{"id":1175,"date":"2017-06-21T16:47:34","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T22:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/?p=1175"},"modified":"2017-06-21T16:47:34","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T22:47:34","slug":"understanding-the-conservative-lefty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/?p=1175","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the Conservative Lefty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I’ve gotten a few instances of the “Who are you to say …” type of challenges, here and elsewhere. \u00a0I’ve noted in the past – i.e. the “About” page, a bit about me and my worldview. \u00a0However, I’ve yet to really say to much about my “street cred” in my writing or what skills I actually bring to my analysis.<\/p>\n

I haven’t done this for two reasons. \u00a0First, political opinion – and its expression – is a fundamental right of all Americans. \u00a0I have not need to display my credentials in order to express an opinion and I have every right to have that opinion judged on the basis of its merits, not by my educational background.<\/p>\n

The other reason, it I find it a bit embarrassing to discuss myself in that respect. \u00a0It is far too easy to come off sounding like an insufferable know-it-all, to borrow a phrase from Professor Snape. \u00a0I’ve put off the inevitable for a some three years now, but I’ve reached a point where I had best address it. \u00a0After the break, that is. \u00a0If you have to know.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By profession, I am a scientist and an engineer, with a heavy side-helping of regulatory affairs. \u00a0The latter is because my industry is the healthcare field. \u00a0I’ve worked in clinical care, medical devices and the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years as both a clinical scientist and a software engineer.<\/p>\n

I also have a somewhat beyond normal level of formal education in both history\/politics and philosophy\/theology. \u00a0Enough that I could have added these as minors to my degree, except that you could only have a single minor and Math was the career imperative. \u00a0That said, I have continued to be active in both disciplines and continually expand my education in those areas.<\/p>\n

As a scientist and software engineer, I bring the disciplines of methodical analysis. \u00a0Between this and the philosophy background, I am trained in logic. \u00a0I am also – by training and experience – aware of my own biases. \u00a0I make an effort to take them into account in my analysis. \u00a0Something particularly<\/em> important if your objective is Truth.<\/p>\n

In the theological and philosophical worlds, I have evolved into a focus on apologetics. \u00a0I am active in the local apologetics community and a member of the St. Louis area Reasonable Faith chapter (though I’ve been on hiatus recently for personal reasons).<\/p>\n

Educationally, I was also active in debate and theatre, have taken the Dale Carnegie course, and more than a few elective writing courses. \u00a0I’ve had several teachers rather put out that I didn’t go to “J School.”<\/p>\n

In the world of politics and social sciences, I hope those who know me are sitting, because you are in for a shock. \u00a0I was at one time a member of the World Federalists Association. \u00a0Remember, so was Ronald Reagan, though. \u00a0I was mentored formally by Dr. Ron Glossup in my university days. \u00a0I knew Norman Cousins, who was quirky but incredibly brilliant. \u00a0During this time, I not only studied the expected texts like the Federalist Papers<\/em> or the\u00a0Communist Manifesto<\/em>, but works such as Clarence Streit’s Union Now<\/em> and Mortimer Adler’s How to Think About War and Peace<\/em>. \u00a0I left the movement in the 1990’s largely because I was watching it be absorbed by the Green movement from Europe. \u00a0In short, the WFA went from Cousins’ staunchly individual liberty view to the European socialist ideology.<\/p>\n

On the political spectrum I would be considered a conservative in today’s language. \u00a0However, remember what that word means. \u00a0It means that I adhere to an ideology that wants to conserve – i.e. maintain, preserve – the fundamental American values and precedent of individual liberty. \u00a0The label also implies a Jeffersonian perspective of a limited and small central government. \u00a0The more correct term for that belief system would be Classical Liberal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To sum it up, I’m not writing in a vacuum. \u00a0I also believe that I’m not particularly exception in this regard. \u00a0Yes, I’ve been blessed to have\u00a0done<\/em> some exceptional things, but\u00a0I, myself,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0am not particularly exceptional. \u00a0Many on the Left write off “flyover country” as uneducated bumpkins, but the truth is that there are millions of “me” between the two coasts.<\/p>\n

So there it is. \u00a0Welcome to my world. \u00a0For those who care those are my secondary<\/em> qualifications. \u00a0I still hold that my\u00a0primary<\/em> qualification is that I am an American and that the Lord has given me a gift in writing. \u00a0The first make it my right. \u00a0The second makes it my responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve gotten a few instances of the “Who are you to say …” type of challenges, here and elsewhere. \u00a0I’ve noted in the past – i.e. the “About” page, a bit about me and my worldview. \u00a0However, I’ve yet to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,3],"tags":[22,49],"class_list":["post-1175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about","category-current-news","tag-tcot","tag-culture-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5yCHs-iX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1176,"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions\/1176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}