About
The Rough and Ready Blog is primarily of a political nature. It seeks to engage the issues of the day in a rational, analytical and bemusedly detached manner in the style of a partisan editorialist. It approaches political questions from a moderate conservative perspective.
Statement of Principles:
The Rough and Ready blog wholeheartedly endorses the core principles of the American Revolution: the right of all of humanity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness through balanced and limited government, and those of the Second American Revolution of 1861-65: the liberty and equality of all mankind, the right of all humanity to choose their leaders and to retain the fruits of their labor, and the commitment to capitalist market economics as the most perfect system of social mobility designed by humanity. The author believes that American society is exceptional, that the United States is an ongoing revolution based on egalitarian principles and multiethnic cooperation, and that the success of the United States and American revolutionary political principles provides the last, best, and only hope for the peaceful coexistence of all humanity. The author believes that the success of our Republic will be achieved through the promotion of individual responsibility, the promotion of social mobility, and vigilance against oppression and corruption here and abroad.
About the Author:
Zachary Taylor is the pen name of a Washington D.C. area civil servant and historian. Because non-leftist principles tend to be extremely harmful to the career prospects of individuals in both the public service and academic field, and since the author has a family to provide for and the ambition to secure tenure one day, this blog appears under an assumed name.
Who was the real Zachary Taylor?
Zachary Taylor was one of America’s greatest generals and the 12th President of the United States. A successful general during the Mexican War, Taylor was a self-made man who, through hard work, dedication, self-sacrifice and political vision, rose from obscurity to the Presidency in 1848. As a general, Taylor was popular with his troops due to his humility, his plain dress, common touch, his single-minded focus on results, and his dislike for ceremony. In politics, Taylor was a man of high principle and stubborn rectitude, who became the first President to take a stand against the expansion of slavery in defiance of his party’s congressional leaders and radicals in his own section. During the crisis of 1850, Taylor insisted that California be allowed to enter the Union as a free state with no concessions to the South, and threatened to personally lead the army to put down any attempt at disunion by Southern radicals. He died in office in 1850. After his death, his successors Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan adopted a policy of appeasement of the South, resulting ultimately in the Civil War.
This blog seeks to celebrate and sustain Zachary Taylor’spirit of political courage, independence, and patriotic selflessness. In an age of rampant political corruption, self-proclaimed messiahs and the celebration of self-interest above all principles, the example of Taylor is more relevant now than ever.
Old Rough and Ready
Side note: Zachary Taylor was also the name of the brilliant, Vivaldi-loving member of the Megaforce (played by Ralph Wilcox) in the legendary cinematic disaster of the same name.
