About Me

I am many things, but above all I am a husband to my amazing wife and father to three (soon to be four) daughters, and it is for them that I have decided to wade into the cesspool that is American politics – primarily to ensure my daughters grow up in a democratic and just society which respects their fundamental rights.

As a technologist and software product manager, I work with functional groups spanning large technology businesses – each with their own objectives, goals, and desires – to negotiate and compromise in a way that allows everyone to move forward and build new and exciting products which make a huge difference in the lives of those using them.

In the same way, the U.S. Congress needs to work together to move the American people forward, both in establishing stronger democratic bulwarks against fascism and in helping reverse the course of policy which has yielded a “prosperity of the few” in recent decades, putting the United States back on a path where even the most humble American, whether native-born or immigrant, can enjoy a life of peace and prosperity.

A radical philosophical evolution over 25 years

Childhood & Teen Years

I was raised in a conservative Christian household that proudly voted Republican. Both of my parents consistently voted for Republicans and espoused Republican ideals throughout the entirety of my childhood, and both frequently listened to Rush Limbaugh and praised contemporary GOP leaders like Newt Gingrich. When it came time to begin spouting my own beliefs, including as editor of the opinion page in the Goshen High School newspaper, I eagerly joined suit. I overflowed with zeal for conservative politics, but a flavor of conservative politics that thrived on trolling and rage-baiting to yield a sense of righteous superiority. Although this sort of mindset and tactical focus is now essentially mainstream in the Republican party, it was more of a fringe element back then; you might even think of me as an innovator in the field of toxic politics.

College & Young Adulthood

Upon reaching college – not just any college but the conservative bastion that is Hillsdale College – I become immediately convinced of the unassailable virtues of a completely free society, one in which privatization represented a panacea for all social ills. However, this was also a belief system which required a certain amount of constant cognitive dissonance: the numbers simply never added up. Privatization was not the panacea I believed it to be, it was instead a massive smokescreen for transfers of wealth and power from bureaucrats to the capitalist elite who had already entrenched themselves within the system. The rising tide has not lifted all boats and has instead driven the United States to record levels of both income and wealth inequality: although Wall St. has enjoyed continuous private gains, and their losses repeatedly socialized through bailout after bailout, the average working American is stuck making approximately what they were making when Ronald Reagan entered office – adjusted for inflation, a force which has halved the value of our dollar during this same 25-year period.

Parenthood

Becoming a father, particularly becoming a father to multiple girls (currently three with a fourth on the way), gave me an altogether new respect for the plight women still face in our society today in attempting to achieve equal rights. Whereas I previously could keep women’s rights at arm’s length, given it had no bearing on my personal freedoms, I suddenly became way more concerned now that my children’s rights were being infringed. Furthermore, experiencing multiple pregnancies, childbirths, and a miscarriage gave me an altogether new appreciation for the urgency of codifying female reproductive freedom, including dispelling many of the falsely implanted beliefs from my childhood, including the mistaken impression that the vast majority of women undergoing abortions have elected to have them out of personal preference, rather than as a function of critical healthcare and keeping mothers alive.

During this period of my life I also experienced a life-changing epiphany: that I (as a white, cis, heterosexual male) was already freer than any common citizen has been in any society in perhaps any other prior period in history, yet there were many millions from various marginalized groups who did not enjoy that same freedom I enjoyed in any practical sense. This effected a fundamental shift in my definition of freedom: it was no longer about my freedom, it was about our freedom – and raising everyone else up to the level of freedom I was already enjoying became far more urgent than any incremental improvements I could hope to realize for myself.

Adulthood & Middle Age

At 41 years old, I look back now on 25 years lived and realize just how wrong I was, whether it was because of lies fed to me as facts as a child – some of which were only dispelled within the past 5 to 10 years – or areas of ignorance which have since been rectified by being a parent, going through a divorce, marrying a healthcare professional, helping take down an exploitative solar company, and all sorts of major life events which have drastically shifted the trajectory of my belief system.