I call myself a "radical moderate," but mostly I don't like to be fit into boxes. I find most times that neither liberals nor conservatives can figure out what I'm about. The conservatives think I'm a horrible liberal, and the liberals think I'm a traitor to the cause.

I spend most of my time trying to think from the perspectives of other people. In discussion, I like to explore things from as wide a variety of perspectives as possible. I rarely take positions until I have to take action, and this frustrates the hell out of people who are more closely tied to an ideology. And even when I'm in the course of taking an action, I'm apt to stop and reassess from a variety of perspectives. My primary goal is to try to find a meeting point, a place where opposing sides can come together. This isn't a popular goal these days, so it tends to get me in a lot of trouble. But I keep believing that there must be a meeting point.

This Trump phenomenon has me stumped, however. People that I like very much have bought into this position, and I'm finding it very difficult to converse with them - even though I may have found it quite easy to tale with them in the past. Some of them were quite progressive at one time, but now it's like they're zombies, controlled by the Mind of Trump. They get very nervous in the presence of questioning or conflicting ideas, or even when I ask them for explanation of their thinking.

In many situations, I refuse to take a stance. That makes people very nervous, and they don't know whether they can trust me because they're not assured that I am on "their side." It's kinda like when I go into a store, and the sales person asks if they can help and I respond, "No, thanks, I'm just looking around." And then they think I'm casing the joint to shoplift or something, so they tail me nervously from a distance.

But I just keep looking around and exploring various perspectives, and people get very impatient with me and keep waiting for me to make a decision and take a stand. But I don't.

-Joe-