Tom Friedman is one of those writers I follow consistently. I have read all of his books and specific opinion pieces in the NYTimes when a title seems related to my interests. With a few exceptions (his position that government regulation is often too cumbersome and limits innovation), I find our personal values are very similar. These commonalities would include globalism, immigration, healthcare, science, and education.<\/p>\n
A recent opinion piece<\/a> did catch my attention and is a position I feel is necessary. My interpretation of this opinion is that while Friedman wishes we as citizens should generally discuss our various positions on specific political issues, present times require a different approach. The Trump administration is so corrupt and oppressive and Republicans in general ignore what they likely understand to be an abuse of power because Trump is a key component of the lack of balance across judicial, legislative and executive branches of our government. It amounts to “ignore what goes on” because we are getting what we want.<\/p>\n The solution would seem to be to reject all Republican candidates in the 2018 elections as the only remedy to restore some balance in government.<\/p>\n I was surprised recently to spend some time examining old blog posts and find that I had written on political topics. I had the sense that I only recently became aggressive in expressing political opinions. Like Friedman, I would rather write about specific issues rather than express my outrage over the behavior of specific politicians. Like Friedman, I hope to get back to being less “party oriented” after this next election. Like Friedman, I think that things are bad enough that these are priorities that must be put on hold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tom Friedman is one of those writers I follow consistently. I have read all of his books and specific opinion pieces in the NYTimes when a title seems related to my interests. With a few exceptions (his position that government … Continue reading