Compromise is good in democracy when it gets the people something, as opposed leaving them with nothing and at the mercy of those who would prey upon them.

I will admit that my viewpoints have changed since I've been blogging, I visit a wide variety of sites, many conservative sites among them.  Where I find myself fighting people there as well.  Maybe I just like to fight.  :-)

One thing that I've come to learn, is that no one is altogether right or wrong, and that none of the issues are black or white, they're all competing shades of gray, a view that most lawyers I'm sure understand.  But it's funny, how much conservatives and liberals in this country have in common, far more than I think most of you realize.  In a way I see the whole liberal, conservative dichotomy as a kind of con, which is designed to keep us fighting among ourselves.  Now perhaps the progressive agenda is more RIGHT and moral most of the time, but demonizing conservatives and refusing to of acknowledge that conservatism has a rightful place in the world, genuine conservatism, not the false pseudo conservatism which has replaced it in much of the Republican Party, a phenomenon which I think the liberal side bears a measure of responsibility for. But I believe it's important to acknowledge the necessity of conservatism, and the need for balance, balance is key.

Marginalizing people and trying to cut them out is never a good thing, and if the progressives or as I would describe many of them these days pseudo progressives gain control of this country and start trying to push things backwards, what you wind up with is an unending cycle, which will be to the detriment of everyone in this country, except a small number of special interest groups who have been making out like bandits at all of our expense, and at the expense of this nation.

The young people who didn't see the 60s, or the 80s, don't really have a frame of reference, but they also have the advantage of not being trapped by those competing times and approaches.

When I look at Obama, I see someone who is striking out in a new direction, and I'm so glad that he is a progressive, a genuine progressive and not a conservative, because what that means is this country will move forward in a more progressive direction.  Perhaps not the direction that many liberals would like, but that was never going to happen anyway, and it certainly wouldn't happen under Clinton or even Edwards, regardless of what they would have us believe. If Obama can achieve the consensus he's talking about, if enough people get behind him, then no one will be able to stand in his way, not the Congress, not the judiciary (that's another point I'd like to address, I have no doubt that Obama will appoint superior judges, he would've made one himself if he had chosen that route) but no one will be able to stand in the way of the People's majority and a president who represents our interests.  That's the vision that I believe Obama has, and is working for in this campaign.

Perhaps the conservatives could produce a leader like Obama, with the same kind of appeal, but today's Republican Party never could, they are to co-opted and corrupted.  I think that Obama's candidacy is going to move the Republican Party in a new direction once these elections are over.  They will be forced to recognize that this country has changed, and will begin producing better quality leaders in response, and the Republicans and their constituency will benefit as well.