Introduction

Why become another voice in the chorus?

Welcome to the ArthurInCali Substack. This personal endeavor is my attempt to begin a written account and analysis on how I see the day-to-day events in the realm of politics, history, and culture from a nominal center-right perspective. In today’s headlines and editorials, too many hot takes attempt to explain events in tidy summaries that validate the author or publications' political ideology and viewpoints. (Looking at you WaPo and NYT)

Understandably, this is by design and not just a feature for many news outlets. To truly begin to grasp a sense of something, one needs to gather as many sources available.

The issues that our nation is dealing with face a crisis of clarity in the facts and circumstances that surround them. It’s not a secret that most proposals only want to treat the symptoms and not the core topic at hand. Oftentimes, reality is discarded in favor of how one wishes to see the world, instead of how it really is. This is fine; for say, a five-year old enjoying a day at the park, but not for leading opinion and editorials that utilize rhetorical flourish to candy-coat the issues to their whims and desires.

My biggest interest in starting this Substack is to help intellectual debate to make a comeback in the realm of public policy. That is what some would say is a a hefty, if not impossible, goal but if I can contribute to restoring a small bit of it to the public conversation, that would suffice.

A short Bio: I am retired military, originally from Texas and now living in California. Uncle Sam’s canoe club allowed me the opportunity to visit over 30+ countries and most of the continents. I consider this experience of traveling the globe, seeing other cultures and people, helped to broaden perspective and analysis ability while scanning the news.

For example, when living overseas, the news media offers a broadened spectrum of world events. There is more variety and comprehensive coverage spread evenly. In the United States, media tends to be too US-centric in regards to what is reported on. This, I believe, is a mistake as it limits the American perspective on how we are viewed on the world stage. It has been said before and still is a truism that nation’s have interests, not friends. Behind the facade of glossy political advertisement and slogans is the cold logic of Realpolitik. Now more than ever, this needs to be noticed and discussed to keep the public abreast on what policy implications will affect their daily lives.

 Constructive criticism and differing viewpoints are not only allowed, they are welcome. The only way to solving or at least managing current issues will be through collective debate, dissent and deduction.