Happy Fourth of July - A Salute To Bloggers And a Year Completed.

It was almost a year ago that I set out to create
The Thinking Nationalist - a small web journal of
political and economic opinion that focused on current
events from a "centrist" American perspective.

Unlike many other "bloggers", I did not look in
the first year to go all-out with a firmly biased
outlook, either left or right, on every issue that
crossed my writing desk. Rather, I decided that
this first year would be given over to honing my
blogging craft, and that my original pieces would
try to be more explanatory than exhortatory,
preferring wherever possible to shed light on an issue
rather than unwarranted heat.


Further, when the occasion required, I decided to also
include several pieces cross-posted (with attribution)
from other blogs or sources. And in return, I have had
the distinct pleasure of being quoted by name in a few
other blogs, many of which are older than this one and
more widely read.

I would also at this point like to take the time to thank
the other authors whose blogs are listed on the left-hand side of
the page, many of whom took the time to offer advice,
suggestions, topic ideas, or links to additional information.
And in the same spirit, I would also like to thank the readers who
circulated my posts like Samizdat to others.

To all of you, both readers and fellow bloggers. I thank you.

In these trying times, I believe that bloggers are
providing necessary, important and free public services
of both information and persuasion - far more so than the
paid mainstream media, who are more comfortable
sucking up to the powerful and influential than standing
up to them in the name of the public.

Time was when the intrepid journalist was focused on
getting "the story" - having checked the facts and
corroborated the evidence, he published - and let the
chips fall where they may. Naturally, such an approach
never sits well with "Powers That Be" wherever they are,
as these worthies have often more to lose from
embarrassment or ridicule than the actual discovery of
malfeasance.

Thus journalists, under the pressure of a constant
news cycle to generate air time or column inches, often
morph into the lap dogs of their favorite sources.
Nothing so warms a mainstream media person's heart
but that to know that for him or her, the velvet rope
will always be lifted and access will always be granted
when deadlines or air time loom near.

With rare exception, the blogger faces little such pressure.
Permanently on the outside, occasionally granted access
as part of the "Alternative Media" pool, he is free to write
and opinionate to his heart's content.

And in so doing, he not only sheds light on important issues
but brings some necessary heat as well.

It is fitting, therefore, that on the 234th Anniversary of
the Nation's founding, a Nation founded in no small part
by the exertions of free men armed with free speech and a
free press, that we take time to honor those who dare
call the powerful to account and the influential to
explanation. Let us always remember that our liberties
are more secure in the hands of the man with a
pen and a voice than in the hands of the man with a gun.

If Thomas Paine, the author of "Common Sense" were alive
today. he would be a blogger - and his columns would still be
passed hand to hand and read as eagerly as in the days of old.

And given the mess that is today "our body politic", he
would have plenty to write about and a lot to say - and
almost none of it would be complimentary to those
who style themselves "Our Leaders".

In that vein, then, we are going to alter the approach of
The Thinking Nationalist over the coming year to take
a harder, more partisan stance on the issues than before -
and the principle that will under line our approach is
Nationalism.

"Nationalism" in the current sense, has gotten an undeservedly
bad rap from authors of both the left and the right. "Liberals"
view "Nationalism" as a code word for racial and ethnic
prejudice, while "Conservatives" view "Nationalism" as a quaint
and backward obstacle in their abstract pursuit of "Free Markets".

Both are wrong. "Liberals", while pretending solicitude
for the common man, fail completely to understand the
anger and distress felt by citizens about the unlawful
invasion of millions upon millions of alien foreigners into
our midst, who share not our language, culture, history or
traditions but, with the support of "liberals" demand not only
legal status but unquestioned acceptance. The "conservative"
on the other hand, would announce "open borders" the better
that wages and working conditions might fall to some abysmal
3rd world level, the better to profit the "Ownership Class".

And "Immigration" is only one area where both mainstream
liberals and conservatives are just plain wrong. "Nationalism"
gives us the reasons why.

The same is true on any number of issues - economics,
trade, jobs, industrial policy, education, social welfare,
foreign policy and national defense. In their single-minded
pursuit of abstract "truth" as they see it, both left and right
have failed a nation desperately seeking answers and a way
forward in a pitiless and hostile world.

"Nationalism" provides that way forward.

Over the coming weeks, I will detail "A Modern Nationalist
Manifesto" that, hopefully, will provoke discussion and
debate. And, we will keep up our perspective on current
events and people as always.

These are interesting, indeed historic times we are
living in. But whether they are tragedy or blessing is
now, more than ever, up to us.

- The Thinking Nationalist