Introductions

Greetings blogosphere! My name is Joey Sorenson and I am an 18-year old student at the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in Government and History. Since childhood, I have had an intense, even unusual, interest in politics. While my political views have changed wildly over the years, my passion for politics has remained a constant throughout every phase and every age of my life. Raised in West Texas, I was a staunchly conservative Republican until 2008, when disappointment with George W. Bush, the onset of the 'Great Recession', hope and optimism for the candidacy of Barack Obama, and disillusionment with John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as running-mate pushed me farther and farther to the left. Today, I consider myself a liberal Democrat. This is not to say, however, that I am a blind ideologue. Labels have some value- they create cohesion and organization, allowing citizens to have a greater say in their government by syncing their voices with those of like-minded others. However, we must not allow our enthusiasm for joining forces with certain parties or ideologies to blind us to "the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party" which George Washington warned the nation against as he left office ten score and 14 years ago:

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp

Could you imagine any politician today speaking with such eloquence or humility? It seems that "the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party" are alive and well. Rarely has our country seen the levels of anger, partisanship, and demagoguery permeating the halls of our Congress today. While I claim party membership, I am not a slave to it. Before all else, I consider myself a reasonable person, and an American- not because of an excessive pride in geography or national descendance, but because I agree so strongly with the ideals on which the country was founded and, at it's best, has operated. In this blog, I hope to apply my interpretation of those ideals to current affairs, and in so doing, perhaps give voice to those in my Generation who feel disillusioned about politics after years of being called spoiled good-for-nothing brats by the right, and apathetic and self-centered by the left. I certainly am not claiming to speak for all of the members of my Generation, but I do hope that I can give a public voice to what many of them are feeling. Just because we don't yell, doesn't mean we don't care. We "don't need to fight to prove" we're "right." We "don't need to be forgiven."