Taking advantage of the privilege of my first posting on this site, allow me to consider the too-often-unasked question of what we should hope to accomplish in this space. Maybe there's a metaphor in this for how best to do common ground politics, but I leave that to your discernment.
OK, so what should we hope to accomplish? Most on-line forums and blogs fail, in my estimation, because they endeavor to organize themselves as free markets of ideas, which is a worrisome model. Taking its inspiration from economic markets, the model of the free market of ideas imagines that success comes from pointed, self-interested competition. In economic markets, proponents tell us that the free and sharp clash of buyers and sellers generates what Adam Smith called invisible hands that work to promote the most stable economic order, the most rapid economic progress, the lowest sustainable prices, the highest quality products, the quickest technological innovation, and in general the happiest consumers and producers. However true such market thinking is in the economic realm (and many have some doubts at the moment), it does not seem that the market model works in regard to ideas. The failure of most public interest blogs is indicative.
Both conservatives on the right and liberals on the left have long criticized the free market of ideas model; and, they're worth considering here. Conservatives insist that the clashes of competition do not generate order and light, but only cacophony and heat. Moreover, they contend, that free markets of ideas do not protect previously accepted agreements but instead constantly contest even the most precious accepted truths. Those on the left claim that markets of ideas do not yield progress but instead, by encouraging people to blow off steam, actually work to undermine impetus for change.
These critiques explain why most blogs, especially public policy blogs, seem to spin in place. So, wanting to succeed in genuinely making progress on common ground initiatives, I want to avoid the free market of ideas model in this venue. Clashes of pure red and pure blue are not wanted. Really. Leave the ideology to ideologues and come to this site with fresh thinking and an honest intention to work across the hoary old battlelines of the culture wars. The decades long stalemate on a host of culture war issues from abortion to same-sex marriage will not be overcome with the tired old talking points. Progress demands getting beyond mere clashing. This forum needs to show, through the success of its discourse, how that might be possible.
I'm a university professor, trained in political science and philosophy. I'm also a Roman Catholic who has no issues with the moral and social teachings of my faith, but who also believes that the public square is not about anyone's religion. I've got ideals and vision, but understand that effective politics is the practice of what's possible. Look to me for pragmatic and common ground considerations of contemporary social and moral issues.
