Some say he is a young Thomas Paine. A journalist at heart, an instigator by inclination, a ranter by age, sophomore Yashwant Parmar is a revolutionary.

With a quill replaced by a keyboard, Yashwant is a political force—the founding father of “(Mostly) Common Sense: Something lacking”, the political blog he started in the middle of his sophomore year. He has been using this blog as an outlet to express his feelings toward current-day politics.

“I figured that blogging would be easier to do than making videos, and they would take less time for people to read,” Yashwant said,  “[while still getting] the same amount of information.”

Yashwant updates his blog when he has the time, which usually ends up in biweekly posts ranging from strip searches after arrests to Rick Santorum’s claims on pornography. His blog conveys his liberal commentary on political issues in America and occasionally those in Europe.

From a young age, Yashwant has been involved in politics more than the average student. His parents would watch the news frequently, and Yashwant often found himself sitting with them, listening to political insights on CNN.

“I ended up knowing a lot about the country,” Yashwant said. “Well, as much as a little kid could.”

Blogging all started with an innate frustration with President Bush’s policies. He was just annoyed as his parents, but didn’t know why. As he grew older, Yashwant began to understand the United States and its government, which lead him to develop an opinion on Bush.

“Bush started a war in Iraq, claiming things that had no evidence. He lowered taxes on the rich and ultra-rich,” Yashwant said. “Green energy, being used basically everywhere else in the world, was neglected, [and] then there’s the financial collapse.”

Yashwant began posting about politics on his Facebook profile to express his political opinions. He had never thought of sharing his political opinions in a more public domain such as blogspots until someone had persuaded him to do so.

What really pushed him into this realm of blogging was his soccer coach.

“Apparently, he started talking to his son about some current event, and his son told him that he already knew cause of my Facebook posts; he also said that a lot of people read them,” Yashwant said. “So I started a blog after that.”

Regarding his importance in the world of politics, Yashwant believes that his blog has made an impact on the community. By contacting senators and representatives, Yashwant has actively investigated direct sources of information.

He has recently contacted a senator about education and how the UC system could potentially be more expensive than that of Ivy League schools.

“I could potentially challenge some of the Twitter follower totals of several republicans,” Yashwant said. “I realized that Kony had less followers than I did.”

Yashwant, as a memeber of the Speech and Debate team, is focused on Congressional debate. Using information he researches for the club, he organizes information and formulates arguments that he can express in his blog.

“It also causes me to do extra research on what I blog on,” Yashwant said. “I can end up being more assured that what I’m saying is indeed true.”

As a student, Yashwant is concerned about issues such as paying for college, what America will be like in the future and how much competition for jobs there will be.

With a highly controversial image tiled as the background—burning trees—the blog has attracted over 1000 views, many of them from complete strangers on the internet.

“[Reaching 1000 views] was exciting, motivating and  vindicating for me,” Yashwant said. “But it wasn’t something that made me jump with joy. It was great.”

Yashwant’s blog can be found at: yashpar-politics.blogspot.com