About

“. . . had an immediate love affair with America . . . with its bubbling enthusiasm, its spirit, and sense of perpetual innovation.” – Jeffrey Archer, First Among Equals

Name: Jess Chapman
Age: 23
Sex: female
Ethnicity: Jewish
Religion: Humanistic Judaism
Occupation: writer/TV producer/political commentator
E-mail: jess [dot] a [dot] chapman [at] gmail [dot] com
Twitter: @Jess_TFA

Jess Chapman was born and bred on the Canadian prairie, and became a political junkie in high school. After realizing that the political scene in Ottawa was too boring for her, she set up a plan to move to the States after completing her education, and make it her home base as the next great centrist commentator in the U.S. Hence, a future American. This blog was created in order for Jess to sharpen her skills as a pundit in the years between.

Jess is a political centrist, a cultural liberal, an economic and social moderate, a legal conservative, an individualist feminist and a self-described policy wonk. Her main areas of interest are fiscal policy, agriculture, education and civil liberties. Her favorite media outlets include CNN, USA Today, The Economist and The Daily Beast.

Jess earned her B.A. in communications, with a minor in public relations, and plans to earn a master’s degree in political science or American studies. Besides politics, she enjoys hockey (Minnesota Wild fan), cooking and browsing in thrift shops. She has a soft spot for classic rock music, fried chicken and really bad movies. She is in a relationship with Adam Johnston, a fellow Winnipeg blogger and future environmental policy analyst.

About #cim

In November 2010, a small group of bloggers, wanting to Twitter-brand themselves on par with users of #p2 (Progressive) and #tcot (Top Conservatives on Twitter), developed a new hashtag: #cim (Centrists, Independents and Moderates). To the untrained eye, that may look like three words that mean the exact same thing. In reality, it is possible to be only one or two of those things at once. Here’s a quick guide to telling them apart:

• Centrist: You are open to a mixture of liberal and conservative ideas.
• Independent: You are not registered with a political party.
• Moderate: You prefer civility, modesty and bipartisanship in political expression.

The common thread between these types is an openness to all perspectives for the sake of political productivity. As it turns out, The Future American is all three of them – even though, admittedly, I have a tendency to get mouthy every now and then.

For more info, look up the #cim hashtag on Twitter, or scoot over to the Links page.