I have hope! I have hope that Rush Limbaugh is an old, aging fad. I have hope that Bill O. will soon be only a memory. I have hope that Ann Coulter can overcome brain death. I have hope that more and more Americans are getting fed up with the name calling, the dirty tricks, as well as the hatred, both real and feigned.

And at least some of this hope is because guys like Cal Thomas and Bob Beckel, one a conservative, the other a liberal, have put what I have been thinking and feeling into a book, “Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America.” They also write a column in USA Today called “Common Ground.”

In this interview Beckel admits that 20 years ago he and Thomas were themselves polarizers. Now, he sees the politics of polarization coming to an end. This doesn’t mean that suddenly everyone will be in agreement. It doesn’t mean changing political philosophy. But ultimately, it should mean a renewed appreciation for discussion and the ability to compromise. Compromise used to be important in American politics until issues came to be viewed in the light of right versus wrong and compromise became a sign of weakness, a sign that your position must not be right because you are compromising. This idea is so much crap and it is killing us.

Who are these polarizers? Bob names names: Tom Delay (No Retreat, No Surrender) on the right, and Harry Reid on the left are two politician examples. But most of them may not be politicians, at least not the elected kind. These are the special interests, the lobbyist, the corporate interests that want to make sure we remain divided so we don’t solve one of our problems: them! Why do you think that when anyone tries to solve the health insurance problem, all you hear is “socialized medicine.” You never hear a proposal to solve the problem because they don’t want the problem solved. The make money as long as it is unsolved.

And then there are the bottom feeders: Ann Coulter, the voice of hate and Michael Moore, who Bob says selectively edits his films to achieve maximum polarization. For these guys, polarization sells and we are the ones buying most of the time.

And then there are the organizations like Dobson’s Focus on the Family, on one side and Move On.Org. on the other. There are many, many more.

And then there are the myths created by the polarizers to prove that we are polarized. Bob’s two examples: Red State vs. Blue State and the Culture War. The media and the political advisors have convinced us that we live in either a red state or a blue state. And yet, Ohio, labeled “red” has a Democrat for Governor and one Democratic Senator. New Hampshire, labeled “red” has a Democratic Governor, a Democratic legislature, and two Republican Senators.

If I live in a “blue” state, I can view Ohio and New Hampshire as being part of the opposition, even though they are clearly not more red than blue.

As for the culture war, where is it? We don’t tote guns in the street like in Iraq. The biggest culture war that most American families are actually aware of is the argument about what to watch on TV.

Some of this problem is our fault. We don’t want to listen for more than a minute or two. We don’t want to hear the other side of an argument. We don’t want to moderate our position or give credit to the opposition for a good idea. We want to be right and we want to be on the winning side. And worst of all, we are the ones who nitpick every word the other side utters, and resent the fact they do the same. How else can you explain the greatest deliberative body in the history of the world, the Congress of the United States, wasting the time to debate a resolution condemning what a free Americans say. I don’t care whether you like Rush or MoveOn, if that is all Congress has got to talk about, they need to find another job.

The Democratic base is maybe 20% of American voters, the Republican base 30%. That leaves half of us somewhere in the middle and the middle will prevail, but only when candidates come forward that give us viable alternatives to the ones committed to polarizing influences. When an actual election results prove that polarization no longer works and will get a candidate defeated, not elected, things will change. I hope 2008 is that election year that we, the middle, take control of America back from the polarizers, from the extremists.

Our job is to make them understand. The only way to do that is to vote. The only way to know who to vote for is to find out about all the candidates (at least more than one) and make an informed decision regarding your choice. Republican, Democrat or Independent, when America votes smart, we will get smart politicians, not tricky ones.