Announcing the WhyPartisan Podcast!

By in Politics Tags: ,

Almost two years ago, me and my friend Kristen Howerton of Rage Against The Minivan decided we would sit down every few weeks, and talk about the presidential election. We would chat live her on Facebook

We wanted to talk about the stuff that matters to all of us. We wanted to converse in everyday language because politics can sometimes be confusing.

Mostly, we wanted to model what it looks like to have a civil conversation — between her the Democrat, and me, the Republican.

With partisanship at an all-time high. we started to ask ourselves, “Why should people be SO partisan?” Especially since most people really, at heart, want the exact same things!

We asked ourselves, “Why Partisan?”

So now you can now listen to our discussion, WhyPartisan, as a Podcast!

Please give it a try and subscribe on iTunes or Android by clicking HERE.

 

I Guess Abortion Is Murder, Unless Your Mistress Is Pregnant.

By in Politics, Religion Tags: ,


 

If the United States Congress was a restaurant, we’d never eat there.

That’s because Congress has a whopping national approval rating today of SIXTEEN PERCENT according to Gallup. If we gave Congress stars like they do on Yelp, they would have ALMOST one star out of five.

Almost.

I think the biggest problem is these career politicians, like Depraved Dana Rohrabacher, who recently said about Charlottesville, “It’s all baloney.” (Tell that to the family of Heather Heyer, Dana.)

In other news, a Pennsylvania Congressman named Tim Murphy resigned today. He had been in the swamp for 15 years. He happened to be pro-life and an anti-abortion lawyer.

But, Mr. Murphy just got caught with his, er, pants down — he decided to text his mistress, a psychologist half his age, telling her to… get an abortion. He thought she was pregnant. It turned out she wasn’t. Party leaders found out and made it clear that his scandal was making the party look bad.

I guess they are fighting to keep their approval rating in the double digits.

Murphy is married with one child.

Republicans, I mean this from my heart, we have to do better. Yes, there are some good Congressmen and Congresswomen on both sides. But when an anti-abortion Congressman tells his mistress she needs to get an abortion, Republicans, we have yet another reason to drain the swamp

These kinds of Rohrabacher and Murphy career politicians are really making us look bad.

We can do better.

We Can Do Better: My Journal On Politics in America

By in Politics, Religion Tags: ,

Over 50 dead. Over 400 injured. Yet another senseless mass shooting in America.

Every mother and father, I humbly ask you to hear me out. And those who are not parents, this is for you, too.

Sometimes prayer and grieving and “Not being political” isn’t enough.

Saying “Our prayers are with Las Vegas” can be the equivalent of boasting of your prayers as you watching a toddler drown before your eyes.

That might sound harsh.

But hear me out.

Faith without works is dead. Talk is cheap. We all know this.

Spiritual platitudes can sometimes be a cop-out.

To my Christian friends, Jesus didn’t merely pray. When necessary, he pulled out the whips, yelled, called oppressors names — especially when it meant standing up for the innocent.

I am a gun owner, have been my entire life, and believe in the right to bear arms.

But, fellow Republicans, before you throw me under the bus for being political or “liberal” or angry, THINK with me.

On an average day, 93 Americans are killed with guns.

That means around 12,000 gun homicides each year.

Seven children and teens are killed by guns in the US on an average day.

In an average month, 50 women are shot to death by intimate partners in the United States.

America’s gun homicide rate is more than 25 TIMES the average of other developed countries.

Hear me out, especially fellow Republicans. These aren’t just numbers, they are the children of parents like you and me.

The National Rifle Association spent over $30 million on the campaigns of Trump and Rohrabacher.

Why do these actions of the NRA and extreme right-wing Republicans matter?

Because the NRA opposes ALL gun safety laws, including background checks. They spend their lobbying efforts in the swamp of Washington DC, bribing career politicians to fight any kind of gun control.

Corrupt Dana Rohrbacher, Congressman of California’s 48th district, for example, voted YES on DECREASING the gun waiting period from three days to one day. Yes, you read that correctly.

In Trump’s speech today about yet another mass shooting, he did not say ONE WORD about gun violence. Nothing.

Why would he?

Friends, gun safety is not a left versus right issue. Far right-wing Republicans who have lost any sense of common sense have made it one, and many of them know that their elections are largely funded by the enormous financial contributions of the NRA.

Conservatism, in my view, has always been about being rational, disciplined, cautious. Conservatism means you speak honestly, even if it “hurts” your party.

We need to become a party of common sense, courage, and empathy.

So, yes, pray and grieve.

Then call your congressman if you are Republican. Tell him or her you are over enabling this kind of violence.

In the next election, find a candidate that has the courage and common sense to do what’s right, as opposed to merely going with the flow of the status quo.

Because the status quo is killing people today, and all the prayers and grieving with respect to violence isn’t working; it’s only getting worse.

We can do better.

For the sake of all these victims of gun violence, we must.

 

As I Explore A Run For United States Congress, Please Consider This Picture.

By in Politics Tags:

Look at this picture. It’s worth a thousand words, or posts, or memes.

It’s at the Presidents Cup, which is going on now.

And it’s the first time ever three former presidents have been at the event.

We live in a time of unparalleled division in our nation. The two parties don’t act as if we are one nation, but two.

“Winning” today seems to mean making the other side lose.

So we all lose.

According to Gallup, Congress has an approval rating of 16%. If Congress was a hotel or a restaurant, that’s almost one star out of five. If you owned that hotel or restaurant, you’d do whatever it takes to be more effective, even if it meant firing the staff. If not, you’d go broke.

Congress is that restaurant.

President Trump is right in his vision to “drain the swamp” of career politicians that are no longer getting results. The congressman in my district’s name is Dana Rohrbacher. He’s a Republican. He ran almost thirty years ago on a platform, ahem, of term limits.

Fifteen terms later, he’s running again.

But President Trump is wrong in his angry and divisive comments against anyone who disagrees with him. That technique doesn’t work in a Representative Democracy. You need finesse. Our President is not a Ronald Reagan or even a Richard Nixon — a Republican who knew how to use their leadership skills to forge consensus and get results.

More than any time in our history, America today needs leaders who will not merely work to retain the support of their base supporters — we need forward thinkers with the capacity to both embrace and work with the “opponents.”

Because, as one country, those who disagree with us are not our opponents. They can’t be. They are Americans.

We have always been at our best when we can disagree with the ideas of others, but still be able to break bread, laugh, find common ground, then get stuff done.

That’s what made this country great in the first place.

As I explore a run for United States Congress, I ask that you consider this picture.

That is the spirit that made this country great.

 

Happy Birthday Paulosophia! And I Was Only Being Honest.

By in Uncategorized Tags: , ,

“Yeah, they just don’t know why you are so obsessed with all these political issues. And I have to agree, what’s gotten into you, man?”

Nothing has gotten into me.

When I launched Paulosophia exactly two years ago, I decided to get stuff out of me — my ideas, to be precise…

A friend called me a few months ago. “Hey, Paul. Hey, I just wanted to let you know that a lot of people are talking about you and what you’re writing about. They’re kind of pissed.”

On the the two-year anniversary of this blog, I remember the two commitments to myself, that I’ve stuck with, and even stick with as I type now.

First, I would write down my unedited thoughts. I would be real. I would not try to impress or please or appease or win anyone. 

My fingers would type the exact thoughts, literally.

Paulosophia would be about me. My thoughts. My views. My convictions. A ferocious effort to understand what I think. Not you. Not them. Not Christians. Not atheists. Not Democrats. Not Republicans. 

Me.

Hence, it would be my art. My creation. My Picasso. My Chaggal.

Second, I would not acquiesce to a big temptation — to impress intellectuals. I would write in everyday language — the kind most people use when they talk to friends. I wanted to be like Socrates. Roam the community. Ask questions. Provoke. Get people thinking, even if it means if the masses didn’t like it.

Nobody really thinks much anymore.

(Just now I thought about how Bob Dylan and Steve Jobs and Saint Francis are three lives I greatly admire. They knew who they were. Mavericks. They didn’t take polls. Popularity wasn’t their jam. Like them. Hate them. Love them. Despise them. They wouldn’t care.)

Like me. Hate me. Love me. Despise me. But unlike Dylan and Jobs and Francis, I do care what people think about me.

Unclog my convictions right here in WordPress. Bleed the real stuff I think. Vomit. Ooze.

Crack open my skull so anyone interested could see, for better or worse, what’s there.

“Just your tone sometimes is distasteful, if I’m honest.”

Echoing in my mind as he calmly rebuked were two thoughts.

First, Yes, the thoughts that swirl around my head are, without question, distasteful.

Second, Picasso: Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness.

Do you get the point? This is my canvas.

Sometimes I go back and read what I wrote. I haven’t always agreed with what I’ve written. Does that sound strange? It just means I’m not certain of the many of the things I think about. I have arguments in my own head. I debate myself.

Are you certain of your own views? I often look back and wonder if I still agree with myself.

I’m certain of two things I’ve written of. First, bigotry is the evilest of sins, and that it’s on the rise. Second, when it comes to combating bigotry, I don’t care about being nice.

I didn’t know Joni Mitchell two years ago. Then, somehow, I happened upon her classic, Both Sides Now. And I listened and listened and realized, again, that I know almost nothing about writing.

At about that time, I saw a post by my friend, Eden — a photo of Joni on her Instagram page. I ripped it off and posted it myself. Because the quote made me think of why I started this blog.

 

Mom had a sudden and devastating hemorrhagic stroke at around the time I launched this blog. I decided to get real about grief. Not just the grief I saw in my comatose mother — the grief that remained in the depths of my soul from my divorce.

I wrote about how I had been brainwashed by name-it-and-claim-it preachers. I titled the post, Coming Out Of The Closet On The Limits Of Faith. If you haven’t read it, I think you probably should.

It’s been shared over 1,000 times. For me, that’s a lot. And it tells me that so many people out there are hurting inside, and they realize that there are no quick fixes for heartache.

Old acquaintances from around the world started getting in touch with me, thanking me. Some are devout Christians. Others have left the faith.

“Thank you so much for just laying it all out there.”

Hundreds have encouraged me to keep going.

Back to the rebuke: “Dude, you sound angry at times and arrogant.”

I am angry at times, and, sadly, arrogant.

Let me conclude. I’m a copycat. I’ve been influenced by true brilliance. I went and studied philosophy in my 30’s and 40’s because I knew how little I knew. And much of what I write, I’ve stolen.

That’s what artists do. Picasso again: Good artists copy. Great artists steal.

Ray Bradbury. Not a philosopher. But a prophet-wordsmith-sage. Fahrenheit 451. The book is about book burning, censorship, trying to get people like me to shut up.

Please read these two quotes, if you want to see where some of my vision came from.

And please forgive me if I’ve offended you.

I was only being honest.

“The point is obvious. There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist / Unitarian, Irish / Italian Octogenarian / Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women’s Lib/Republican, Mattachine/FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all the dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme…

“In sum, do not insult me with the beheadings, finger-choppings or the lung-deflations you plan for my works. I need my head to shake or nod, my hand to wave or make into a fist, my lungs to shout or whisper with. I will not go gently onto a shelf, degutted, to become a non-book.

“All you umpires, back to the bleachers. Referees hit the showers. It’s my game. I pitch, I hit, I catch. I run the bases. At sunset I’ve won or lost. At sunrise, I’m out again, giving it the old try.

“And no one can help me. Not even you.”

P.S. To my many Christian friends, I am a writer that happens to be a Christian; not a Christian writer. I hope that distinction makes sense to you.

 

 

 

 

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