Hello and welcome to my blog.
I was a lifelong Republican because I believe in a strong federal government for national security and trade and in strong local government for decisions regarding our everyday life. It was a broad philosophical alignment with the party, it was not about a single issue. I never thought that being a member of a political party in the United States would require me to lower my core values of telling the truth and treating others as I would like to be treated. With the nomination of Donald Trump in 2016, I broke from the party and voted for Hillary. My thinking was that I might not like Hillary and may think that she appeared to feel entitled to the office, but she would not damage the republic and Donald Trump could. As the years rolled forward I found that so many of the elected Republicans were supporting Donald Trump in his lies and not calling him out on his divisive rhetoric that I found I could not support those who did not stand up for their own core values or perhaps they did not share my core values.
I heard an interesting analysis about the meaning of democracy. Basically, we can all have an opinion, we can make our opinion heard, but just because we do not agree does not mean we call the other side names or degrade them. We often need to compromise, which is not a loss, a compromise is in many ways a win – maybe not a total win. But a win that lets us all move forward.
The ferocity with which some people I know support Donald Trump scares me, especially when I ask them why and their answer is one of two things: he keeps his promises, or he is good for the economy. I am starting this blog to address these two areas of concern primarily because I do not think he has kept his promises nor is he good for the economy. My background is primarily in compensation both at the employee level and executive compensation. I like data and I will cite my sources so if you do not believe me you can check it out. I hope you will join me on this journey.
Mary Pat Fox
