A Word From Our Sponsor
I have let some time pass since I last weighed in on the front page as the “conscience” of our little community. Having returned from a short trip to New York to find my inbox brimming with comments about things that went on in my absence, I am feeling like this is a good time to log a brief return to that role.

First of all, I want to welcome the new contributors who have done a great deal to liven the place up in the last few weeks. Your contributions are valued. I also want to thank everyone for how diligently we have stuck to keeping our jousting off the front page.

Overall, I have been very pleased with the way that the site is growing, especially since there were days just a few weeks ago when I felt certain that this little experiment was over. I continue to be troubled, however, by the tenor of some of the discussions. I can also say, based on some conversations that I had in New York and the content of some emails I have received recently, that others are bothered as well.

Before I go any further I need to offer up an apology for some poor judgment of my own. In a response to a post by Rogue Agent I behaved like a stupid bore, and I apologize to him and to the community for doing so. Please accept this evening’s entry as notice of my commitment to work harder to keep things civil around here.

This brings me to the point at hand. As I have written before, I created this site to see if it was possible for a group of intelligent, well-meaning citizen’s to reach across the political divide and, at the very least, find a way to respect each other’s point of view. Thus far, my query has been answered with a resounding no. Well, I am not yet ready to give up.

The discourse on this site has been largely dominated by four of us. At the risk of oversimplifying, I think that we spread out fairly well across the spectrum of politically engaged individuals in this country. Sarge comes down solidly on the right. His Catholic faith informs a great deal of his thinking. Cyetain comes down just as solidly on the left. Dani often comes down on the same side of an issue as Sarge does, but, unless I am reading things wrong, Dani’s thinking is informed in part by his libertarian leanings and in part by a strong sense of what used to be called “real politic.” My extreme displeasure with the Bush administration has lately driven me into alignment with Cyetain, and in fact, caused me to switch my party registration from the Republican to the Democratic column this past October, after a period of 10 years in which I was registered Republican and voted for numerous Republicans at the local, state and national level. Were it not for the Iraq war, I would join Sarge and Dani in preferring the aggressive, preemptive approach to the war on terror preferred by Republicans.

It is no surprise, then, that the four of us have butted heads more than we have agreed. This was to be expected. What bothers me, and many others, is how often we have allowed the conversation to dip into base and meaningless invective. If this experiment is going to continue, and I hope it will, than the four of us must make a commitment to the site’s purpose. Perhaps the fault for the current state of things lies with me, in that I may not have been clear enough in my intention for the site. Any lack of clarity should be cleared up by this post.
This community is neither liberal nor conservative. As such, no one who takes the time to present a reasoned argument of a heartfelt position can be considered a troll. If you are looking for a community in which your posts will only be read by others who share your political persuasion, there are plenty of those around and I suggest that you go register at one of them.

Last night I had a conversation with a friend who reminded me of what I had hoped for this site. “I kind of liked Sarge’s abortion matrix,” said this decidedly pro-choice friend of mine, “It made a lot of sense on a certain level. For a minute there I almost became pro-life.” My friend was kidding, of course, but the point for me was that someone had actually had the opportunity to assess an opposing view point deeply enough to make them think about their own.

With a few small changes I believe that we can effect a major change in the tenor of the site. I am hoping that I am getting my point across here without getting into specifics. I have neither the time nor the inclination to police this site, but I also have no intention of continuing to provide a platform for people I respect to disrespect each other.
- posted by Simon Marcus @ Thursday, February 17, 2005