Why Forward Party Now

Why do we need the Forward Party? Because our country has backed away from its commitment to Democratic Capitalism, and the two major parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, are the primary cause.

Democratic Capitalism is the free market moderated by democracy. A century ago, there was a global battle between the ideas of socialism, the complete government control of the economy, and unregulated, survival of the fittest capitalism. Our country took a middle path, a compromise between the two extremes. We stayed with capitalism, with the private ownership of the economy, but we used democracy to make capitalism work for everyone, to ensure every person benefitted, had a chance to participate and played by the same set of rules. We certainly didn’t achieve this for all of our citizens, but it was the beacon that guided our government. It was a fulfillment of the most basic purpose of our government, ensuring all Americans have equality of opportunity.

Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The delicate balancing act of Senator Josh Hawley

Senator Josh Hawley’s call for a national industrial policy highlights just how much President Donald Trump changed the Republican Party. It also highlights the delicate balancing act for Senator Hawley and other Republican presidential hopefuls.

Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

When civil society stops being civil, defunding the police proves unworkable

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones has promised more police downtown and stepped up enforcement of traffic and nuisance laws. Her supporters in the defund the police movement are not happy.

Continue reading on StlToday.com

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on When civil society stops being civil, defunding the police proves unworkable

We Need to Move to a Revenue Based Corporate Tax

The US and other countries have proposed a global 15% minimum corporate tax. However, it’s not a change in tax rates that our corporate tax system needs, it’s a change in structure. We need to move from taxing profit to taxing revenue. Doing so would be a far more effective way to end the tax avoidance strategies of multi-national corporations and would reduce bureaucratic costs for all businesses. If the transition was revenue neutral, it would result in a tax cut for many small and medium sized US businesses, and a significant tax increase in companies that use accounting to move their profit offshore to avoid paying US taxes.

Continue reading
Posted in Policy | Comments Off on We Need to Move to a Revenue Based Corporate Tax

Bush’s Failure in Afghanistan

At the recent Taste in Ferguson event organizers set up a table with 13 flowers a quiet memorial to the last American soldiers to die in Afghanistan. Their deaths were a bitter ending to a long, frustrating conflict, and Congress is rightly holding hearings on the withdrawal from Afghanistan. However, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that it wasn’t President Biden that lost the war in Afghanistan. It was President Bush, twenty years ago, by allowing Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda to escape. We’ve been dealing with the consequences ever since.

Continue reading on Ferguson Observer – https://yourferguson.org/ashby-bush-afghanistan/

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Bush’s Failure in Afghanistan

A Quarter Acre and a Mortgage

Proposal:  Make direct cash payments to Section 8 recipients to allow them, in conjunction with a church or non-profit, to purchase a house and build personal equity instead of renting an apartment.

Background:  Ultimately, the goal of any safety net program is economic agency, to give the recipients of the aid the ability to take control of their economic lives.  Government programs can have the opposite effect, building a dependency on the government instead of self-reliance.  The current Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Section 8 program is an example.  The program does allow recipients to take control of where they live, however it also leaves most of the responsibility with the government.  The government decides if a housing unit is adequately maintained, not the recipient.  The government pays the landlord directly, instead of trusting the recipient to make the payment.  And there is no incentive for the recipient to find comparable, lower priced housing – the recipient doesn’t financially benefit from being frugal.

Continue reading
Posted in Policy | Comments Off on A Quarter Acre and a Mortgage

Churches must not become purveyors of pandemic misinformation

I heard it again: The coronavirus wasn’t as serious as it was made out to be. It was a campaign tool to get Joe Biden elected. What was concerning was that I heard this from one of the leaders of the church my wife and I attend.

Our church is moderate by most standards but still firmly non-denominational evangelical. The church leaders are studiously non-political, even while deeply engaging in the world. Personally I wasn’t a supporter of former President Donald Trump. However, I have lots of religious friends who did vote for him.

Continue reading the the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/columnists/blake-ashby-churches-must-not-become-purveyors-of-pandemic-misinformation/article_9cea2cf0-2bb9-5626-95e3-8643ed17c313.html

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Churches must not become purveyors of pandemic misinformation

Keyon Harrold of the N. County Harrolds

They are sometimes referred to, tongue in cheek, as “The Harrolds of North County”. There are a lot of them, and many are very successful in their chosen fields. In parts of North County, if you mention knowing one of the Harrolds the person you are talking with is almost guaranteed to say “Oh yeah, I know..” and then name a cousin or uncle or aunt.

Continue reading reading on The Ferguson Observer..



Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Keyon Harrold of the N. County Harrolds

I Pray Every Day

https://blake-ashby.medium.com/i-pray-every-day-746f98efb56f

https://blakeashby.podbean.com/e/i-pray-every-day/

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on I Pray Every Day

Make Them Prove It

A friend believes the presidential election was stolen from President Donald Trump. Me? I doubt it. But according to polls, most Republicans believe President-elect Joe Biden only won the presidency because of significant voter fraud.

They believe this, of course, because Trump, the leader of our country and head of our democracy, insists that the 2020 election was “the greatest election fraud in U.S. history.”

Continue reading https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/columnists/blake-ashby-make-them-prove-it/article_a2861869-b64b-5d26-8630-e1a2ea4366ea.html

Published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch 12.16.20

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Make Them Prove It