hi there!

welcome to deliberative affairs

I'm excited to have you join us. My name is Megan Bratton and I created Deliberative Affairs as a way to allow myself and others to start digging through books, articles, and our nation's documents to have a better understanding of what our foundation is so we can imagine and create our future.

You might be wondering what Deliberative Affairs means. MacMillion Dictionary defines deliberative as "involving careful thought and discussion" and affairs as "events and activities relating to the government, politics, economy, etc. of a country, region, or the world".  Putting those two words together essentially means that this place is one where we can read multiple documents on our past and our present, have open conversations, and use the information we obtain from our reading material in order to vote with confidence.

Our topics will cover a bit of everything and we will be going through a lot of topics. Some of these topics are (but not limited to):
  • U.S. Constitution
  • U.S. History
  • Supreme Court Rulings
  • Religions
  • Political Issues
  • Theological Ideas
  • Democracy
  • Voting
  • Representation

1

we will be reading a lot

There will be written works by authors with opinions that are different than yours. As we will be looking at a little bit of everything, there will inevitably be instances where we read something that is not something you agree with. That’s okay. I say this because someone, somewhere had this belief and we, as a country, need to recognize it in order to move forward as a people. If we haven’t gotten to something that reflects your beliefs, please recommend it. I’ll be keeping a running list of suggested reading.

2

opinions will differ

Recognize that we all have our own thoughts and beliefs, and thus, we all have our own personal biases.

This site does not exist as a place to force individual opinions onto others. It also does not exist to tell people what to think based on the works we are reading.

It exists to examine published works by others, have a safe place to discuss it, and allow each individual to come to their own conclusion. 

3

we each have personal biases

This personal conclusion will allow each of us to make a vote that we can take pride and comfort in. It’ll be one borne out of research and due diligence instead of being told what to do and believe in. 

In addition, you'll understand exactly why you should vote, how the voting system works, what the founding fathers believed in when they established this country, and take pride in our ability to elect our representatives. 

4

think for yourself

some things to note:

Join Us

check out the reading list here