on obstruction of Congress.

The allegation of Article I spells out that the President abused the power of his office to seek foreign assistance in his re-election by investigating his potential rival. The accusation alone is chilling. This is, obviously, not ok for the President to do. Americans must have faith that their elections are on the level and that their vote matters.

Despite the wealth of evidence that points towards the President’s wrong doing. He was acquitted of both Articles. It is worth noting though, for the first time in American History, a member of the President’s political party voted to remove him from office. Senator Mitt Romney casted a courageous vote that made Article I the only article ever to see votes to remove from the party of the White House. If you have not seen his moving speech on the Senate floor explaining his vote, I suggest you watch. His speech is powerful and should serve as a beacon of hope that the modern GOP may not entirely be devolving into a personality cult just yet (more on that in a later post).

To conclude this long post, elections matter. Had 2018 not had the voter turnout it did, the President would not have been held accountable for his Abuse of Power. Like I said before, there’s are serious times for democracy in America. Checks and Balances have never been more necessary. When you are considering what is right and wrong for what your elected officials are doing, start with your voice. Does the person you are electing care about what you have to say? Do they care about upholding their oath to the Constitution? Finally, when it comes time do the right thing, are they going to do it? I have hope knowing that both of my senators (Markey, Warren) and my congressman (Moultan) and the form Republican Presidential nominee (Romney) were willing to do so. Stay informed, stay active and never forget that our elections are sacred. Not everyone gets to have free and fair elections. Let us never have to experience what the other side is like.

I appreciate your time and consideration for the sake of democracy

-John

Where to Begin

The current state of political affairs in the United States is exhausting to say the least. Every day there is something happening that deserves reaction. It is impossible to escape. The current political culture transcends our lives. It has divided a country that was born entirely without partisanship. The current state of discourse in American Politics could not be worse. Quite frankly, there is so much to write about, I am not sure where to begin.

Let me begin with the rationale behind these posts. It is my personal goal to make it clear to everyone that reads that the current state of politics is not normal. It deserves the attention of every U.S. citizen. It deserves the truth being shared in lieu of misinformation or straight up lies. It deserves backing up your thoughts with well respected sources and not memes. The truth matters. Never before has the truth been under more attack than in the last four years.

I am writing these posts because the current state of affairs in Washington requires it. The impeachment and failed removal of President Trump revealed that American Democracy is on the brink and I can stay silent on the matter no longer. Based on the wealth of evidence the House Impeachment Inquiry revealed, the President is clearly guilty on both counts. It is also clear, members of the Republican Party in both the Senate and the House, were willing to go to desperate lengths to ensure the President get acquitted with no respect to historical or judicial precedent. This is what is most frightening.

There is, quite literally, nothing I believe in more than the Enlightenment ideals that the United States was built on. These ideals are well preserved in the U.S. Constitution in the form of the separation of powers than ensures the Rule of Law. In the coming weeks and months, I will be posting about how these fundamentals of American Government have been abused or ignored since the Trump Administration was elected into the Executive Branch. I plan to write about how we, as Americans, can do better to use our online platforms to productively dismiss misinformation and promote Democratic ideals. I acknowledge that this is a problem that has been going on far longer the last three years. I will discuss the nature of partisanship in the 21st century. I know not everyone will want to hear these truths, nor will they agree with my thoughtful positions. For this reason, I would like to reiterate that you can count on my posts to be guided by facts and democratic principles. I pledge this will be done with truth, civility and respect in mind, as my former history professors and current students would expect in any of my work.

I appreciate your time and consideration for the sake of Democracy.

-John