Welcome to "How to Win the Future"

Welcome, everyone, to the inaugural post of How to Win the Future, my new political blog. A little about me: I'm a political science student at The George Washington University (don't say “Don't you mean Georgetown?”) and while many people claim to be interested in policy, I take that nerdiness and wonkiness to a new, slightly unhealthy level. I'm interested in everything political, from your obvious presidential and midterm elections to your less well-known battles over education policy and high speed rail. No political topic is sacred. This blog is intended to be a way to share my observations and arguments about anything I've read/seen/heard/thought about, and had something original to say.


The name How to Win the Future comes from my irritation at politicians who tell us that America needs to be great, but are a little short on details. President Obama is not the first to use the phrase “win the future” and will not, I'm sure, be the last. The fact is that most people, both in politics and in the media, dumb down their opinions and speeches to appeal to a greater number of people, and to always be politically correct. Win the future, they tell us, but they always forget to tell us how, aside from generally creating jobs and improving education. That's great, guys, but what does that really mean?

Instead of yelling my opinions at Wolf Blitzer on a TV screen, I've decided to put them online to share with anyone who cares to read them. Full disclosure: I am a registered Democrat, I worked on President Obama's 2008 campaign and I plan to work for his reelection. As such, it's a safe bet that when I do discuss policy, I'll lean toward the liberal argument. However, that doesn't mean you should stop reading, even if you disagree. I promise to always do my best to see both sides, and ignore the attacks and talking points we all hear on TV; just because I have an opinion doesn't mean that's the only one I can understand. And if you think I'm doing a bad job of seeing both sides, that's the beauty of leaving comments. Don't be a troll for the sake of being a troll, but thoughtful comments will get responses as often as I can give them.

Again, welcome to my blog, and I hope you won't be disappointed. My first real post should be up soon, so we can start to understand just how it is that we are supposed to win the future.