Thoughts for the New Year

For every moderate voice who has ever struggled with questions about the utility of moderation, I offer these thoughts on the doorstep of the new year.

(Warning: The linked post is a rather lengthy read. For those who attempt it, I only hope it proves worthy of the time you invested.)

One Response to “Thoughts for the New Year”

1. Michael van der Galien says:

   December 31, 2006 at 12:09 pm

   My hope for the new year is that, the next time hysterical partisans cause us to question our commitment to centrist solutions, we remember two things.

   1. Gridlock is the partisan’s playground, the consequence of people who refuse to define what they can live without.

   2. To break gridlock, to make progress, every citizen and public official must eventually sacrifice partisan ideologies and principles and embrace some level of independent, centrist, moderate thinking.

   And if those points don’t reassure you, then I hope you’ll recall the words of some of the most widely respected U.S. presidents, cited in John Avlon’s Independent Nation.

   Teddy Roosevelt: “I have to carefully guard myself against the extremists of both sides.�

   Harry Truman: “… partisanship must end at the water’s edge.�

   Dwight Eisenhower: “… extremes to the right and left of any political dispute are always wrong.�

   Bill Clinton: “… when we put aside partisanship, embrace the best ideas regardless of where they come from and work for principled compromise, we can move America not left or right, but forward.�

   Pete, yes it was a lenghty read, but truly very much worth it. A very good ‘New Year’-post.

   Obviously, I agree with the sentiment of your post.

   Lets have a more centrist 2007;)