If you have read a few of my articles, you will see that I believe that the best most successful society is one that can achieve equilibrium between competing forces. When a society tips too far to one political/economic system, an oligarchy arises that will gather power unto itself, to the detriment of the society as a whole.

How a society can achieve this balance is the question. I believe that a major contributing factor to the success of America in the 20th century was it's ability to achieve this balance among competing forces. But now it seems like we are losing this balance. Gone are the days of political compromise when Americans would put aside their differences to achieve a goal. The competing forces of Conservative/Capitalist versus Progressive/Marxist are pulling our society apart. This battle between opposites is like two spinning weights connected by a thin rubber band. The moderate conservatives and moderate liberals are the rubber band that once held the two sides together. It feels like this rubber band is getting stretched thinner and thinner and may not be able to hold on much longer.

The reason for this problem is money and exposure. On the left you have billionaire donors, millionaire celebratities, and highly motivated activist groups like MoveOn.org. On the right you have large corporations, rich CEOs, and fundamental Christian groups. But who represents the middle? There are no organizations for moderation and compromise. And nobody in politics pays attention to the average citizen unless they are out protesting. But this doesn't happen because the average citizen is too busy working, or raising a family to take the time to be heard.

The only time the moderates are given any attention is during elections when all the politicians pretend to be moderates. After the election, they forget about compromise and moderation and go to work for the people who paid for their election. We need to get the politicians out of the pockets of the big money extremist. We need campaign finance reform.

Many Americans hope for a more rational third party to appear and right the ship. But I don't know if this could happen. Is it possible to create a coalition of moderate liberal and moderate conservatives? In todays political climate that does not seem possible. Hopefully we can get reasonable people from both sides of the political spectrum to come together and stop this caustic battle between the political extremist.

- Thomas Paine 2

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