Last year I ran for state legislature as the only unaffiliated candidate in the state of NC. I joined the Democratic Party this year because I knew they would allow me to be a candidate that went out of my way to preach country over party. A lot falls into that declaration, though. People who fall in the political middle realize that every issue has way more than two viable opinions, and anybody that represents a region must consider them all. That's the only way to be an inclusive, fair, tolerant, open-minded representative.
I also believe very strongly in rational, realistic positions on most issues because the political middle is where we have historically balanced our extremes. Our society will ebb and flow left and right, but no issue goes to the extremes, and that's good. Lately, however, the middle has been silenced. The citizens that just want a bunch of grown people in Washington to act like adults and find some common ground once in a while have no voice.
Those of us near the center of politics just want to see the things that make sense happen and the things that corrupt our government not happen. We want to see regular people unmoved by lobbyists while making the best decisions for every citizen they represent. We believe in brutal honesty, transparency, humility, resourcefulness, and maybe even that crazy belief that politicians should figure out that 330,000,000 people should probably be able to pay their bills every year without bankrupting our children. And speaking of children, our education system in this country is teetering towards being downright crappy. I'm a special education teacher who works with mostly ninth and tenth graders. I've been teaching eight years now, and the decline is shockingly noticeable within the walls of our schools.
And another thing about those students and every other human being on the planet. I don't want government telling them who they can or can't be. I just want them to be happy, and they can be happy if we give all of them the ability to pursue whoever they want to be. Politics shouldn't be this hard. Call me naive if you want, but somebody needs to believe we have a really bright future if we'd only do what's right all the time.
On a personal note, I'm married to Megan, a dental hygienist, and we have three kids ages 16, 4, and 2. I am also very proud and not at all anonymous about my four years of sobriety.
