Why the heck am I starting a Blog? I'm a little surprised that I am. By nature I'm what you might call "anti-trendy", even "contrarian," so why would I join the overstocked realm of bloggers? I guess it comes from a lack of other good options. I have figured out, belatedly, that I care a lot about questions of politics but probably like most of my contemporaries who came through the Watergate era (yea, I'm 51) I'm pretty jaded about the regular partisan political scene. I haven't found any other palatable way to engage - so here I am - writing off into cyberspace.

I think I have always wanted to vote FOR some candidate that I believed in, but I can't remember an election where I wasn't just voting AGAINST some option that was worse than the other. I used to think I was apathetic, but in fact I'm not - I'm just put off by the realities of how politics tend to work and I'm guessing that is the case for many other people.

Here is my "Savage Theory of Politics:"

• People are mostly focused on living their own lives - on their family, their work, their interests
• What most people want from their government is preservation of the conditions that allow them to do the above with minimal disruption
• Unless there is some big problem, most people are not that focused on political issues
• Thus, politics tend to be driven by the much smaller proportion of the population that has strong beliefs and is highly motivated to engage the process
• Particularly with our primary system, the candidates that can do well at a time when only the most politically active voters are engaged end up being relatively unattractive to the more moderate folk who then might or might not even engage in the actual election
• Thus politics tend to be dominated by extremists for whom things are "black and white" or by those who have figured out that there are financial or power gains to be had by gaming the system

This isn't a good situation, but frankly when have you heard about someone being "passionately moderate?" Well, maybe more of us should be and that is what I am going to try to do.

The truth is that "The World is Gray." Very few issues are really "Black and White." The world is probably better off because there are highly motivated, "true believers" who do see in black and white because they stir things up, but there is a great need for people who can weigh the arguments from the strident voices and come to practical compromise positions that can really work. Sometimes our political process gets there, but not as often or as efficiently as one would hope.

Just look at the "Immigration Reform" argument that is raging today. Here is an issue that we have failed to rationally and morally address for decades. It is getting lots of attention now and lots of really stupid things are being said, but chances are it will just slip back into non-action once the mid-term elections are over. Thats just one of many issues that cry out for solutions that need to come from the "center", not the extremes.

So here goes an effort to start a conversation from a passionately moderate position. If it is just an outlet for one frustrated person it will clearly be meaningless. My hope would be to have ideas challenged and refined by discussion with others. So this is an experiment to see if that is the way that things work in the world today. Its a little strange to be addressing this to ... I don't know, but I look forward to the possibility of meeting you anyway!

Steve Savage, a passionate moderate