I grew up a major dittohead, often taping Rush Limbaugh’s show during the day so I could listen to it a second time in the evening. I was a fervent Republican until I was about 26 and then a Democrat for two years after that. But for the last six years I have chosen to live in the tension of the politically unaffiliated. I realized that if someone knew I was a Republican or a Democrat, they would try to pigeonhole me or dismiss my ideas outright because of a party label. Party membership is less important to me than the conversation that was often short-circuited by that membership. Thus you can see that the political agenda I champion, to borrow your language, is one of conversation. There is a great line in the TV show “West Wing” that I’ve always loved: “We’re going to raise the level of public discourse in this country and let that be our legacy.”

Michael Medved is better than most talk radio hosts – from either side of the political spectrum – at keeping the conversation respectful, and he seems to take for granted his audience’s intelligence. I like that. Perhaps that’s why this book has been so frustrating. Medved is obviously brilliant and he is a gifted communicator; I just wish he would trust the readers of this book with more complete and complex (or at least representative) versions of the story. In this respect, chapters one and two are particularly disappointing.