Some modest suggestions

1. If you are an independent--by which I mean that you are not formally affiliated with either the Democratic or the Republican party--reconsider. I assume you are independent because you are fed-up with the candidates that the parties put forward, or the extremity of the positions they seem to take. If that is the case, then you are part of the problem. If your are not in a political party then you have surrendered to the very forces that create the polarization that grieves you.

So join one of the parties, vote in primaries for candidates that represent the moderate views of the 80 percent of party-members who tend to ignore primaries, instead of the 20 percent of "base" voters (read crazies on the right, or left) that do vote in primaries.

2. Next time some hack copies a party's talking points, calls it journalism, and hopes you won't challenge the underlying assumptions, disappoint the lazy SOB. Next time some talk show host's guest spouts crap about job-killing tax increases, or job-killing government health care takeover, demand of that network that the host do his or her job and challenge the statement. How will closing tax loopholes of oil companies kill jobs? How does it help the economy to incentivize--through the tax-code--U.S. based multi-nationals to move jobs overseas? And, how--in either case--do those qualify as tax increases. How does it hurt auto-manufacturers in Detroit to reduce the amount they have to pay out in health care premiums for employees by more intelligent and centralized management of health insurance programs? In an age where we worry about pandemic flu and biological agents in the hands of terrorists, does it make any sense to not have robust, well-funded, public health systems and primary care clinics available to all? If that is socialism, then what are police and fire departments?

More suggestions to follow