Let’s give things a bit more time before they’re so played out.

And I’m sorry, but harsh attacks are in the eye of the beholder. I think the criticism so far has been oddly personal and that’s what has bothered me. Sure, we have bloggers from both sides, but I think you should take a look at Montag’s post today about being a liberal blogger on this site feels like.

Our aim is to start conversations where people can find common ground. This won’t happen every time. Heck, it may not happen a majority of the time, but we have to raise the level of discourse in the blogosphere or risk completely marginalizing ourselves as valued thinkers.

I actually have my very own brain, and sometimes I like to use it to think for myself : )

Or school vouchers.

Or abortion on demand.

It is critical to the survival of this nation that people become more concerned about the welfare of the country than they are about winning an election or a fight over a nomination or a bill in congress. This change must come from the citizens of this country.

Violence is a fad in the entire world. It is fashionable in government just as it is among rappers and jihadists. Voilence takes on the cloak of the group. The members of our government do violence to facts, violence to honesty, voilence to the trust of the electorate without regard to the violence they do to the nation as a whole. Our only hope is a grass roots movement which decryes such behavior. I do hope this blog is such a voice.

Therefore, I think one become a centrist when one begins to put his political party affiliation second to the needs of the country. The US is being kick by donkeys and squashed by elephants. Maybe we turkeys had best call a halt to it.

Gail Denton

I applaud the idea of providing a space for sincere people to hash out ideas. The nature of political blogging and the people it attracts works against this, but I wish you luck.

As far as the center being a political position, I have no idea what that would be. Is a centrist someone who decides their position on an issue independently of the two parties? Or is it someone who will vote for a candidate without regard to party? Or are there policy positions shared by centrists?

I think “centrist” is shorthand for someone who is willing to buck the party line, but that doesn’t mean their policy positions lie in between the left and the right. It’s funny when the media refers to McCain as a moderate conservative. He’s not, but he gets that label because he’s not lock-step with Republican leadership.

A conversation about what centrism is might help your readers better understand what your goals are with this blog – just a suggestion. Apologies if this has been addressed already, but I looked over previous entries and didn’t see it.

I thought the reaction at Alicublog was pretty funny. Moonies, killing non-Bush-worshippers … years and years of that kind of stuff will never get old, right?