Why DOGE Missed the Most Obvious Opportunity in Government
With genuine expertise in database management and UX design, DOGE could have approached tax filing the way a serious product team approaches a broken user experience: map the pain points, reduce unnecessary steps, build in real-time guidance, and design for the people who struggle most with the current system — not the ones with accountants and lawyers.
What Redesign Looks Like; Without Utopian Hand-Waving
The question isn’t whether redesign is possible.
It’s whether we are willing to stop protecting systems that benefit a few at the expense of everyone else — including the future.
We don’t need perfect answers.
We need leaders willing to redesign instead of retreat.
Candidate Statement
I’m running for Governor of Oregon because something is deeply broken in how we do politics — and most people can feel it, even if they don’t have words for it.
Why I’m Running Against Tina Kotek
The Yellow Brick Bureaucrat: When Government Loses Its Way
Good governance requires a brain, a heart, and courage.
This Is a Series. You Are Part of It.
I'm going to be writing about Oz Sightings regularly — moments where Scarecrow, Tin Man, or Cowardly Lion politics shows up in real systems, real decisions, real lives.
But I don't want to be the only one naming them.
Regenerating Oregon’s Economy
Oregon has never won by copying other states.
We didn’t become known for our forests by clear-cutting them. We didn’t become known for innovation by racing to the bottom on taxes. We built a reputation for stewardship, creativity, and independence. It’s time to build again.
The Founding Tension We Never Resolved
There is a contradiction at the heart of the American project that we have never fully faced.
On the one hand, we claim that all people possess inherent dignity—that worth is not something you earn, but something you are born with. On the other hand, we built our economic system around a very different assumption: that dignity must be proven through productivity, discipline, and success in the market.
Balancing Capitalism and Democracy has created benefits for us as a Nation, but the tension between the two can only stand so much inequality before something breaks.
Productivity Is a Story We Tell to Keep the Pyramid Standing
If we measured productivity from a human baseline starting with:
bodily limits
caregiving requirements
time to recover
the need for meaning and safety,
many of our “efficient” systems would look wildly irrational.
Millennials and the Managed Collapse of Work
Prepared for Excellence, Priced Out of Survival
Traffic Is Political
We can keep adding lanes.
We can keep buying better cars.
We can keep blaming bad drivers.
Or we can admit the truth: You cannot solve collective problems with private bubbles.
We Have Enough. What We Don’t Have Is the Will to Redesign.
If we started from the premise that:
every human life has inherent dignity
basic care is a collective responsibility
and work should serve life, not consume it
Then many of our “unsolvable” problems would look very different.