Oddman Out?

10:30:51 AM CDT
Feeling Frustrated
Six months ago when I last posted an entry, I was "hopeful." I'm back to struggling to maintain any sense of optimism and hope.....denial is a much easier way out for this "frustrated" Oddman Out (not a question mark at this point!). Many times I've wanted to keep the inspiration moving in this blog, but the turmoil that has wracked our Great Country, the world-at-large, and me, kept me in a "confused sea" of conflict over any kind of entry.

First of all, the blog never achieved anything beyond a basic "private diary" (except for one lone, enlightened liberal friend, Neil). So there wasn't much incentive. Secondly, any time I came close to making a new entry, I found it too much of a chore to articulate anything approaching clarity. So I continued to surf the blogosphere on all political spectrums, dropping in a comment here or there that occasionally triggered an idiot response.

In one case on a so-called "centrist" blog that should be the model promoter of, and proclaimed "voice of" Centrist philosophy, the contributors were leaning alarmingly to the left, and even commenting on how the Center has "moved;" to the extent of obscurity?!?! I entered a Comment challenging why Centrism should be "dead" at such an opportune moment in history. Where's the leadership of substance? The only response came from some cut-and-paste liberal about saving the economy by taxing the "undeserving wealthy."

So I return to the comfort of my online diary to see if attempting to put my thoughts in writing can help clarify, or at least vent, some frustration which is on the verge of turning into fear about the future.

The concept of an anti-polarizing, post-partisan rise of Centrism, with the hope of "Common Ground," held such promise for common sense to return. But even my traditionally conservative (NOT necessarily neo-con!) network which is as fed up with the GOP and Bush Administration as I am, can't let go of the polarizing "principles" that they "cling" to (Obama's use of the term notwithstanding) without a Candidate! Now with Bloomberg backing off his potential leadership of an Independent "movement," and Nunn moving over to a campaign-tarnished Obama, I'm losing my grip on a direction.  Even Mark Satin's "Radical Middle" is falling prey to dated and misleading material! Shocking! And all the other independent/moderate/centrist blogs are either as "stale" as mine, or obsessed with the campaign poll or hype of the day. NOTHING of substance! Hard to believe when there is such a void, which I used to believe always created an opportunity that would be filled!

I'm not ready to accept that it was all just wishful thinking. But the apparent collapse of Centrism is very disturbing at this moment. The good news, AND the bad news is, the campaign for new leadership has a long way to go!! But right now, it's sure not lookin' good to me!! In fact, I'd say it's downright scary, because things actually could get worse!!


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8:54:52 AM CDT
Feeling Hopeful

Everything's a moving target.......including me! Moving in this case, because of labels. None of the old labels fit; right/left, conservative/liberal, red/blue, and CERTAINLY Republican Party aren't what they used to be........although I still can't imagine EVER thinking of myself as a Democrat, or voting for one.....but who knows, stranger things have happened. I did vote for Bill Clinton once (which I lived to regret), more as an anti-Bush the 41st vote, because I couldn't find a Republican spine to hang onto.

About a week ago, I was driven back to the blogosphere after a year and a half respite out of frustration, digust, hopelessness, and depression from the deteriorating political scene which seems to be bottomless. After some surfing, reading, and re-connecting with an "old friend" Neil, a confessed atheist and liberal (discovered in '05 in my search for someone from the "other side" whom I could respect and learn from), my spirits are on an upswing for the most part, thank you very much!

So my restored confidence in the future has moved to a new label, from Born Again Centrist to Anti-Polarizer.....at least for today, in the context of my "one day at a time" frame of mind. And actually, I'm quite eager to learn about the next step, because I've never been comfortable just being Anti-anything. But it's OK as a temporary step in a constructive direction. And it is a pretty big step! Because it means I've moved from a bitcher and mud-slinger, and a searcher and learner, to actually opposing a lot of people I not only agreed with, but took comfort in being "one of." In '06, I declared I could no longer support the GOP, because the Party had left me, and I voted all-Independent. I liked being a Centrist! But now I'm divorcing today's Republican Party because it's dominated by Polarizers. And I have to oppose them.......don't believe Polarizers are a good thing.....don't want to be seen as one. So this takes on new responsibilities; it's a new position and I think it is a good thing, and can't wait to see how the world looks now!!

Here's why. The Culture War is a myth. So says Thomas & Beckel in Common Ground:

Millions of political extremists on both the left and the right believe in a culture war and they have enlisted in it. The culture war is primarily being waged over the issues of abortion, gay marriage, school prayer, and more recently, stem-cell research.Because of the prevalence of these issues and the controversy and fervor they have generated, the term was embraced by the press corps (aka my term, exacerbated by the media frenzy), which pursued the story with the ferocity of a pack of lawyers chasing an ambulance.

With its endless potential for controversy, excitement, and political intrigue, "culture wars" makes for good ratings and high interest........It never ends because the media won't let it end. Politicians from the polarized left and right do not want to see it end either, as long as there are votes and contributions that can be gained by the war. There is one small problem.....the so-called culture war is really a small battle, being fought between polarizers on the right and left, while the vast majority of Americans refuse to be involved.

The culture war is crucial to the proponents of the red state/blue state theory. The conclusion is that Americans are divided along cultural lines, with red states committed to traditional cultural norms, and blue states to tolerance and individual expression. That is simply not true.

I buy this! Polarizers (of all stripes) are the problem! It's a helluva way to govern a country, and explains a lot of the problems....like the current campaign, and the two Party run for the nomination of nobody I want to be our President! It  offers hope for me and the majority, in a Post Partisan era. I'm staying tuned. Are you?

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3:07:41 PM CDT
Feeling Hopeful

Just getting caught up with a little blog-surfing of old links I found interesting a couple years ago. I remember seeing a little in the news last summer about the Annenberg/Bloomberg/Schwarzeneggar conference in LA in June, Ceasefire! Bridging the Political Divide, but I was tired of it all and preferred "lighter" things on my mind. Now I see in August, Mark Satin at The Radical Middle wrote an editorial, Post Partisan: The First Uniquely American Political Ideology is Being Born. I find his 10 Key Elements very provocative and encouraging:

1. Relationships as important as convictions

2. Criticism well balanced by self-criticism

3. Overriding commitment to dialogue and deliberation

4. Overriding commitment to diversity of opinions and perspectives

5. Compromise not the only endgame

6. Simultaneously creative and practical

7. A penchant for big ideas

8. A bias for action

9. A concern with values and principles

10. A long-term vision

I merely list them here as a teaser, and hope you will click on the link above to get the full impact of his commentary. All of which I find disturbingly missing in anything I see from the Democrats and Republicans. Then I must transfer an excerpt from Satin's editorial tracing the history of "Post Partisan Politics" back to Ben Franklin, which I think is fascinating, and amazingly relevant today:

Origins of the post-partisan perspective

Modern liberalism, conservatism, and socialism are all 19th century European ideologies (see RE:SOURCES section below). Post-partisanship would be the first genuinely American political ideology.

You can trace it all the way back to Ben Franklin. It was Franklin, as noted above, who often brought feuding Constitutional Convention delegates to his back yard, where he had them sit under a big mulberry tree and hash out their differences (the tree is immortalized on a mural in the U.S. Capitol building, with Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, and James Wilson all under it in animated states).

According to Walter Isaacson, author of the widely praised biography Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), Franklin’s mediating role was no accident. In his political philosophy Franklin had always been “non-ideological, indeed allergic to anything smacking of dogma. Instead, he was . . . interested in finding out what worked.”

For many years Franklin had been developing a “mixture of liberal, populist, and conservative ideas. . . . He exalted hard work, individual enterprise, frugality, and self-reliance. On the other hand, he also pushed for civic cooperation [and] social compassion.” After the Constitutional Convention he became a leader in the fight against slavery.

His vision was of a nation where anyone -- ANYONE -- could rise “based on their willingness to be industrious and cultivate their virtues. In this regard, his ideal was more egalitarian and democratic than even Thomas Jefferson’s view of a ‘natural aristocracy.’” His political program, to the extent that he had one, was “a kindly humanism that emphasized the somewhat sentimental (but still quite real) earthly goal of ‘doing good’ for his fellow man.”

You’d think Franklin’s views would have been quickly converted into an ideology comparable to that of liberalism, conservatism, and socialism. But it never happened. It seems we all got so caught up in the glamour of the traditional European us-against-them ideologies that we never bothered to develop the uniquely inclusive and deliberative (and therefore, arguably, uniquely American) vision that the amiable Franklin meant to pass down to us.

Another surprise? Satin credits John F. Kennedy, Jr., with interesting post partisan insights in his magazine, "George." Read it all at Post Partisan: The First Uniquely American Political Ideology is Being Born. Very refreshing!

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8:11:29 PM CDT
Feeling Hopeful
One form of refreshment is to rise above the inane and polarized political climate, and challenge our critical thinking with some debate of substance. A couple of weeks ago, over on The Moderate Voice, Jeremy Dibbel's entry, Proposing Constitutional Change, provided a quick review and commentary on Larry Sabato's new book, A More Perfect Constitution. The diversion from the media frenzy of the "campaign" is worth a look....click on the link above.

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9:18:51 PM CDT
Feeling Anxious

It's been almost a year and a half since my last post, and it's still over a year to the next election......BUT the old fires are burning again!! I never really gained any attention with this blog in the run-up to 2006. But it did provide me with some artificial relief from the insanity of the times just to post my thoughts, do a little scanning of blogs of interest, and some enlightened reading of materials I ran across.

Basically, my feelings about the world around me haven't changed all that much. My frustration with the political scene has intensified, if anything, and by resorting to denial as a coping tool, I normally avoid the sense of hopelessness and helplessness that can be so depressing. My disgust with both major political parties certainly has been re-fueled by the sham that is the current campaign for nomination. The time consumed, to say nothing of the millions of dollars, is such an obscene waste that it can only be a colossal embarrassment for the concept of democracy. I never imagined that the American model could be such a source of shame.

Washington, DC, the Bush Administration, and the Democratic and Republican Parties, have taken incompetence to a whole new level. At this early stage, it certainly appears that the GOP has basically handed the White House to Hillary on a silver platter....(talk about a default to a worst case scenario!)......while the new Democratic Congress has been a total failure in having any effect on a Lame Duck President with the lowest popularity rating in history. None of it makes any sense.......except "the polarization that is destroying America." And that's the subtitle of a book I'm reading now, co-authored by Cal Thomas and Bob Beckel, Common Ground. So far, it looks to me like they've got it nailed, and I can't wait to see their thinking about turning my anxiety into hope. Later......

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1:56:54 PM CDT
Feeling Hopeful

About a year ago, I dove into the blogosphere in search of some sanity "across the aisle." As repeated many times in this blog, I had reached an unbearable level of frustration (bordering on depression about the future), and yes, anger, toward the current political scene in America. I was fed up with almost everyone and everything I heard and read about our so-called "leaders" of all stripes (especially red and blue), and I wasn't gaining any encouragement or enlightenment from my own circle of relationships, "like-minded" or otherwise.

So I decided to read some books I wouldn't historically have read, and to explore the wonders of blogging. Part of my frustration resulted from "label fatigue." Obviously, Republican and Democrat, and certainly "conservative" and "liberal," have become totally useless in any kind of meaningful discourse. In fact, the only certainty is that using those labels to describe myself or anyone else is misleading at best, and can easily be "dangerously enraging." To a lesser degree, even the modifiers "moderate" and "extreme" are no longer constructive elements in achieving the understanding necessary for civil debate that might offer some hope for the future.

In that context, my hope has been restored somewhat in the world of (I'll risk using a label here) the "Centrist Movement" (ref: previous posts, Take a Movement and Centrist Perspective). And the greatest personal example of that encouragement came in the comment from the single best discovery of a "blogging acquaintance" from my reach across the aisle,  purcellneil , former contributor to The Blue Voice, now addressing political issues on Neil's Journal. Sanity found! Coming from very different perspectives, I totally agree with his line:

"I have been cursing the darkness for too long, and find that nobody at the extremes has any intention (let alone ability) to light a candle."

Here's to LIGHTING MORE CANDLES!! Thank you, Neil!

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8:14:26 PM CDT

OK, I've been out of the blogging scene for awhile. But today I read a syndicated column in our local newspaper that rekindled the old fire. Here it is (then I'll copy-and-paste my reply in as a comment):

Hey, you moderates: Move over, make sense, get real

Americans love their angry moderates, their principled centrists and their predictable independents almost as much as they love jumbo shrimp and other oxymorons. Indeed, the ranks of Americans who call themselves "independent" swell with every passing year. Self-appointed guardians of our national "discourse," led by the pontiff of pacific politics, David Broder, constantly disparage partisanship, ideology and, most of all, "extremism" as inherently bad.

This hatred of extremism is a bit odd. Nowhere else in life do we think extremism is inherently bad regardless of context. When doctors use "extreme measures" to save a life, we don't tar the surgeon as an "extremist."

Meanwhile, the moderate or middling thing to do is often morally and intellectually indefensible. A surgeon who agrees to work on a patient for three hours but no more — because that would be extreme — is negligent. Refusing to perform "radical surgery" for fear of being an extremist is criminally childish. In other words, sometimes the "extreme" thing to do is also the right thing to do.

Consider the current immigration debate. The Senate version of the immigration bill calls for a three-tier system for illegal immigrants. If you've been here for fewer than two years, you've got to go. If you've been here for two to five years, you'd have to leave briefly at a convenient time and sign up for the guest-worker program. Those here for more than five years could get citizenship. It's a perfectly centrist, middle-of-the-road solution. Everybody gets something. And, quite simply, it's idiotic.

"You can see how it has the earmarks of a political compromise," former Immigration and Naturalization Service Director Doris Meissner told NPR, "but from an implementation standpoint, it's essentially unworkable."

Almost by definition, illegal immigrants don't create a paper trail when they come into the country. Hence, proving how long they've resided here presents a real challenge. It also creates massive opportunities for fraud and opens the door to a truly extreme bureaucratic expansion where immigration officials will have to study everythingfrom ATM receipts to soccer team photos to figure out how long each immigrant has been here.

The extreme liberal position of blanket amnesty and the extreme conservative position of blanket enforcement both make a lot more sense intellectually and practically.

Radicals make more sense: This sort of thing is typical across the political landscape. Personally, I believe the radical remedy of privatizing health care in this country makes a lot of sense. But, I'm also inclined to believe that the left's extreme solution of government-run health care — or "single-payer" — has a lot more going for it intellectually than the crazy-quilt of regulations and grotesquely distorted markets we have today.

On issue after issue, the left and right get into a tug-of-war over their preferred policy solutions. And politicians, extreme people-pleasers that they are, try to split the difference. Some journalists who cover politicians are cynics and assume that true believers are by their very nature suspicious.

Moreover, because politicians and mainstream journalists alike get the most grief from "partisans" of the left and the right, they both assume that the middle is the most enlightened place to be, since they think that's where they are. But compromise is not always the smartest way to go. Leaping a canyon in one jump may or may not be stupidly extreme, but it's a hell of lot smarter than the more moderate approach of trying to leap it in two jumps.

Lest I seem too bipartisan myself here, it should be noted that the bias against extremism is not a purely centrist phenomenon. It comes in large part from a sustained liberal campaign against conservatives.

The most famous illustration of this is probably Barry Goldwater's perfectly sensible declaration that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. But for a generation of liberals, extremism was something to be found only on the right, never on the left, and Goldwater's observation was taken as code for extremism liberals don't like.

Polarizing moderates: Paladins of bipartisan moderation may not realize how responsible they are for today's polarized climate. In America, it is impossible to gain traction on an idea unless you first assure everyone that it's not "extreme" or "radical." Assurances that "this is a moderate, centrist reform," and that "this is mainstream," proliferate whenever a policy isput forward. There's a deep cynicism in the assumption that Americans will agree only to things that aren't too inconvenient. But, more important, there's a profound dishonesty to such assurances, which inevitably cause people with opposing views to get very, very angry.

For example, legalizing gay marriage may or may not be a moral imperative. But when you tell opponents that doing so is not only no big deal, but also that those who disagree are extremists for disagreeing, it's insulting. And when pro-legalization activists refer to gay marriage as "landmark," "revolutionary" and "historic" to their own side while selling it to the rest of America as a modest reform, it's hard not to assume some bad faith.

In short, extremism in pursuit of moderation is not necessarily a virtue.

Goldberg lives in Washington and is a syndicated columnist. E-mail him at JonahsColumn@aol.com.

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11:11:44 AM CST
Feeling Hopeful

The very last sentence in John Avlon's book, Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics, is:

"Centrists choose to view America not in terms of group affiliation, but as a diverse collection of individuals working in concert, restoring a sense of perspective, and recognizing that what we share as Americans is far greater than what divides us."

I can't think of a better way to sum up his book, and Mark Satin's The Radical Middle. Together with the very inspiring Centrist bloggers who drove me to read these two books, I have found my "center" and am realistically hopeful about the potential to bring some positive direction to the negative cesspool of overwhelming challenges currently facing America and the world-at-large.

Avlon's book provided some fascinating insights to Centrist American leaders of the past; both historical and surprising aspects of modern politicians I never appreciated, including both successes and failures; and including Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. It showed what has worked and what hasn't, in bringing sanity back to the destructive effects of the polarized politics of extremists. The 27 page Introduction is, in itself, an essay in understanding and encouragement for the future.

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4:16:16 PM CST
Feeling Hopeful

Alan Stewart Carl, at his new blog Maverick Views, just posted a very encouraging entry, Centrist/Independent Blogs on the Rise. But will it really make a difference in '06 and '08? I've found significant intellectual comfort at many "Centrist blogs." For me, they bring sanity and hope to our perversely polarized political environment (what Carl calls the "left-right echo chamber"), and the onslaught of main stream media frenzy. But I'm haunted by the general impotency of historically "independent" movements. How do we make a real impact on the establishment, to turn the tide and powerful inertia of the destructive extremism and blame-and-justify modes of "politics-as-usual?" With the crushing failure of government at all levels with various crises, both natural and man-made, including healthcare, education and the environment, I'm convinced Centrism is the only hope. And as "free market" oriented as I am, the shame of corporate abuses and corruption is hard to swallow. Where is the balance?

Though I'm inspired by the Centrist bloggers, I yearn for a sense of influential power. I've just started Mark Satin's book, The Radical Middle. It was published in 2004 before the election. Here's a key excerpt:

Politics is stuck in America today. We need to break through the stale debates and self-serving non-solutions that are coming from both political parties, and we need to do it without ending up at the"mushy middle," whee there's no direction or principle.

That's where the radical middle comes in.

The radical middle is an attempt to break out of that stuckness in a fresh and principled way. It consists of everyone who's bold and yet savvy enough to want idealism without illusions -- a fresh and hopeful vision that doesn't fall into the trap, as many leftists do, of looking back to chestnuts from the counter-culture of the Sixties and Seventies, such as socialist economics or neo-anarchist democracy or a wildly optimistic view of human nature.

The radical middle looks to the present and future. It says we live in a new era dominated by high technology and "knowledge work" and disappearing borders, and we need a politics that's appropriate for our new time. A politics that's "radical" in the sense that it addresses fundamental public policy issues in ways that are honest and imaginative and creative -- but "middle" in the sense that it doesn't aspire to overthrow corporate capitalism or representative democracy. It is committed to finding practical, humane, and thoroughgoing answers to the very real problems of American institutions and corporate capitalism.

Call it the experienced person's alternative to politics-as-usual and bitter street protest.

Its advocates tend to be subtle and imaginative, rational and creative, sensible and forward-looking, pragmatic and visionary. "Balance" is not a wimp-word to those at the radical middle: On the contrary, it can be high praise (my emphasis).

The radical middle movement is phenomenally diverse. But when you look at what everyone who might be called radical middle is saying and doing, you'll discover we share four goals. I like to call them our Four Key Values:

1. maximize choices for every American (and for the U.S. as a whole) as much as possible;

2. guarantee a fair start in life to every American;

3. maximize every American's human potential as much as possible;

4. be of genuine help to everyone in the developing world.

OK, I'm a believer. New York Sun columnist and author of Independent Nation (my next book), calls it a "self propelled, grass roots movement." Approximately two years has passed since The Radical Middle and Independent Nation were published. I know these things take time, but real impact on the establishment by a grass roots movement is a classic challenge. As a "disgruntled former moderate conservative," what can I do to help take a movement (certainly implies at least some potential power) to the next level of influence?

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7:53:24 PM CST
Feeling Quiet

I've been reflecting on what my few months of dabbling in the blogosphere really means to me. First, some discoveries have been stimulating. I can understand the potentially addictive nature of "tuning in" to some current debate. I've been impressed with the mind-stretching quality of some discussions; the commitment and entertaining styles of some authors...some of it either beyond my interest or over my head. Either way, I vacilate between inspiration and glazed eyes and brain. But it's a fascinating journey, totally within my control. I go where I want to go, and react privately, or occasionally stick my anonymous oar in the water.

A small piece of me would be thrilled to draw a crowd and stimulate a healthy debate. But fortunately, it's not that important to me....fortunate, since I probably don't have the "right stuff" to make that happen anyway. I have some satisfaction that I can open my mind enough to seek out and gain real enlightenment. That provides value through encouragement relative to my starting point. I am not alone, and there are intelligent and articulate people who do care. I've found some comfort in the current state of "centrism," with some reason for hope that there may actually be some positive influence in current affairs.

So, my blogging can adequately serve a couple of limited purposes: First, it's basically a private "diary" of whatever rambling thoughts and references that I care to record, whenever I feel the urge and take the time, if only for the reason that writing it down helps me clarify my own thinking. I guess that qualifies as a "journal." And I say "private" since attracting readers and commenters isn't a realistic goal for me..........though I welcome and appreciate anyone who cares to join my one blueneighbor friend. I've seen even the most unbelievably prolific authors (some must do this full-time?!?!) burn out and require recesses, or even shifting to fresh individual or group blogs.

Second, the "Other Journals" list of links to blogs I've found interesting is a great clearing house for my own quick searches. For most, their list seemed to be a great reference for surfers "passing through." But even without the surfers, it provides a value for me.

One example of an author I find fascinating is Alan Stewart Carl. I first discovered him at the Yellow Line, but he recently had a "rebirth" with a new individual blog: Maverick Views. I really like his initial Entry on January 2nd: A New Year. A New Blog. He sounds pretty solid to me (for such a youngster!).

One disappointment has been my total inability to catch the interest of ANY of my own network. They certainly weren't my "target," in fact, I wanted to stretch my boundaries. But it's a surprise and a puzzle to me that NONE of my network seems willing to even explore the blogosphere. Nearly all are historically various shades of "conservative" colors, mostly computer/internet literate, and of course somewhere in their 50s/60s. At first I just thought it was some inordinate fear of being discovered. But except for a couple of very meager trials, I completely failed to get them to even do some blog-surfing. I guess they weren't such "like minds" after all!! I hope not as "closed" as it appears.

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