Get to know Todd Feigenbaum and Chad Knight

We thought we would start our weekly posts off with a simple background of ourselves. We will post weekly on Sunday afternoons. Our topics will range from the current arguments in Washington to broader topics. These discussions may get touchy and we may make you mad and we want to hear from you. A lot of our direction will come from you the readers. So without further ado, here we are.

Todd Feigenbaum:

My first memories of anything political are from the early 1970s when my school would broadcast the news over the loudspeakers every morning. In those days (around 1973) the main topic was usually something called “Watergate”. In my 9 year old head, Watergate sounded like a flooding issue somewhere in the country. I knew nothing of the corrupt president sitting in the White House, or the two daring Washington Post reporters who would end up helping to end his presidency.

Later, in college, I endured the presidency of a former actor named Reagan. A man I associated (at the time) with reckless tax cuts and Iran Contra, I do think he had a lot to do with the collapse of communism and the USSR.

Since college, however, I’ve gradually become more and more aware that our two political parties take a very different approach, not just to governing, but to compassion and fairness. In the year 2000 George W. Bush ran for president by calling himself a “compassionate conservative” showing that, too often, conservative and compassion don’t go together.
In the 21^st century, I see two political parties that barely exist in the same reality, let alone the same nation.
On the left, we have a fairly united Democratic Party that has taken leadership on issues like marriage equality, universal healthcare, improving the country’s safety net and putting the needs of the nation’s most helpless citizens ahead of its most powerful. They have done these things not, as their critics delude, to create a nation of dependent drones, but because the continued alternatives (people without health insurance, financially ruined by comically high medical bills) are unacceptable to our souls at any cost.
And then, on the right, we have a divided and leaderless Republican Party at war with itself, with the Democrats, with our president and, too often, with common sense (read about the debt limit to see what I mean). A party which looks to the past as a shining moment of eternal glory in a nation that wants to move into the future.
In 1966, a man named Gene Roddenberry envisioned a future where man explored the stars free of prejudice, poverty, crime and want. If I had to bet, I’d lay everything I owned that only the Democrats could ever bring us closer to that optimistic vision of the future. Heaven only knows what kind of future today’s Republicans, led by the likes of Ted Cruz, might bring. The future of Mad Max, perhaps.
This is why I’m a Democrat.

Chad Knight:

My first memories of anything political was sitting on the couch watching the Reagan inauguration. My father is a democrat and union guy. However, he was one of those Reagan Democrats. He thought Reagan was the best thing since sliced bread. I think Reagan was one of the last presidents that showed true conservative ideals in my opinion.

Truly though I was never much interested in politics until about 10 years ago. I mean I went and voted, even when I really didn't understand what I was voting for. I voted my first Presidential election in 1996. I was 20 years old and I cast my vote for Bill Clinton (DEM). In 2000 I voted for Al Gore (DEM) I wanted nothing to do with George W. Bush, I thought he was bad for the country. In 2004 I voted for John Kerry (DEM). In 2008 I was caught up in the hype of the first black president, someone looking for change and I thought he had a plan. I voted without hesitation  for Barrack Obama.

Two years into his presidency I was sitting there asking myself what I had done. How could I have voted for a man who not only didn't live up to ANY of his campaign promises, but, was attempting to put the country into more debt in 4 years than all the president's in history up to this time. I started looking to see what party truly made more sense as the party to run our country.

I found the Democrats made the social aspect of my person feel warm and fuzzy. The Republicans made the fiscal portion of my brain feel all in line and orderly. In 2012 I weighed both sides of the presidential race and for the first time in my short voting life I voted at the national level for a Republican. Thought Mitt Romney was not my favorite of the Republican offerings I felt he would stop the formation of a National Healthcare (Obamacare) plan.

So there you have it, Democrat to Republican. If I had to categorize myself I would say I am closest to a Libertarian than anything else. I am staunchly fiscally conservative and socially liberal. It makes for quite an argument inside my head from time to time, but, I enjoy it.