Who are you?
I’m political analyst and researcher who has spent the past decade of my life living and working in the wonderful world of Washington, DC. (I don’t mean that sarcastically—I really do love this place.) I am also a staunch advocate for my beloved hometown of Kansas City, an avid cyclist, a recovering musician, and a lifelong Denver Broncos fan.
So what is this project anyway?
Both for my day job and as a hobby, I study trends and data related to a host of political topics—elections, Congress and the federal government, public policy, public opinion, polarization, geography, demography, and more—and try to translate all of it into a story or narrative that makes sense of an often fast-paced and complicated world. As I have gone through my own political journey, I have also become alarmed by the country’s ever-worsening polarization. And I have grown frustrated by our inability to talk with one another about complicated problems and issues in a healthy and productive manner and without assuming bad faith in each other.
This Substack venture is one small way I’ve found I can contribute to helping people stay civically engaged, care about what their government and elected representatives are doing, and consider stories and perspectives they may not have thought about before. I also hope to encourage people to reject tribal identities and rigid ideologies and instead be curious about the world and individuals around them.
Do you have an angle I should know about?
I’m generally a left-of-center guy who believes there are structural inequalities and chronic problems facing the country that good government and governance can help to resolve. I want to see America’s multiracial democracy thrive, and I maintain that truly diverse societies should embrace diversity across a host of social and cultural lines, including race, ethnicity, sex, class, education level, politics, religion, geography, and more.
I also hold many old-school (small-L) liberal values that will guide much of my work, including valuing the following:
More speech over less
Due process over mob justice
Viewpoint diversity over echo chambers
Open inquiry and debate over commitment to an ideology
Complexity over binary thinking
Empirical reasoning over emotional reasoning
Empathy for/curiosity about others over rash judgments
I’ve become more attuned to the fact that the world is a complicated place, and no single ideology or worldview will ever provide us with all the answers. I’m convinced that at a time when Americans are increasingly polarized along a host of lines—political, cultural, educational, and more—a prerequisite for restoring trust in one another and working to solve our problems is moving beyond the identitarian politics that have only served to exacerbate these tensions in recent years.
This worldview largely stems from my upbringing. I grew up in a Democratic household in the Midwest—my father an immigrant and my mother a small-town girl and daughter of a Methodist preacher. My community and schools introduced me to all kinds of diversity, which gave me the opportunity to meet people from myriad walks of life. I grew to sympathize with those from different backgrounds and those who didn’t necessarily see the world the way I did. Perhaps most importantly, I came to understand that someone’s group identity was often a poor substitute for their individual complexity.
At my core, I value a healthy exchange of ideas, and I’m always willing to engage with others who act in good faith and with an open mind. I am a firm believer in embracing nuance and welcoming disagreement, even if it sometimes puts me at odds with people in my political tribe. I think the pursuit of greater understanding of those who are unlike us is paramount to sustaining our pluralistic democracy, which has found itself in a fragile state lately.
What can I expect from this page?
My hope is to post here on at least a semi-regular basis (i.e., at least 2–3 times a month). This project will be an effort to use my background in politics to help readers weed through the substance-free punditry that has come to consume so much of our national dialogue and to challenge conventional narratives about important stories and issues when appropriate. I’ll do my best to approach all this methodically and objectively—but also with the guiding principles outlined above. More than anything, I welcome engagement from readers. After all, you’re the reason for this venture!
