Do Writers Matter?

Someday, if I live long enough and still can access a high enough proportion of my faculties, I'll write about my life as a writer in a society that doesn't know what it thinks about its writers. My years in the private sector have taught me that one of the rarest creatures to ever penetrate the upper management in any company is a writer.

Of course, my presence in those layers in a number of companies is not in any way related to my writing. Most of my bosses and senior colleagues have never even read what I've written. Rather, it's about my math side, which is also my strategic side.

I love helping build companies, profit or non-profit. Maybe this my pragmatic self, the part that is instinctively conservative fiscally. The other side of me is more out of control -- the Imaginator -- to coin an adjective that George W. Bush would bless.

It is confusing when a reader accuses me of a political bias, as my cousin Dan does repeatedly It is confusing because I am not aware of writing from any particular political bias. Rather, I write the truth as I see it.

Of course, I'm aware that Marx defined radical as getting to the root of things. And I've spent a journalistic lifetime trying to get to the root of things. Dan claims that Americans would never elect a "liberal," but who is he talking about. Putting on my progressive hat, I would be hard-pressed to label Obama a liberal.

He's a centrist.

It's as if a leftists labeled McCain a conservative. He's no more a true conservative than Obama is a true liberal, at least in the ways those who hate those labels view them.

Both candidates for President are mainstream centrists, both in words and action. Personally, I would favor a more radical candidate. I liked Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee on the GOP side, as anyone paying attention knows.

There isn't a true radical on the Democratic side, unless you count Dennis Kuscinish, who in my view is a nutcase. Ralph Nader? Give me a break. We have no true progressive candidates in the current political scene.

So we are stuck with choices from center to the far right. That's it. I simply support the guy truest to our national center and that is Obama. I also like McCain, but his hypocritical flipflops on issues have alienated me this year.

Most voters, I am quite sure, will agree with me when it comes to casting their ballot. That's why I will stick with my prediction that Obama will be the next President of the U.S.