🏗️ About the author

For the majority of my life, politics was something I glanced at from my periphery. As an independent voter, one not affiliated with any political party, my only real engagement was a once-every-four-years pilgrimage to the voting booth during the presidential election cycle. I would watch the debates,  try to understand position papers, and review endorsements from various new sources. I would try to conduct due diligence on the "undercard" candidates and I would cast my vote. And I would feel like a responsible citizen naively hoping that my vote was going to elect the best candidates, the person I prayed would guide us back onto the right path. Needless to say, that result has yet to materialize! 

Over the past six years, helplessness and some level of hopelessness has crept in. I've grown ever more concerned that my grandchildren may not have the same opportunities that I have been blessed to have. I believe that if we continue down our current path, we are in for a very unsettling future.

Thankfully, as a result of the work I've done over the past year, I've learned that there is another way – and I've come to believe that you and I can make a difference! As such, I have renewed hope and a desire to do something about it!

A little backgrounder on me:

🇺🇸 I've lived the American dream

I was born in Redbank, N.J., and lived in a Levittown until I was 14. 

My father was an accountant who picked himself up by his bootstraps and had an incredible career in real estate.

I feel privileged to have grown up in a middle-class family that afforded me the opportunity to go to a great college and law school.

I hold a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School and a bachelor’s degree in business administration  from Washington University in St. Louis. Although I no longer practice, I am admitted in the New York, Connecticut and Washington. D.C., bars. I am active in several nonprofits and enjoy mentoring young executives, including participating in entrepreneurship programs at my alma maters.

I am a proud husband and father.

Building upon the foundation established by my father, combined with a lot of hard work and a bit of luck, I have achieved enough success in my life that my family is secure, and we live a comfortable life. 

Truly an American success story.

🗞️I've worked in the media business

Please know that my musings here are not shaped solely by what I read or watch. ,My perspective is fundamentally shaped also by my real-world experience with the media. 

I have been involved in two newsroom operations in my life. I’ve worked in environments where the appropriate boundaries were set between the publisher and the editor. I know how a proper newsroom is to function and I know when it’s being abused. This is an important foundational point.

Not only have I worked with and around reporters for a significant portion of my career, I have been quoted in the media more times than I can count. That’s not meant to be egoic, but just a fact that informs my thinking about the media. I’ve said many times that I am shocked at the fact that every reporter I ever spoke to had a “point of view” before they interviewed me and was only looking for a quote to support their story.

For 30 years I’ve said The New York Times should have “Op-Ed” stamped in the nameplate because of that dynamic. Isaac Saul wrote a fantastic piece about clickbait”: “Some very sad, terrible news to share” that dives into other ways, like negativity bias, that the media uses to draw people in. It’s worth a read.

🤑I'm a capitalist

I am an entrepreneur, mentor, strategic investor, advisor and board member to a handful of companies. I have 30+ years of experience as a serial entrepreneur having taken early-stage startups from ideation through scaleup to IPO/exit. In the past 10 years, I have transitioned from corporate and business development executive to impact investor, advisor and board member. I manage a portfolio of investments that run the gamut from cannabis to real estate, from retail to media with a focus on technology innovation and disruption. I am fairly active in the South Florida start-up community.

🚫I'm an independent

I am a pragmatist. As such, I consider myself a staunch independent and have never registered with a political party. As an independent, I don’t follow the dogma around either party's partisan platform. On some issues, I’m conservative. On others, I’m liberal (more on that word in "Can you define socialism?"). I strive to be thoughtful and discerning in the policies that I believe in. Moreover, I strive to remain open-minded to alternate points of view.

Throughout this project, I have included some videos from a variety of comedians not only to provide a bit of levity but also some social commentary. Here's a clip from Chris Rock that always made me laugh and sums up how I feel about partisan politics.

That said, for most of my adult life, I’ve bought into the idea that the GOP not only has the best party platform to protect the American dream and way of life but also is essential for a healthy economy and a thriving society.

Philosophically, I've often thought of myself as a textbook Libertarian. I believe in small government because I believe that government (any government) is an inefficient capital allocator. I also believe in individual freedoms and a "free market" economy. More on that in the chapter entitled "Capitalism & monetary policy."

I have always considered myself “conservative” on a plethora of issues – mostly economic and in terms of liberty and freedom. Constitutionally, I’m a "federalist" (I believe in powers being divided between a national government and state governments) and believe that the federal government has overreached in many areas by applying the “necessary and proper” clause in an overly broad way in enforcing the commerce clause of the Constitution. The Constitution enumerates a number of specific powers to the federal government (such as levying taxes, maintaining a military and establishing post offices), but then vaguely allows for others that are “necessary and proper for carrying into Execution” other defined powers. This is a point of contention between those who demand a strict interpretation of the Constitution and those who allow for a more expansive interpretation.

But when it comes to social issues, I do not believe the Framers could have anticipated the world we are living in. When they wrote that all men were created equal they meant only white men. But the spirit of what they wrote, including in the Bill of Rights, can’t be denied. So, if we ignore the biases and “norms” of the 18th century, and try to apply them to today’s norms, we see that absent a fair and ”liberal” federal government, the Bill of Rights will be trampled upon at the state level.

In the classic sense, I was always committed to the principle that freedom, or in other words, liberty, is the most important political value. I know that many of you reading this probably agree that you want “freedom” for yourself, but a Libertarian also seeks to protect and expand the freedom of others.

So, what does liberty mean to me? 

Liberty means being free to make your own choices about your own life. What you do with your body and your property ought to be up to you, provided that while other people do not forcibly interfere with your liberty, you must not forcibly interfere with theirs. 

Slowly but surely, over the past five decades, the GOP has centered itself on a version of liberty that no longer aligns with the foregoing.

😍 I care

Friends tell me sometimes that I need to “relax” about these issues. That I’m too “negative” or “fatalistic.” I don’t think I am being hyperbolic in my concerns.

Even though folks say I’m too negative, I feel the opposite. I remain cautiously optimistic about the future. I created Fairness Matter because I believe that we have an opportunity to make the world a better place for our children and our grandchildren.

Had some of the reforms discussed here been in place, we might be at a very different moment in history.