I'm Jim Meyer. I'm a conservative with libertarian tendencies and a Christian. I'm a small business owner and a veteran in Columbia, Missouri. I live in a college town which is a blue oasis in the middle of a red state in the center of the country. I plan to discuss culture, politics and perhaps political philosophy from a middle American perspective. Thanks for taking this excursion with me.
I lost a city council race in the April municipal election running as a conservative in a left-wing college town. Running for a local office for the first time was an experience and I have been reflecting on it for about a month. Our city has always been left of center, but until about 10 years ago, it was a lot more practical and balanced than it is now. I chose to get involved by running for city council in Columbia, Missouri, because, as a lobbyist once said to me, “There is no government that can screw up your life more quickly than your city council.”
The race for my ward ended up being a three-way race between me, a left-wing radical, and a retired city employee who had an idiosyncratic set of positions but who was also to the right of the radical. The leftist won with 52.25% of the vote. I came in second with 38.22%. The retired city employee earned 9.53% of the vote. The city council is officially a non-partisan, so no one ran with party labels -- but I was vocally conservative ...
