When I started this publication the blogosphere in Kentucky had been kick started by a kick in the mouth. A foul mouthed, mean spirited, rankly partisan website took the Commonwealth by storm. I wanted to offer a more honest and respectful forum for debate.
Since then I have found that most people have tuned out of the mainstream media. People now rush to their comfort zones for information.
Studies have shown that the explosion of interest in Facebook has devolved into people gravitating to groups, friends and sources that reaffirm their own beliefs. People either love or hate CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC and the other TV channels. Each has an agenda and people tend to watch the channel that tells them what they want to hear and already believe.
My experience in politics has led me to a similar conclusion. Despite how "revolutionary" some newbies to the political process feel about their patriotism it is my observation that they tend to follow and support only those candidates who tell them what they want to hear. It's a sick game. People lusting for power, fame and maybe even riches, play the public these days by preaching that they are driven by altruistic principles. I've been around long enough to have sniffed out their dissimulation.
And I've also come to believe that because people have become so distrustful of news, facts and opinions, that it is far harder to earn their trust. So many people are addicted to the gotcha game, or the relentless pursuit of finding fault or have ended up among the seemingly growing corps of the weak minded that their approach to life has seduced them into a state of belligerence toward anything that doesn't match their preconceived notions. And for those who have been beguiled into supporting the "new politics" over time they begin to exhibit cognitive dissonance when confronted with the truth that their favorites are really no different that the ones they oppose.
I believe we are in a very dangerous state of mind right now. National pride and national identity have been effectively destroyed. We are a nation of special interests without a strong common bond. Everybody distrusts everybody else and this makes us weak both in the perception of the world and in the reality of where we stand in the world.
Rush Limbaugh jokes that he is right 99 point something or other percent of the time. I have tried over the past 7 years to seek to be right all of the time, but I am human and sometimes despite my best efforts at observation, study and reasoning the unexpected causes a different result.
I sincerely appreciate the support I have gotten from this effort. I sincerely appreciate the folks who are regular readers and who share my posts. I also appreciate the debates I've had with those who disagree, some of them at least. I prefer to debate in a fair and polite forum rather than in the mud of name calling and hatred.
But I have concluded that this voice has become one of many where in the beginning I was one of a very few. I have proposed to some folks who I think know alot about human nature that a larger more effective conservative project is needed in order to penetrate the noise. I still believe this is true but I no longer believe that this format is of much use in making any significant difference in the world.
Just before a recent trial a wonderfully talented consultant sat me down and told me that I was trying to solve too many social and legal issues in one case. She said I needed to dial myself back, focus on how to win this one case for this one client and let the other cases with other clients and other lawyers in other courtrooms combine to make the difference I sought. She was right then and it applies now.
So, I will be focusing on my law practice, on my farm, on my family on my aging body and leave the crazy world of public interest in the game of politics to others.
I might post from time to time and if you are interested in seeing what I do without having to find me everyday, consider using the subscribe button in the upper right of this blog to get notified if and when I post. I can tell you that this week I will be posting some endorsements with reasons behind them. But after that, I'm just going to kind of fade away.
I will continue to keep paying to keep this blog up and all of my archives alive as well. As time goes by perhaps you might find something I said to have come true. Or you may want to revisit the political history chronicled here as it developed. But the job of reporting and commenting on political things appears to me now to be more of a distraction than a contribution.
Stay tuned. Subscribe. God bless.