Sean Acqui: "A lot of other bloggers here have expounded on what it means to be a moderate, and on the evils of partisanship, and what's wrong with the current way of doing things.
"Me, I want to talk about the practicalities.
"I strongly believe in the ideal behind Unity08. If we can make moderates a force of their own -- just as conservatives and liberals have become forces within, but separate from, the two major parties -- we can achieve several interrelated objectives. Among them:
"Forcing elected officials to pay attention to moderates, rather than their partisan bases.
"Giving moderate Republicans and Democrats a base of support independent of their party. That will make them less beholden to their party, which should lead to fewer party-line votes and more thoughtful and independent political debate.
"Offering a lever for those moderates to recapture their parties and reestablish the long tradition of 'meet in the middle' that the last 15 years of partisanship have all but erased.
"Reasserting pragmatism over ideology, leading to legislation that thoughtfully addresses complex problems, instead of pursuing oversimplified or actively harmful agendas in order to conform to some predetermined principle."
"2008 pres"
6:44:25 PM 
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