All Things in Moderation: A Crazy Man’s Quest

More coming at some point (maybe not, I’m not afraid of failure at this point, just never starting) on this, but this community thing I’m trying to start? It’s more of a quest for community. It’s a quest to find the absolute political middle of my country. Right now, I believe the following things about the political landscape today:

• The Republicans and Democrats are more concerned about winning than being right.

• The right and left in this country are worried about the loudest and most loyal of their constituencies. Those groups are not moderate, and are not usually willing to compromise with the other side.

• This means that the majority of Americans – those a certain distance from the middle – are under or unrepresented by the folks they elected.

• The two party system means that those candidates that get party support are not going to be moderate for the most part. They’re going to be the ones who can raise the most money from the party’s loyal constituents.

• The moderates in this country are unorganized, misled and getting the shaft.

• It’s not wrong to compromise.

• Being right is more important than winning.

• The under-represented middle will decide the election in 2004 – and if they don’t get their act together, we’re going to get screwed again.

• It’s not wrong to be a moderate. Moderation is good. Good ideas are more important than who came up with them.

There are lots of things that led me to realize these things… and lots of pieces of information and events that led me to these conclusions. What does it mean? It means I want to find a way to find those in the middle, find out what’s important to them, find what we can all agree on, and if we can’t agree on everything – find those things that are important to us and start a conversation.

I know, it’s crazy. It’s insane. It’s too big to even think about starting. I’ve downloaded several open source content management systems, have installed several and am still looking. I know… geek’s answer: software will solve everything. But, it’s where I start. Got any suggestions? Am I as crazy as I think I am?