Recently, some readers have expressed various levels of dismay that your humble blogger posts about political and social and economic issues in a blog hosted on a website that’s all about self-reliance. Here is why:

What is going on in America and in the world, politically, socially, and economically is of vital importance to self-reliance and homesteading. The ability to homestead depends on government leaving you alone. Were Congress, in their collective idiocy, to decide every morsel of food that passes your lips must be USDA inspected and approved, that new “law” or “regulation” would effectively end the ability of homesteaders and self-reliant gardeners to grow their own food unless they are willing and able to jump through and over whatever hoops and hurdles the bureaucrats put in place.

Granted, that is an extreme example, but in light of past bureaucratic performance, maybe not so far-fetched. Anyone remember NAIS which, despite everything that was done to kill it, still has not gone away for good? In a truly free nation, schemes like that would never even be proposed. They can only happen in  nation with a climate of dependence where “elites” know best what is good for everyone else. Which is why that climate and those who create it are often the subjects of my posts.

Some of those who commented or emailed made the point that there are many political (and social and economics) websites and blogs out there and that’s where they prefer to get their news and commentary. All well and good for them, but many folks do not have the time or inclination to visit such sites. If my posts can reach someone who might otherwise have be unaware, isn’t that a good thing?

I am not an expert on self-reliance and homesteading, but Jackie Clay is. That’s why she is consistently the magazine’s and the website’s most popular author. That’s why folks send her questions which she answers in her blog along with posting about her homestead. She feeds herself and her family from what she raises. I have time to grow some tomatoes and hot peppers in pots. Honestly, who would you really rather hear from on the subjects of self-reliance and homesteading, her or me?

Some have complained — nicely or not — that I don’t like all liberals. With the exception of certain politicians, nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t dislike liberals, I just think their world-view is misguided and unrealistic given what we know about human nature and the world in which we live. Liberalism, socialism, communism — they are all based on the notion that someone else has a right to what you work for. I reject that idea. So yes, my opinions will come from a conservative/libertarian/independent perspective, one that has developed over may years of trying to apply logic and reason and common sense to the world in which we live. The way I look at it, if I can get just one person per post to stop and say, “Hmm. I never thought of it that way,” then the time I devoted to writing it was time well spent.

And for those who still think politics has no place on the Backwoods Home website, consider that

1. We currently have a president who thinks the concept of self-reliance is appalling and uses the idea as a scare tactic, and

2. The US Supreme Court is taking on the Obamacare insurance mandate. Five citizens out of 300+ million could decide that government can, indeed, force all of us to buy anything it decides we should buy, whether we want it or not. Hopefully, they will not.

I appreciate each and every person who takes valuable time from their day to read what I have to say. And I value every comment they make even more because they took the additional time to write. But I am who I am and will believe what I believe until someone changes my mind with facts, and I have to keep posting the things I find interesting and sometimes important. And I will not be at all hurt if, on some days, folks simply give my post a pass.

There’s always tomorrow.

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