Hello! and welcome to the inaugural episode of my podcast “We Don’t Talk About P-word”.
People who know me know that I love politics and history. When you put those two together, I become a giddy schoolgirl. If you want to enter a very long conversation with me, bring those two things up and I will talk for hours. Throw in religion and the conversation could go on for days. My friends have called me more than once an enigma wrapped in a conundrum. For those of you who do not know me (yet) let me tell you a little about myself:  
I grew up in the DEEP south, the youngest in a poor, very religious family of six. My father was a southern Baptist minister and a high school teacher. He was overbearing and somewhat puritanical. My mother was a housewife. She was the BOSS. She was very selfish and always expected things her way... everywhere. She was a Karen before Karens were a thing. She was fond of saying she had children to clean the house, so she didn't have to. 
My parents were both registered Democrats. This was back when being a southern Democrat meant something very different. In the 80s southern Democrat ideology aligned more with the modern Republican party. For those of you who don’t know periodically we have what we call a political realignment in the US. A realignment is where the parties have a drastic change in party beliefs. This is a topic that would need an entire episode to discuss. For now, a southern or ‘Blue Dog’ Democrat was a much more conservative Democrat.  If I had to label modern Democrats... Senator Joe Manchin (WV) is the highest profile Democrat that still fits this moniker.
I watched Rush Limbaugh with my father. I grew up idolizing Ronald Reagan. I was one of those that would refer to him affectionately as Ronny Ray-gun like in some old 80s movie. I was Alex P. Keaton. My friends that know me best will hear this and say: yeah, this all makes sense.
Now, before we get too far into this story, I want to make one thing clear: I am not the star of this tale. Nothing could be further from the truth. Like many of us I have made more than my fair share of mistakes. Oh lord, have I… But the one thing I regret the most is that I have been a terrible father to my children, mostly because I am a selfish person. I always have been… 
Maybe it’s because I am 1 of 6 from a poor family. Maybe it’s because my mother was one of the most selfish people I’ve ever known, and the apple doesn’t fall far. But when I am honest with myself, I know there is no one to blame but me. 
Unfortunately, the problem with being selfish is that by the time you realize it it’s often too late. You have either completely burned the bridges or just don’t have the means to make up for those years of selfish behavior. But back to the topic at hand…
I am what some refer to as a Bicentennial Baby. I can’t say if that’s why, but I grew up extremely patriotic. One of the earliest photos taken of me as a baby is in a shirt with American flags all over it. My dad was also a history teacher, so history and patriotism ran deep in my veins. I idolized our founding fathers before I ever went to school. I believed in the American Dream before I understood what it was. I joined ROTC in high school and was disappointed that I wasn’t old enough to fight in the first Gulf War. I even once wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper to speak out against flag burning.  
I followed my father’s teachings and beliefs, but not his party. I registered Republican soon after my 18th birthday. I wanted to save the world, although from what I wasn’t quite sure yet. I tried college but wasn’t ready, so I joined the Marines. I wanted to see more of our nation. I wanted to see other countries. I wanted to understand what being an American meant. I spent time on active duty where my eyes were opened; not wide, but I started to see the world for what it was. As the years went on, I started to see that not everything was as I had been taught in school. Equality wasn’t evenly distributed. Justice wasn’t always blind… And the American Dream was exactly that: a dream, for far too many.
I watched people make it; I watched people struggle. I told people that all they had to do was work hard and they could get ahead; I watched people work hard and get nowhere. I spent years trying and failing to achieve my own American Dream. 
I watched homelessness rise. I watched our literacy rate drop. I watched the American Dream move further and further out of reach. And I wanted to know... 
Why does a government Of the People and By the People get nothing accomplished FOR the People? 
The star I am not. I am simply an American with a lifetime of learned lessons. Oh, and an advanced degree in political science. So, if you want labels: I’m a white, male, Christian, veteran, former Republican, independent looking for a party, terrible father, deeply flawed human being with too much knowledge on a subject most people hate. Wow… that’s a mouth full… 
The star I want to highlight is the aspirational nation our founders created. Not necessarily what it is but what it could, and should, be. The villain… well, we’ll get to that.   
With years of life experience (some good, some bad,) I decided to finally use my GI Bill benefits and go back to college. Only through education could I find an answer to these questions: 
1.	Why do so many people have so little access to the American Dream? 
2.	Why is the Constitution treated more like a suggestion than the user’s manual? 
3.	Why does Congress keep getting elected to do nothing? 
Most of all I wanted to find a way to make America better for my children... and their children. If I couldn’t make up for being a bad father maybe I could find a way to make their home a better place to live. Because isn’t that what it’s all about? Making the world a better place for our children.
My father told me something when I first attended college. Something that in hindsight I guess I should have listened to: “You’ll never find a job with a degree in government.” So here I am, too many years post graduating with a master’s degree in political science and still no job in my field. What I am left with is a lot of knowledge that most don’t want to talk about. Not to mention an inability to make up for those years of selfishness. 
I was blessed with a lot of excellent professors on the way to my graduate degree. My undergraduate professors were an interesting mix of modern politics. One was very liberal, one very conservative, and one who kind of straddled the line. In my master’s program, my professors had spent a lot of time working in Washington DC. They were all well-versed in national politics. I gained a lot of insight and knowledge before finally earning my master’s degree. As you can probably guess my master’s focus was on American Politics. 
During my time in school, in most classes, I would always ask about the same thing. No doubt this was to the frustration of my professors and the annoyance of my peers. I would always ask about the viability of third-party candidates. I wanted to know why they rarely run. I wanted to know why they seldom win. Most importantly I wanted to know why Americans thought they were a wasted vote. The answers I got were never acceptable, so I kept looking. 
I had gained a vast understanding of the American political process. I explored lobbying and advocacy. I studied campaign management, the Constitution, and what led up to it. I analyzed the presidency and the legislative process. Since graduating I have ‘continued’ my education by consuming more media than I care to admit. I have watched thousands of hours of news. I have read millions of words in print media (both news articles and political books). Since graduation, I can’t think of a major national or global event that I haven’t watched unfold live. 
As Sun Tzu would say: “Know your enemy.”
In all that time I gained a much greater understanding of our nation, politics, and the path we walked to get here. I began to question the rhetoric of not only the Democrats but the Republicans as well. I realized that both parties were working for the same people. Spoiler… it isn’t the People. I also finally understood why third-party candidates were rarely successful. 
Now that you know a little about the person whose opinion follows… 
Let’s talk politics. No, not the R versus D bullshit that upsets Thanksgiving and causes us to disown our uncles. Let’s talk about the REAL state of politics. Let’s talk about the backstabbing, the partisan squabbling, and of course the propaganda. Let’s talk about what’s going on behind the curtain. Let’s talk about the flawed system that keeps the American People at each other’s throats. Let’s talk about the system that erodes trust in our government and makes us fear the other side. 
I can’t say that this was the intention of our politicians, but I can’t say that it wasn’t either. I CAN say that we have seen it coming since Washington’s first term and we have done nothing to stop it. Hell, we’ve done little to slow it. If we had, there wouldn’t have been a civil war. Washington was very aware of the danger that political parties posed to America. Even if he is somewhat responsible. It was a danger then and it is still a danger today. The difference is that today we have 246 years of anger and partisan propaganda waiting for a spark. A spark that will light the tinderbox and consume our nation.
If you’ve been paying attention, I’m sure you can guess that I no longer belong to a political party. If I am being honest, I loathe them both. This isn’t hyperbole… I despise both parties. They are both dishonest and hypocritical. Their priorities are misplaced. They are both DIRECTLY responsible for the flashpoint we are barreling towards. In the interest of full disclosure, I would like them to go away. In a blaze of glory or with an anticlimactic puff of smoke, it doesn’t matter. I would like to see new political parties, or what would be even better: a lack of political parties. This would be a new and better dawn for our nation.
Both parties do their best to demonize the other side. One party tells us that the other are all misogynist racists who hate the poor. That party tells us that the other are all atheists who want to take away our guns and herald an age of Socialism. Neither of which is wholly true, but not entirely false either. It’s an easy way to manipulate our points of view. Unfortunately, both agree on one thing: the exploitation of working Americans. They do this to get elected. They do this to maintain power. They do this to keep us hating each other. 
They keep us separated by rhetoric hoping we never look too closely at the facts. They have made politics ugly and divisive. Working Americans roll their eyes rather than become informed. In truth, the parties live in fear. They live in fear that working Americans will realize what’s going on. They live in fear that working Americans will join forces. They live in fear that we will remove the cancer that is our politicians. It’s well past time we cure cancer in our nation. But we must start with the biggest cancer of them all: our political elites.
The irony of it all is that the parties claim to hate each other yet shill for the same master. Both protect the corporate elites at the expense of working Americans. They do this rather than protect a nation Of, By, and For the People. Both parties ensure the power remains in the hands of corporations and the one percent. Get rid of the dark money in politics? How else do you expect them to fund their campaigns with foreign money? National healthcare? How do all those insurance companies keep making billions? Renewable energy grids? How do we keep oil companies swimming in profits? How do we keep authoritarian governments propped up? The only thing both parties seem to agree on is ensuring the working class loses the class war they’ve perpetuated. Yes, whether you want to believe it or not, we are in the middle of a class war in the United States. To be frank, the working class is losing…
Both parties keep trying to define what “America” is… but that’s not their job. American values were penned 246 years ago and codified 13 years later. Our adherence to them can be questioned, but not our establishment of them. It is the job of the American politician to ensure our values are upheld. American values should be unimpeachable. The American people should always be able to count on American values. We should be able to trust that they won’t change from one administration to another or one Congress to the next. That is the agreement we have had with our government since 1789. 
It is not the politician’s place to change the values affirmed by our founding documents. I’m not talking about our amendments; that part of our Constitution is alive. We are meant to update and strengthen the undeniable rights of all Americans. A process that hasn’t happened in 30 years. We should not deny… No, we cannot deny the ideals promised in the preambles to both our founding documents. Here, our founding fathers promised us certain unalienable rights. The birthright of every American that is gained the moment they draw first breath. These are rights that must never be forsaken; they cannot be taken or given away. When politicians do not promote these rights, we must not allow them to continue to serve.
So, with no further ado… welcome to the podcast!
We Don’t Talk About P-Word is born out of both love and frustration. My love for our politics and history, specifically the founding of our nation. The frustration comes from the absolute chaos that politics has caused in our country. Chaos that was both foreseeable and unnecessary. 
I am a huge fan of theater. My inspiration for the name comes from Lin Manuel Miranda’s song We Don’t Talk About Bruno from the movie Encanto. It’s both funny and sad how much the song works for my purposes. If you haven’t figured it out by now the P-word I’m referring to is Politics. Like the movie, we don’t talk about politics, except that we do. Like the movie, it is seldom for good reasons and rarely in a positive light. Even when we do, there are always those one or two friends or family members that we avoid to keep the peace. 
The podcast that follows are from my own personal study and insights. It is my goal to offer you my insights and provide possible solutions. Some solutions you may have heard before but much of the reasonings will be new.
I am not promising to have all the answers, but I do promise that you will not like everything I have to say. In fact, I would bet that there will be times we begin in agreement and end with you thinking I’m an idiot or vice versa. I’m sure that even if my former professors hear some of it, they will shake their heads in disappointment. This doesn’t surprise me. Politics have become a divisive subject. Making suggestions outside of our tribe tends to elicit anger rather than contemplation. 
What I am offering is a less technical view of politics, one that I hope is more easily digested. Whether you believe in everything I say or not isn't the point. What I want is for everyone that hears my podcast to think. I want you to think about the function of government and the role of politics in that government. I want you to contemplate the idea that maybe this isn’t how it was meant to be. But, most importantly I want you to think about your own role in politics and how YOU affect our government. 
If there is anything my friends know about me, it is that I believe in the political process. At its most basic form, this means voting. This is the most important right we all have as Americans. Sadly, we do not exercise it with the reverence that it deserves. When we cast an educated vote, we act on behalf of the People. When we don’t vote or cast an uneducated vote, we work on behalf of partisan efforts. Efforts designed to keep the political and corporate elites in power. Efforts to keep working Americans in their place.
The American government is being used by partisan actors to defy American values. Political and corporate elites’ pervert American values for their own purposes. This is not how it was meant to be. This is a nation Of the People, By the People, and For the People.  The People are the ultimate power in this nation by design. It is time we take back our nation for the benefit Of the People.  We must have the courage and determination to exercise that power. To compete with the political elites the People must come together for the betterment of all.
I hope you’ll join me as I start this adventure, however long it lasts.

--- Cicero