from the maelstrom, a way forward?

Conservatives are abandoning the increasingly reckless McCain/Palin ticket with, well, reckless abandon. George Will, David Brooks, Kathleen Parker, David Frum, Christopher Buckley (son of conservative icon William F. Buckley), among others, have all come out in recent weeks to denounce the selection of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate and/or the recent ugly attacks on Senator Obama. A battle between the social conservatives and intellectual conservatives threatens to divide the Republican Party in the runup to November 4.

In the midst of their own maelstrom, seeing the writing on the wall, many conservatives are now trying to panic voters with premonitions that their (their as in the conservatives') worst fear is about to be realized - socialism is at the gates! Democrats will bring big government! Spending! Higher Taxes! The New Deal 2.0 is upon us! With their dying gasp, and collapsing under the weight of the largest expansion of government in the last forty years (brought to us by a Republican President), they are warning us against evil, big government Democrats.

Deep breath, everyone (if you still can, that is). In the mind of at least this progressive, I have no desire to nationalize our country's banks. At least not permanently. As an omnivore, I am not opposed to hunting or gun-owning hunters. If a woman can't decide after six months (and her health, including mental, is not in jeopardy), I think she should go ahead and have the kid. I believe in free and fair trade and in competition - in business and in schools. I want an efficient government that doesn't interfere with my private life. I have been known to go to church.

I am in favor of short-term government spending to stimulate the economy, but I much prefer a vibrant, market-based economy that yields tax revenues through good jobs at good wages. I want universal healthcare, but I prefer it be supplied by the private sector through fair and transparent competition.

Surely, we can find some common ground.

We have all lived through (or heard about) the swing from an overregulated, overtaxed society (remember rotary dial telephones?) to the current crisis of deregulation, stagnant wages for the middle class and the moral hazzard of golden parachutes. We have all learned lessons.

Like most things, think feminism or free trade, the pendulum swings wildly from one end (no suffrage, chastity belts/Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act) to the other (women need men like fish need bicycles/massive plant closings) before settling in the moderate middle.

I suspect the same will occur with fair banking regulations and universal healthcare. And I believe Senator Obama is just the man to make that happen.

Obama is, at heart, a pragmatist. A man who relies on experts and research, but also on first hand accounts from the people affected. He is not penned in by ideology, which is why many liberals find him frustrating and many conservatives can't launch an effective attack against him.

And, contrary to McCain's attacks, he can take on his own party. After all, he took down the lions of the modern Democratic Party - Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Maybe we can finally look back together, see what has worked and what has not, and then look to the future to make a way forward.