We are well into May of a midterm election year and in spite of an unseasonably cool spring, primary election campaigns are off and running. Regardless of what may be happening in the larger national and global picture, the focus on local state legislative politics is heating up. Given that all politics is local, that…
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The bottom line question for all voters in 2018
As most regular readers have noticed, there is a stock in trade of what gets published on this blog. For the most part, the stock in trade of Reason Rest Stop is information. There may be an occasional humorous story or a run down of an entertainment event or a book or movie review, but…
Continue ReadingThe horror of normalizing chaos government
We are nearly four and a half months away from being a mere three years removed from the emergence of the ultimate political chaos candidate announcing his intent to seek the nation’s highest office. As a political novice who had previously never been elected to anything, he managed to turn convention on its head by…
Continue ReadingEndings, beginnings, aspirations and expectations
This week as I transitioned into living in 2018, I experienced a deep and visceral sensation that I am sitting stationary on a huge existential conveyor belt being slowly but forever pulled forward on a great master timeline. So many times in my life the month of January has been one of endings and beginnings,…
Continue ReadingRedefining Republicanism
Oklahoma’s own Will Rogers made ample use of the Law of Holes adage “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!” There isn’t really a dearth of such common sense under that big dome on Capitol Hill. It has simply taken a back seat to political expedience or, more accurately, political survival. Republicans at…
Continue ReadingAssembling purveyors of better ideas
Organizing persons unified by common ideas can be a very tall order. Regular readers may recall my account from a few months ago of the 2017 Oklahoma Democratic Party Convention in . I’m fairly certain I could get a consensus that anyone willing to put up with such a tedious and often contentious process of…
Continue ReadingOur slow but steady downward glide
Evolution, be it that of a living organism, a nation’s identity or an individual person’s character, is a fascinating process. I am perhaps a little biased and maybe outright unrealistic when it comes to the evolution of a person’s character. I would really love to believe that just because an average soul such as myself…
Continue ReadingRules of self-governance at age 230
Happy Constitution Day to all my friends, lovers of reason and readers of this humble blog. It was the product of several months of intense negotiation between delegates representing wide and varied common and opposing interests but it was on this day exactly two hundred and thirty years ago which was a Monday that the…
Continue ReadingDoes the end justify the means?
We are now 160 or so days into the Trump era and I have been watching and listening in mostly silent and at times stunned amazement at how the polarized factions of the American nation are evolving. I must say I am not surprised by most of what has been attempted by the GOP-controlled Congress. …
Continue ReadingOne hundred days of lunacy
A couple of weeks after winning the November General Election, the then President-elect delivered a speech to the nation detailing his bold plan for this first 100 days: Policy Plan for the First 100 Days Any non-Fox “News” journalist, ie, any reality based media person who is not a cheerleader for the current regime and…
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