I still haven’t quite figured out the entirety of what this project is going to be, but that’s what the blog is for.

I’ve spent most of the past year pondering the state of politics today, and the more I do, the more I circle back to the decrepit state of the Conservative Movement. I’ve spent a lot of energy trying to convince myself otherwise, for two reasons.

One, I fear greatly that this is the result of confirmation bias – I’ve spent most of my life self-identifying as liberal, and naturally some small part of myself always wants to “win.” I know at heart that this is irrational, if one is chiefly concerned with how best to govern our country, it shouldn’t matter whether those in charge are Democrat or Republican, just that they are operating the levers of power in a competent manner with the best interest of the nation at heart.

Two, I believe very strongly in many so-called conservative principles. But beyond that, I believe just as strongly that alternate viewpoints are valuable – necessary even – to prevent the excesses of one ideology from running rampant and undermining even noble goals.  To that end, an effective conservative movement based on – and operating on – principle with intellectual honesty is something that we all have a vested interest in.

The problem is that I don’t believe that the Conservative Movement is anything but cynical and opportunistic. That it has become intellectually corrupt has been an ongoing meme through-out the political blogosphere, but I don’t feel like anyone has truly addressed the root causes of this corruption. That doesn’t let the current Left off the hook, but the problems with the left at the moment are qualitatively different. Of course, that’s all interconnected, and will all be part of what I plan on exploring.

Let’s see how this turns out.