disclosure

In the highly unlikely event that I ever run for public office, I would like to take this opportunity to make the job of the pundits of the future much easier, by detailing to the best of my abilities my political and social activities over the last couple of decades. This is really important, because we all know that a videotape of something you said can emerge two decades hence and this is of course how people will know what it is that you REALLY believe.

OK, here we go:

--In 1995 or thereabouts I helped lead a prayer rally at the flagpole of my high school.
--In 1996 I tried to attend a Bob Dole rally at Georgia Tech, but couldn't get in.
--In 1998 I spent a summer as media coordinator for a Libertarian candidate for Senate. This candidate ran on a platform of eliminating all third party health care payments and pulling the US out of NAFTA.
--In 2002 and 2003, I attended several anti-Iraq war rallies.
--From 2007-2009, I was member of an activist street band that played at various events around our community. Among other things, we actively participated in the NC Pride parade. Members of that band (both past and present) include avowed Marxists and anarchists, some of whom are currently very active in the Occupy movement. I count several of these people among my close friends.
--Monetary contributions over the years have been made to: the Libertarian Party of Georgia, Ron Paul's 2008 campaign, Equality NC (a pro marriage equality group), Sensible Washington (a pro marijuana legalization group), Washington United for Marriage (another pro marriage equality group), the Eno River  Association, various local free clinics, and probably quite a few things I've forgotten about. Oh, and the mayoral and state senatorial campaigns of personal friends.
--I've been registered as a Libertarian (in GA), a Democrat (in AZ and NC), a Republican (in AZ). WA does not have party registration.
--In 2012, I am serving as a delegate to the King County Republican Convention.


I think if you took any one of those items alone, you would end up with a factually correct, but far from complete idea about what my political inclinations are or may be. And really, my "political life" has been a very, very small thing. There aren't that many data points. Imagine how many data points exist for anyone intent on pursuing a public political career.

I never really followed the career of Andrew Breitbart, and don't have any particularly strong opinions about the content of his work. His style was not something that appeals to me. It seems highly likely that he precipitated his own death by what was by all accounts an astonishingly heavy workload. One of the products of which--which he himself had trumpeted as being explosive in its implications for the current president--has now been released posthumously. And I have to say...really? That's it?

I hope the people he left behind that loved him think it was all worth it.