I grew up in a strongly conservative household. I am grateful for that upbringing. My parents instilled in me from an early age the importance of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. When I entered high school I became a total political junkie. I loved politics. I carefully studied issues, and I felt firm in my views. Then I lived abroad, and I fell in love with the language and culture and people of Spain -- a fairly liberal European country. I've spent the past eleven years studying and teaching about that land. It has had a profound impact on how I see the world. It has allowed me to come in contact with and to appreciate the validity of viewpoints vastly different from my own.
Then this past fall I had the opportunity to visit New York, Washington DC, Gettysburg, and Philadelphia. As I visited sacred sites like Valley Forge, Independence Hall and the Lincoln Memorial, I was inspired again by the greatness of this country. I love the United States of America. I am grateful for the unique kind of Freedom we enjoy here. I believe it should be cherished and protected.
This year I helped my sweet wife prepare to take the US Citizenship exam. As we have discussed our amazing constitution and our complicated history, I have been struck more than ever with a desire to do my part to keep this country great.
My time living abroad, my studies, and my close contact with the Hispanic community in the United States have changed me in ways that are hard for me to define. My research on the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship have made me very wary of politicians who offer quick fixes to complicated problems -- especially when those quick fixes come through brute force and at the expense of minority and dissident groups. There are plenty of minority groups with whom I disagree, but before I shout them out of the room, I remind myself that despite being a straight white male, I too come from an oft-persecuted minority group. It would be ludicrous to compare any persecution I have personally endured because of my faith to the horrors faced daily by any number of other people -- but it wasn't so long ago that my own ancestors and their friends were murdered, raped, robbed, beaten, and chased from their homes by angry mobs and hateful politicians.
When I went to get my PhD, more than one concerned friend and relative pulled me aside to warn me against the dangers of the leftist academy. And at times, when I am with my family and friends from home, I do feel pretty liberal. Then when I am in the university, surrounded by largely liberal discourse, I find myself leaning back to the right. I suppose that means that I am a moderate (a terrible term these days, I know). Tonight I'd like to try to define what my own brand of moderation looks like. I do this largely as an exercise for myself, and share it only because I would like to add my voice to those who have so kindly shared theirs. Because I am currently serving as an LDS branch president, and because I know that some members of my congregation will read this, I want to make absolutely clear that I make these views only as a devoted citizen of the United States of America -- not as a church leader. While I am sure that many will agree with some of what I have to say, I would frankly be shocked if anyone agreed with all of it. As I stated above, I value diversity of opinion. I believe this country is strongest when different-minded people sit down and compromise. I like to think that if I had followed my high-school dreams and entered politics, that I would be known as a statesman and not a line-in-the-sand you-are-either-with-me-or-against-me stonewaller.
Look at any presidential candidate's website, and you will get a pretty good idea of the issues at stake in our country. A good candidate will have a clear policy on most or all of those issues. I have found, however, that most regular citizens are not capable of having a strong policy on every issue. Most of us might have one or two issues about which we feel very strongly, and some guiding principles to help us figure out the rest as they come up.
My tentpole issue is Freedom of Religion. The First Amendment to the Constitution opens: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." I believe this means that people in the United States are free to practice any religion or to not practice any religion. While I am a Christian, I do not believe that Christians have a monopoly on goodness. I know plenty of professed Christians who are horrible people, and plenty of professed atheists whose kindness and humility make me want to be a better human being. As a country we must find a way to peacefully coexist with each other. Any candidate who brags about how he or she would close down churches or ban people of any religious group from being a part of this country fails my first and most important test. The motto of Franco's dictatorship in Spain was "Spain: One. Great. Free!" For Franco (and for many people in the US today), "One" meant Christian ("Death to the Jews and atheists!"); it meant Castilian ("Death to the Catalans and the Basques!"); It meant straight ("Death to the gays!"). I do want our country to be unified, but not by force, and not by forcefully eliminating differences in gender, religion, race, or sexual orientation. I want us to be unified in our desire to help make this world a better place -- at home and abroad. I want us to be unified in the ways we value honesty, and kindness, and service. This might be a pipe dream, but I believe it is still possible.
Just for kicks, I recently took the Pew Research Center Political Typology Quiz, and it told me I am a "Business Conservative." I think that means that in general I believe the market system works. I do not believe that the government's primary role is to "create" jobs, but I do believe it has a responsibility to judiciously and responsibly ensure that the market system remains fair. I also wish our tax laws were simpler.
I am deeply disturbed by the terrible rise in gun violence in our country. The second amendment is important. I am not in favor of repealing it, but the Constitution itself was designed to "insure domestic tranquility" and to "promote the general Welfare." Random gun violence is a big enough threat to our domestic tranquility and general welfare that it seems to be gross negligence to not at least consider whether or not our gun laws (both state and federal) do enough to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally unstable. This is certainly not the only solution -- and maybe not even the best -- but it ought to be on the table. Of course, any gun laws ought to be carefully considered in light of the second amendment.
Deeply tied to the issue of gun violence is the issue of mental health. If we are going to stop the tide of killing, we must find new and better ways to help people struggling with psychological disorders. We must also have a laser focus on strengthening marriage and the family. We must leverage families, churches, schools, and other community resources to do so.
The immigration situation in this country is a mess. It is time that we find a compromise that allows for better control at the borders and a path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented workers who live here and contribute in millions of ways to make our communities great. We ought to open up affordable and feasible legal ways for people to enter the country. In the meantime, we ought to be good neighbors to those who are already here. The closed-minded bigotry of the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of immigrants in this country is astounding to me. Let us remember where we came from and what made this country great in the first place. There are people suffering all around us, we ought to be looking for ways to ease their burdens and to come out of the shadows, not throw them back to the wolves. I believe that sound immigration policy could be the key to the future of America.
It is time that conservatives started caring more about the environment. As a rule, I do not use science to browbeat religion, nor do I use religion to browbeat science. There are more than enough indicators that our planet is in serious trouble. We need to act. I believe this is best done at a local and state level and that the federal government ought to play a limited and judicious role. But it has a role. We have got to work together for it to happen. This Earth is all we have got, and we have an obligation to our children to get this right. I want to die knowing that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have a beautiful and healthy Earth on which to live.
I want this country (and the world) to be safe. I want my children to grow up in a world free of violent Islamist extremism. For that to happen we must have a strong military and a president who is both wise and decisive. But we will not defeat ISIS or Al Quaeda or any other group on our own. We must work hard to build strong coalitions across the world. We must be vigilant and home and abroad. There is an inversely proportionate relationship, however, between freedom and security. If we want more security, we have to give up freedom. We must be careful about how much power we give to the government in the name of security. I want to be safe, but I will not blindly give up my right to privacy for an extra measure of safety. I want to defeat ISIS, but if we try to fight torture and terrorism with torture and terrorism, we are no better than they are. We might contain extremism with troops and bombs. We will defeat it by offering powerful alternative ideas that people would be willing to live and die for.
There are so many other issues, but it is late, and I think I have said enough for now.
I just want to close by saying that I love this country. It is not perfect. We face crisis on every side. While we fret over ISIS and North Korea and gun violence, we are eating and sitting ourselves to death. Despite the valiant efforts of many teachers and administrators, our schools are nowhere near their potential. Our environment suffers even as our sluggish economy fails to deliver on the promise of America.
I might not have any logical reason for it, but I feel hopeful for the future of this country. These feel like precarious times, but isn't it interesting that everyone feels like they are precarious times? The left fears that the right wants to turn the US into Nazi Germany, and the right fears that the left wants to turn America into Communist Russia. I think that we will find our path somewhere in the middle. Extremism in any form is not going to break the gridlock. We must come together. We must elect leaders with strong moral compasses who will come to the negotiating table with honor, kindness, and charity. Moderate politics are tough because when you try to compromise, you never get everything you want. It seems easier to demonize the other side as you draw a line in the sand. But that does not get work done. That does not make our country great -- it stops us in our tracks.
I have been studying the candidates and will continue to do so, but tonight I am throwing my hat in the ring with John Kasich. I'm impressed with his level-headed political style. I'm impressed with the way he has maintained integrity and focused on issues while all the other candidates have engaged Trump in his mud-slinging. He is not the sexiest candidate. He does not go around making pie-in-the-sky promises he can't deliver. He has experience and he knows how to get things done. The changes he can bring to the table will be incremental, and that's what I want. I know that the chances of a Kasich nomination are abysmally small, but for now I'm with him. Regardless of what happens over the next months and years you can bet your bottom dollar that I am with America all the way. These are tough times, but we Americans are tough people, and despite all of our differences we have always found a way. We will do so again. The chips might be down, and presidential politics may have turned into a circus, but I am as proud today as I have ever been to be an American. May God bless this land of the free and the home of the brave.