Pete Abel wrote a wonderful post at his own blog Central Sanity; called “A Centrist Foundation for the New Year”The intro:

In the last couple months, I’ve encountered a number of partisan voices who attempt to demonize independents, moderates, and centrists, calling us a range of names, from soft to undefined, from unprincipled to unorganized, naïve, and ineffective. Worse: The more we hold the middle ground, extolling the virtues of compromise as a path to productive solutions, the more agitated the partisans become.

I don’t expect to change their minds or write anything that will cause them to suddenly drop their distaste for us. But if, like me, you occasionally wonder if they might just have a point, if maybe we are too soft or too idealistic or too unprincipled, I hope the following mini-memoir of my journey, from hardcore Republican/Libertarian to moderate Independent/Progressive, helps reinvigorate your commitment to our evolving cause.

The last paragraphs:

My hope for the new year is that, the next time hysterical partisans cause us to question our commitment to centrist solutions, we remember two things.

1. Gridlock is the partisan’s playground, the consequence of people who refuse to define what they can live without.

2. To break gridlock, to make progress, every citizen and public official must eventually sacrifice partisan ideologies and principles and embrace some level of independent, centrist, moderate thinking.

And if those points don’t reassure you, then I hope you’ll recall the words of some of the most widely respected U.S. presidents, cited in John Avlon’s Independent Nation.

Teddy Roosevelt: “I have to carefully guard myself against the extremists of both sides.”

Harry Truman: “… partisanship must end at the water’s edge.”

Dwight Eisenhower: “… extremes to the right and left of any political dispute are always wrong.”

Bill Clinton: “… when we put aside partisanship, embrace the best ideas regardless of where they come from and work for principled compromise, we can move America not left or right, but forward.”

The entire post is a long, but fascinating read.