I have always loved the city of Boston. Most especially its Dorchester neighborhood where I was born.
In some ways, I used to know more about the neighborhoods of Boston than most. Much more.
I say that because as a child, I grew up in abject poverty brought about by my alcoholic, highly dysfunctional, and self-absorbed parents. By the time I was 17 years of age, I had been evicted from 34 homes. Many of those evictions deposited me in various neighborhoods in Boston. The rest, in various cities and towns around New England.
As that nomadic child of dysfunction, I realized at a very early age that real-life experience does matter. Knowing what the least among us are battling in those neighborhoods does matter. Figuring out which policies will truly affect their lives in a positive manner does matter.
Such experience can really only come from having “lived the life.”
To this very day, I look back upon that childhood of daily chaos, homelessness, living in cars, malnutrition, no lights, no heat, and seemingly no future, as a gift. It goes back to the cliché “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”
But more than “stronger,” that life and that childhood made me much more aware; much more empathetic; much more appreciative of the amazingly good people that did surround me. Be those caring relatives such as my Uncle Peter, a best friend named “Gerry” in Dorchester, or some of the incredible working-class neighbors in that Dorchester neighborhood who taught me that hard work, personal accountability, and doing the right thing at the right moment did and does matter.
Another gift being that as we were evicted and did end up in other cities in New England that I would sometimes land in majority black housing projects and as a white child would often be one of the few white children in my classroom. It was at those times that I discovered that “Black America” was a great America and that no matter the color of our skin, we were all fighting the common enemies of poverty, crime, hopelessness, and most especially, abandonment by the ruling political class.
Those experiences also cemented in me that I never wanted to have any regrets in life. I did not want to stop dreaming. Nor did I want to listen to those who would tell me my dreams were unattainable.
Because of that mindset, and after some years of trial and tribulation, I ended up in the White House as a writer for two Presidents; a senior official at the Pentagon; a principal at the two largest law firms in the world; a syndicated columnist; and a bestselling author.
However, even though I did write for two Republican Presidents (Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush), I quickly came to despise both political Parties as I realized that most members of those Parties put their reelection first; the welfare of their Party next; and the needs of their actual constituents dead last. For that reason and many others, I decided it made much more sense to become a member of the “Commonsense, pragmatic Party.”
While more conservative than not, like most people, I am all over the map politically or ideologically depending upon the issue. As but one example, while Christian — but part of no organized religion — I believe “Gay Rights” to be a human right. I believe we are all “God’s Children” born with the exact same rights. No more no less.
That acknowledged, I am also not a fan of “affirmative action” nor Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies. Both of which I believe ultimately hurt the communities they seek to help.
As a child I witnessed discrimination up close and personal and grew to hate it. It is wrong in any form. Even when practiced against conservatives, Republicans, and people of faith.
All of that acknowledged, I want to stress again that I truly love the city of Boston. Sadly, I believe it to be a city quickly sliding into disrepair, anarchy, and financial insolvency brought about in large measure because three carpetbagging, self-promoting politicians have turned their backs on the working-class and the disenfranchised to cultivate the media and the far-left while espousing a self-destructive woke-agenda. An agenda which is slowly killing Boston.
I have nothing against success. We should all strive for it. That said, the foundation and character of Boston has never been about its entrenched elites. It has always been about its working-class.
Men and women who believe in the rule of law; who need the failing public schools of Boston to educate and not indoctrinate their children; who believe that their rights should come before those who illegally flooded into their neighborhoods from Mexico and elsewhere (often good people trying to realize their own dreams) because far-left out-of-touch politicians declared Boston a “sanctuary city.”
I am controlled by no political Party. I reject the socialist dictates of the far left. I am not the son of a billionaire sports owner. I am simply a son of Boston. One who as a child not only walked all the streets of the city at all hours of the day and night, but often lived on those streets.
Streets which are home to the working-class and the disenfranchised. Two groups which have been voiceless for far too long. Two groups which are the backbone of Boston.
As a charter member of the “Commonsense, Pragmatic” Party I want to offer up my unique real-world experience to speak out in the defense of those communities. The best way to do so would be to become Mayor of what should be the greatest city in the world.
I would be an unknown facing all but insurmountable odds. But then, being an unknown facing all but insurmountable odds was my daily existence as a child on those streets of Boston. In other words, it’s my comfort zone.
Should I consider running? What say you, the voters?
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and author of the book: The 56 – Liberty Lessons from those who risked all to sign The Declaration of Independence. Follow him @DougOfSkye.
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