I am a flaming moderate.

I think the looney left and the looney right are equally looney. And I fear it is the fringe elements on both sides that ultimately control both the Republican and Democratic parties. They definitely do not speak for me, and they do not speak for a sizable percentage of the electorate.

I think our political process is broken, because in order to be elected, a candidate must appeal to party activists to get nominated, and then swing to the middle to get elected. We have created a natural selection process that breeds wishy-washy liars for our elected representatives. Open primaries in more states would be nice, but the parties will never let this happen as long as they have the power to prevent it.

Of course, this analysis only applies to the decreasing number of districts that are actually contested in the general election. In most districts today candidates only ever have to appeal to the party faithful -- a whole other problem that perpetuates the radicalization of partisanship in Congress, which in turn perpetuates the radicalization of the parties themselves even further. Talk about a vicious circle!

Having said all that, this is still the greatest country in the world and I am proud (and blessed) to be a citizen. Not because we have a powerful military or a lot of money, but because of the wisdom in the U.S. Constitution, the character of the people that live here (on average), and the (approximately) right balance between free market capitalism and a social safety net.

Linkage:

Awesome weblog post from PhotoDude.com that mirrors my political views

I like much (not all) of the stuff they come up with at the New America Foundation. The Washington Post calls them, "The think tank for generation next"

Checkout John P. Avlon's Independent Nation