"...whenever we exaggerate or demonize,, oversimplify or overstate our case, we lose.  Whenever we dumb down the political debate, we lose.  For it's precisely the pursuit of ideological purity, the rigid orthodoxy and the sheer predictability of our current political debate, that keeps us from finding new ways to meet the challenges we face as a country.  It's what keeps us locked in "either/or" thinking:  the notion that we can have only big government or no government; the assumption that we must either tolerate forty-six million without health insurance or embrace 'socialized medicine.'

"It is such doctrinaire thinking and stark partisanship that have turned Americans off of politics.  This is not a problem for the right;  a polarized electorate - or one that easily dismisses both parties because of the nasty, dishonest tone of the debate - works perfectly well for those who seek to chip away at the very idea of government.  After all, a cynical electorate is a self-centered electorate.
"But for those of us who believe that government has a role to play in promoting opportunity and prosperity for all Americans, a polarized electorate isn't good enough."

~ Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope, Crown Publishers, 2006.

"...what has characterized the ideological core of today's GOP is absolutism, not conservatism.  There is the absolutism of the free market, an ideology of no taxes, no regulation, no safety net - indeed, no government beyond what's required to protect private property and provide for the national defense.
"There's the religious absolutism of the Christian right, a movement that gained traction on the undeniably difficult issue of abortion."

"In both the House and the Senate, and in state capitals across the country, there are those who cling to more traditional conservative virtues of temperance and restraint - men and women who recognize that piling up debt to finance tax cuts for the wealthy is irresponsible, that deficit reduction can't take place on the backs of the poor, that the separation of church and state protects the church as well as the state..."