Anyone who has read my e-novels has noticed my more conservative bent to my stories! Yes, my stories are fiction; but as Gene Roddenberry and many others have shown, you can write 'morality plays' disguised as fiction and let the stories generate new ideas within your readers. Now before you write me off, I'm not a far-right winger as some might think. If you look at the political diamond, you'd find me (the little red diamond) firmly on the cusp between Conservative and Libertarian.
(If you are interested in seeing where you fall in the political diamond, may I suggest "The World's Smallest Political Quiz" at https://www.theadvocates.org/quiz/quiz.php.)
I grew up in a Democrat family. Mom and Dad were JFK Democrats. In my first Presidential election in 1980, I voted for (*gasp*) Jimmy Carter! But over the next four years, I underwent a political transformation. I saw the party my family and I had supported shift further left. I could no longer support them or their candidates; instead I found myself more and more in line with the more (at the time) Conservative Republican Party.
As time went by, I became more and more a student of history; American history in particular. As such, I've learned to recognize the patterns of history as they repeat. One such pattern is war. Humans are a cantankerous species and a major conflict occurs about every 20 years. Post WWII, the idea of outlawing war and dealing with 'police actions'/'limited engagements'/'contingency operations' has not eliminated the horrors of war. People are still killed, property is still destroyed, just less of it. And, of course, now it's televised! War is War! Have a lot of smalls ones has merely postponed the inevitable major war, which I believe is brewing right now!
Another pattern is the political pendulum of the government shifting left and right, back and forth. But this time, something different is going on. Over the past 100 years, the pivot point for the political pendulum has shifted to the left, dragging many along with it. There have been many (President Ronald Reagan among them) who have said of the Democrat Party, "I didn't leave the party, it left me!" Sadly, it appears that leftward shift has pulled many who were once Centrists or Social Republicans along with it.
Far too many people (wrongly) believe that the United States of America is a democracy. It is NOT. The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic employing representatives who are democratically elected and an economy based on capitalism. How can so many be so uninformed? Simple, look at our media and educational institutions and see how they portray this country!
So, how does this relate to my writing? Really, it's very simple. Historically, no republic lasts longer than about 200 years. They become bloated with government and debt, they lose those values upon which they were founded, and they enter a period of decadence. The USA has had a good run of 240 years...but is being pulled apart by the very things I've written about above.
I'd love to say that I am optimistic about the future of the USA. But, as I've told many people over the years, I'm an optimistic pessimist by nature...I'm sure something is going to go wrong! The further a pendulum swings in one direction the further it can swing back in the opposite direction!
So my Terra-Bravo Saga and Arizona State Guards share a common origin point...an alternate reality much like our own. Once again, politically divided as we were in 1776 and 1861. And once again, this division threatens to undo the United States of America.
Let me close this part of my blog by addressing something about the Republican Party. This party is supposed to represent the ideology of the republic; a federation of states bound under a constitution with laws protecting each citizen's God-given rights. It is called Conservative, which means to protect. What are they supposed to protect? The Constitution and the republic. And some call us "reactionaries". Why? Because instead of searching for new laws to pass to take more from the citizens, we are supposed to react to problems as they arise...not create new problems just to enact new laws to solve them.
So what do I care about? The United States of America, it's Constitution, and all of the good that it has done for this world. No other nation has done so much so quickly and for so many. The good this nation has done far outweighs any bad it may have done! (Many will agree, some may not.)
So I've written my e-novels to express my concern with the current political climate, to warn others of what we may face in our near future, and (hopefully) help some readers question their beliefs. One reader left me feedback saying I was putting a message out there. He's right!
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Sorry for the long post. Let me just suggest you read my e-books. They can be found on my Amazon Author's Page at www.amazon.com/author/jeffreyfortney. If you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, you can download and read these e-books at no additional cost as part of your subscription. (Don't panic, we authors do get paid for what you under a special KU program!)
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Enjoy Spring!
Jeffrey
© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2016
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