These are the things I believe:
I believe in the rights enumerated by the Founding Fathers of the United States; those set down in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I believe that we as Americans have a unique, and, yes, superior heritage because of those ideals. Specifically, I believe in freedom as the summation of those ideals, and as the fundamental right of all people, God-given or not.
I believe that every person has the right to his or her own opinion, his or her own faith, his or her own politics, and his or her choice of method to pursue happiness, subject only to one restriction – against harming others or depriving them of their own rights. I believe that each person may hold to his or her own beliefs in a manner and to a degree that seems correct to them.
I do not believe in revising those rights subject to the political whims of fringe movements. Not do I believe in reinterpreting the beliefs, as set down in writing, of those Founding Fathers, for political gain. I do not believe in the right of the dishonest to spread lies; truth is the friend of democracy, and deception is its enemy. I do not believe that freedom should be limited to one’s choice of necktie.
I believe that virtually all Americans want their country to be a better place, to leave America to their children in better shape than it was left to them. I believe that this is the fundamental duty of citizens of any society, and those who place politics, religion or ideology above that are failing in that civic duty. You can call this Patriotism if you like, but that term has been largely co-opted by those who would measure it in bumper stickers and lapel pins. Patriotism is not about doing and thinking what your leaders want, it’s about a desire to improve and enrich America in every way.
To this end, I believe that America should be a nation governed by facts and truth, not by propaganda. The days of lobbyists and think-tanks buying ‘studies’ to support their predefined ideologies must end. If a policy will work, it should be enacted; if it will fail, it should be rejected.
I believe in the right of individuals to own property, and even to accrue a lot of that property. But some things must necessarily be regarded as the property of the nation as a whole; such things which have a large and measurable influence of the nation’s prosperity. These things do not belong to the government, they belong to all Americans, and should be held in the trust of all Americans.
I believe that capitalism should have a free hand – but there also exists a need for regulation, to prevent victimization of the worker and the consumer and to ensure that fairness and competition, not monopoly or collusion, is the drumbeat to which the economy marches. I believe in the right of every American to pursue wealth and prosperity, and seek to establish an environment in which any American might do so.
I do not believe in the right of the wealthy to entrench themselves in plutocratic hegemony over the rest of the population. I do not believe in the right of corporations to enrich themselves through predatory and deceptive practices.
Expect this to be an evolving document as I expand on the ideas here and get into specifics.
