A long time ago, in a blogosphere far, far away, a young(er) Joe Gandelman sent me an e-mail. He told me about the new site he’d just started, which would try to get past all the mindless partisanship out there and focus on intelligent analysis from all sides of the spectrum. I told Joe it was a great idea, but wasn’t sure it could really work. I’m extremely glad to say that I was thoroughly wrong. Joe has done amazing things with The Moderate Voice.
Back when I got that first e-mail from Joe, I was writing for Oxblog, the home of several Oxford graduate students in politics and international relations. I joined OxBlog a few months after it started up in April 2002. I became the site’s editor a few years later, and continued blogging there until March of last year, when I joined the foreign policy staff of John McCain for President and had to maintain radio silence with the outside world. Just a few weeks ago, I started blogging at Conventional Folly, the staff blog for Doublethink magazine.
When I told Joe I was blogging again, he graciously invited me to cross-post my work from Conventional Folly here at TMV. No question, it’s an honor. I have some strong opinions, but I’m ready to work with everyone who wants to bring a little more respectful, open-minded debate to the blogosphere. As you might’ve guessed, I’m a Republican, although when I graduated from college around ten years ago, I was a liberal Democrat. Back then, I was pretty confident that Republicans just didn’t get it. These days, I try to remind myself how easy it is to surround yourself with people and ideas that confirm what you already think you know. On top of that, I still remember how confident I was back then in my own objectivity and open-mindedness.
The lesson I’ve taken from this experience is that it is absolutely essential to engage in tough, loud, serious debate with the people who disagree with you about everything. An abstract commitment to being open-minded isn’t enough. In that spirit, I look forward to working with everyone here at TMV.