Left, Right and Center

I received some good feedback on the MoveOn post. The Petraeus ad and recent Rush Limbaugh verbal diarrhea about "fake soldiers" brings up an interesting question: what is the role of our current political extremes? Some say that we must have one extreme to balance out the other. The self righteous liberal activist yelling on a sidewalk is a counter weight to the self righteous conservative talk show host. If you lose one, the whole scale becomes tilted. Some feel the scale is already severely tilted (from both sides of course).

An even bigger question might be, where is the center? With all the polarizing issues out there like abortion, immigration, war and civil liberties, it becomes difficult to see much common ground sometimes. Can we resolve these issues through compromise from the center or would the center only provide watered down ineffectual policy, and still not represent the majority of Americans? Here's a centrist blog from last year that discusses the need for a central party to emerge:

View From The Center Blog

A 3rd party would most likely form from the center, thereby pushing both current major parties to the extremes. Are the Democrats too progressive or are they already too big of a compromise? The dems could move closer to the center and make room for a legit green or progressive party, but that could push the government farther right altogether.

So where does that leave us, the general citizens and semi-conscious voters? Are the extremists on both sides hurting the political process or are their voices necessary to avoid ineffective politicians? How does the media's spin affect our perception of our values compared to our actual beliefs and is our perception of our values really accurate? (remember the political compass)

Should we all move to the center?