About

My name is Jenn Q. Public. Really, I swear. I am a reluctant Republican and recovered Democrat who has struggled for years to reconcile my liberal upbringing with a reality that inspires right-of-center beliefs.

I was born into a family of Democrats during the latter half of the 1970s, and absorbed the liberal catechism in the New York City schools. I attended a college known for putting the “liberal” in liberal arts, and would have happily voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 had I been old enough.

After a brief flirtation with Libertarianism, I entered a long period of relative political slumber and emerged having had an epiphany: liberals don’t have a monopoly on compassion, and Republicans are not a swarming hive of racist and sexist hatemongers. Not only that, they actually have some pretty good ideas about taxation and spending, limited government, international relations, and homeland security.  Trust me, I didn’t learn that in school.

Despite being (semi-ambivalently) pro-choice and unequivocally supportive of gay marriage, I threw in my lot with the GOP. It quickly became clear to me that there are ideologically sound conservative and Republican arguments in favor of both.

I used to try to qualify my political identity, but now I’m sick to death of hyphenated Republicans.  I’m not a social con, but I am about as reliably Republican as you can get.  Being pro-choice and pro-gay marriage doesn’t mean I need a silly label like “progressive Republican” to make my conservative beliefs more palatable to liberals.  I’ve even warmed up to calling myself conservative (much to the chagrin of my lefty friends).

I often get asked about the genesis of my tag line, “one part reason, two parts awesome.”  It’s part inside joke, part nod to the show Psych.  If you don’t watch it, you might not be a fan of delicious flavor.

I welcome comments and email, but you are forewarned: I reserve the right to publish anything that makes its way to my inbox, including harassing or abusive emails.  Please let me know if you’re sending me something for my eyes only.

Comments that don’t promote illegal activity will usually be allowed to stand, but harassing other commenters without offering anything substantive will not be tolerated.  If you use a link to Wikipedia to “prove” something, there’s a strong possibility you will not be taken seriously.  By anyone.

All materials on JennQPublic.com are copyrighted.  If you decide to excerpt my writing, please link back to the original post.  If you want to republish something I’ve written, kiss up to me and I’ll probably say yes.