The "need" for moderates is Machiavellian. We cannot offer respect for moderates, because they are, by definition, our sunshine patriots. On our side when they're tired of taxes, and on their side when they need moral convenience. Where is the strength in that?

Conservatives are getting on their feet now. They are learning to speak without the help of the media. They are learning to act, without the help of concerts and tabloid-celebrities.
Sure, they must continue with personal lives that show moderates that we are good people - we're for real. We live under a philosophy that doesn't condone greed, indifference, or hate. If we demonstrate that, the Left will be "left" looking like liars, just like their father.

Our lives should make it obvious to the moderates that the left simply hates us, that they lie about us. And their support will come without us having to compromise. We need to work to make "conservative" take on new meaning. A meaning free of the negativity that the left has been pumping into it since the '60's.

This means learning how to communicate in a sound-bite world. It means knowing how to be firm in an "easy" world. It means knowing how to be a Jedi when the Empire is at its peak. "Do or do not . . . there is no try!" Yoda would definitely have avoided the moderate route.

So, in my opinion, we need to take advice dolled out to a dozen men, thousands of years ago. "Be innocent as doves, and wise as serpents." That's how to win. Clean and smart.

Besides, Machiavelli would have taken sides with the Left. What are we listening to him for?

Brilliantly put, Jeremy.
Summing it up, Solomon wrote, "For in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird: but these lay wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives."
The difference between idealism, and all its moral freedoms, and reality.

Empathy is the catalyst for forgiveness - if you lean to the left.
It allows terrorists to be victims. It allows despots to be allies. It allows racists to be judges.
Simply, it's the formula for exorcising demons, and turning them into angels.
In a perverse twist of what some might say smells of a religion, we can conclude that through the sins of one race and sex, all others have salvation from their own sins - the white male acting as the perpetual sacrifice whose continuing condemnation continues to rise as incense to the god of Empathy.

For fun, I've applied this magic application of Empathy to the white slave-owners of our past, whose unwelcome presence in our history, and abiding condemnation, are the only discernible foundation for the Left in this country.

Take Obama's comments about Sotomayor, change a few words, and we have -

Obama also defended his - friend, Slave-owner Joe -, saying - his economics - were on target even if his exact - hiring practice - was not.
"I think that when - he's - appearing before the Senate committee, in - his - confirmation process, I think all this nonsense that is being spewed out will be revealed for what it is," Obama said in the broadcast interview, clearly aware of how - slavery - issues are taking hold in the debate.
Obama's top spokesman, Robert Gibbs, told reporters about Slave-owner Joe: "I think - he'd say that - his employment - choice in 1801 was poor."

There. All better. Move along . . . move along. All's forgiven. By those who have the empathy to forgive.