Hello and welcome to Pat’s Perspective. If you haven’t guessed by now, my name is Patrick. I am a 26 year old living in New Jersey with a passion for politics, culture, and news. I am creating this blog to share my perspectives and to encourage a dialogue surrounding the U.S. and world’s current political and cultural events and news.

I got interested in politics in senior year of high school when I took AP United States Government and Politics. Up until that class I was pretty apolitical and uninformed. I let whatever flashy headline that came in front of me determine my view on an issue. This lead to some pretty bad takes, and sometimes just blatantly incorrect takes.

I went to college at the University of Southern California, and my freshman year was the first presidential election I could vote in. It was the election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. As a kid, I was actually quite fascinated by Trump, despite the many opinions my mother had on the guy. I even did my freshman year high school English book report on “The Art of the Deal”. To make a long story short, I ended up joining the Never Trump camp (more on my personal political values to follow in subsequent posts).

Although I was drawn to many of the tenants of Conservative politics (all of which would be abandoned by Republicans in the year to come), I voted for Hillary Clinton. Full disclosure, I did donate to her campaign right before the election. Hillary’s loss didn’t mean much to me at the time. I was busy focusing my time on my studies, but I still tried to stay active in the news cycle.

At USC, I joined different friend groups of all backgrounds. I was sharing meals with both Trump supporters and Bernie Bros. I didn’t see the divisiveness the internet was claiming. Through different discussions coupled with my coursework at USC, I began to formulate more of my own core political beliefs, taking inspiration from both sides of the aisle. I’ll create a whole post on my beliefs in the coming days.

Fast forward to today. It’s been a few years since my interest in politics began and I am more engaged than ever. I have voted in two presidential elections, with my third coming up in November. I have supported candidates on both sides of the aisle. I have attended events and small groups to continue to learn more and stay involved.

Politics isn’t my life nor will it probably ever be more than a passion, but for as long as I’m interested in it, I thought I’d share my takes and perspectives along the way. I encourage anyone who is interested in following along to provide their own commentary, even when disagreeing. Our society cannot function without differing beliefs and that’s what I love so much. I just ask that we all treat each other with respect. Remember, the First Amendment doesn’t apply to personal sites like this. Click here for a First Amendment refresher 😉

As I get this blog up and running, you can expect to see weekly roundups of news stories with my perspectives, guest commentary pieces, video discussions with various people, and more! Any and all feedback is welcome!