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“Politics, the crooked number of our communal lives, dominates everything because, in the end, everything - high and low and, most especially high- lives or dies by politics. You can have the most advanced and efflorescent of cultures. Get your politics wrong, however, and everything stands to be swept away. Politics is the moat, the walls, beyond which lies the barbarians. Fail to keep them at bay, and everything burns. - Charles Krauthammer*

I am a semi-retired professional political scientist and have been involved in politics in one capacity or another for almost 50 years. I have studied, taught and written about politics and foreign policy. I have worked in finance, education, and the private sector. I currently hold public office. I have experience in trying to bring diverse opinions in government and business together to make policy and solve problems. I am a Army veteran who served along the Iron Curtain (a soldier on a border “wall) during the Cold War.

What many don’t understand is the profound importance of what Krauthammer is saying. Everything is related to and influenced by politics. Domestic American politics and American foreign policy have a symbiotic relationship. Macroeconomics and macro finance (markets, currency markets, debt markets, capital flows, trade, etc.) also exist within this universe of interdependency, impacted by political and geopolitical events both in the United States as well as abroad. This has been my observation over the past 50 years.

I am a classically trained political scientist in the liberal arts sense of the term and not a “quant” who is married to statistical analysis and predictive modeling (although I do use these tools when necessary to gain greater understanding). My strength is being able to observe and understand events, data, and information and then present my thoughts in a way that is understandable and as uncomplicated as I can make it.

This newsletter seeks to break the cycle of “groupthink” that drives much of what is written and said about politics and geopolitics today.

I use credible and recognized sources of information from both the United States and the world, sources that contain diversity of thought and multiple perspectives, to gather information and form my thoughts and ideas. I have no ideological biases as I see strengths and weaknesses in all viewpoints. I have no partisan loyalty or affiliation (I am a political centrist independent who has voted for candidates from both parties). I gather information and data, do the analysis, test for biases, and articulate my thoughts.

Honestly, I truly believe that this type of analysis and commentary is what people are looking for today.

*Charles Krauthammer, Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes, and Politics, (2015), pp.7-8.

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