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.
A recent opinion piece 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.
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.
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.