{"id":2013,"date":"2015-09-01T10:01:04","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T14:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/blog\/?p=2013"},"modified":"2015-09-01T10:01:04","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T14:01:04","slug":"campaign-chronicle-5-weeks-to-election-various-political-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/campaign-chronicle-5-weeks-to-election-various-political-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Campaign Chronicle, 5 Weeks to Election: Various Political Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve done a little canvassing around my district (still lots more to do!), but so far I’ve found that most people have expressed similar preferences on what they appreciate about living in Cary and … let’s say, what they find annoying. And since I’ve been talking with folks who could be my constituents one day, I thought I should relay some of my thinking about what you might expect from me in terms of political service.<\/p>\n

First, a reminder: Election Day for the Cary Town Council race is October 6th, but early voting begins on September 24th!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Liberty\"<\/a>
\nLooks as if this eagle is deep in thought. (Image: “Liberty” by Joel Olives, on Flickr under Creative Commons.)<\/em><\/p>\n

For about as long as I’ve been running this blog, I’ve occasionally written about political topics — long before I started this “election countdown” series of posts, at least. In this current series, though, I’ve discussed how my long practice in telling people “no” may have made me a poor political candidate<\/a>, why I’m not making any promises to anyone<\/a>, and how you can help spread the word about my campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But some of my older posts might be instructive to people who are deciding whether to vote for me.<\/p>\n

I did a series of posts called “If I Were My Own Representative,” for instance. In that series, I discussed my intention to understand, as fully as possible, any bills I would be voting on<\/a>, why my default position on legislation that would hurt people would be “no”<\/a>, and the message I hope I always deliver, that the U.S. is still “the greatest hope for peace and prosperity in the world”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I also wrote a series of posts in which I floated various ideas for tax reforms, such as taxing long-term investment income at a lower rate than income from short-term speculation<\/a>, eliminating taxes on interest from savings below certain amounts<\/a>, and phased-in business taxes to help young businesses succeed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And I’ve written about broader political topics, like putting civility back into civil discourse<\/a>, metaphors for the opposing ends of the political spectrum<\/a>, and why we shouldn’t punish good people when bad things happen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I hope voters who might be considering me as their candidate will read a few of those that interest them. I don’t expect anyone to read through all of them (those series, for instance,\u00a0were longer than just the ones I mentioned), but reading a few would give anyone a deeper look into how I think about political subjects. I have more political posts<\/a> to choose from, too — plus some that I didn’t even categorize as such. But for a quicker assessment of what I’m about as a candidate, consider this:<\/p>\n