Preserving American Values

Our nation stands under attack … not from without but from within. American values, our politics, and our culture have been corrupted.

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about

Websites: www.westillholdthesetruths.weebly.com; www.preservingamericanvalues.com; www.thepracticalbuddhist.com. A graduate of Brown U. and U. of Chicago Law School, I’ve had a varied career as a legal aid lawyer, survey researcher, nonprofit executive, management consultant, composer, teacher, and author. I have authored 7 books on topics as varied as Buddhism, child rearing, and politics, the latter of which received a pre-publication endorsement from James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic. My Buddhist blog was selected as one of the top 50 Buddhist blogs on the web.

Category: Politics

  • Hey Bro! Do You Think Trump Has Your Back?

    This is an open letter to all bros.  You’re angry,. You’re disillusioned. And you have every right to be. The question is, what do you do about it?  How do you do something that’s going to improve your life, your future? Does the answer lie in a political party? Both Republicans and Democrats certainly want…

  • Mamdani and the Socialism Canard

    Every time Democrats propose having the government provide new assistance to those in need or a new regulation of business, the Republicans cry out,“This is Socialism.”  But after Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, his fellow Democrats beat them to it.  They were aroused primarily, I think, because they…

  • Countering Trump’s Alternate Reality

    It is common in non-Trump circles to describe Trump as an inveterate, congenital liar. Throughout his campaigns and his presidency, his distorted perspective on facts—or outright lies—have been the underpinning of his combative arguments, And his forceful, passionate statements, whether distortions or lies, have become the truth for his followers. All real news and truth…

  • What Exactly Does “All Men Are Created Equal” Mean in the Declaration of Independence?

    I used to think the answer was obvious; it was self-evident. But it’s not, at least not in today’s political context.  MAGA Republicans and Democrats have a very different take on the meaning of this phrase in the Declaration. I said in my book, We Still Hold These Truths: An America Manifesto, that it is…

  • Stopping Netanyahu’s and the Israeli Ultra-Right’s Inhumanity

    The world is in an uproar over the policies of the current Israeli government—Netanyahu and his ultra-right Orthodox supporters.  Not only did they prosecute the Gaza War out of all proportion to the harm done to Israelis in the October 7 Hamas attack, killing approximately 60,000 innocent people and leveling a large swath Palestinian towns…

  • The Far-Right’s Biggest Lie

    The tactic of “the big lie” was developed by Nazi propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels.  Tell a lie large enough, often enough, forcefully enough, and people will come to believe you and think that it is the truth.   Donald Trump and his MAGA followers have practiced the big lie often—think of “fake news” or “we…

  • Where Is the Democratic Party’s Clarion Voice?

    The Democratic Party is in disarray, trying to determine how best to defeat Trump and the MAGA movement in the next midterm and presidential elections.  Their disarray is unfortunately not new.  After the 2004 election, Vice President Mondale said, “”Unless we have a vision and the arguments to match, I don’t think we’re going to…

  • A Democrat’s Answer to the Immigration Problem

    The issue of immigration—actually it’s just illegal immigration—has become a major concern to a majority of Americans.  I’m sure that is largely because of Trump’s vilification of illegal immigrants. But immigration has in fact been a major problem for many years, even though most Americans were not concerned about it.  It has been a problem…

  • The Radical Right/MAGA Perspective Is Not True to the Intent of Our Founding Fathers

    The Radical Right of the Republican Party—whether it’s the MAGA movement or radical jurists and historians who may not be MAGA—all hold to the same basic tenet:  that the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are to be interpreted as the words were intended at the time it was adopted.  The theory is called “strict construction”…

  • Why the Declaration of Independence Argues for the Removal of Trump

    The Declaration of Independence set forth a list of grievances against the English king that warranted the revolution that the Declaration announced. Some of these grievances dealt with the king’s relationship with the judiciary.  To quote: “He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and…