While I was having one of our regular candid lunches with a conservative friend this week, he smiled over his Cobb salad and asked me why I had given up my "values" to seek areas of accommodation with what he regarded as the "socialists". Rather than take the bait and go through the usual litany of why the President is not really a radical, which is what he was after, I aimed for a higher ideal by explaining that the middle-ground is actually a very ethical place to live. Far from being a bunch of intellectual cowards who sway with the popular breeze, we are quite committed to doing the heavy lifting of political decision making by following a dependable and powerful set of criteria:

Keep An Open Mind: Rather than trying to make current facts fit into an established philosophy from the right or left, we consider the evidence from as objective a viewpoint as we reasonably can muster. Things like honesty do not change, but the economy does fluctuate and the solutions to inflation may change as well.

Study The Issues: Put aside the sound bites. Forget the clever slogans. Seek out and actually read the position papers. Check the sources. Take the time to think about what you read and think about the country and whose ideas will serve it best at this time. When you do this properly, people like Michelle Bachman, who didn't think very well, and John Edwards, who did not behave very well, tend to be eliminated.

Do The Right Thing Now: This is never easy because everyone on every side of an issue already believes they are right. Nor do I mean to infer that we are smarter or better than anyone else. However, more often than not, when an issue has evolved so that the public must determine a new course of action that invokes justice and fair play, an informed majority is created by adding the middle-grounders to the count.

Look Beyond Your Own Self-Interest: Sometimes doing the right thing is easy because it fits our preconceived view of what should be done. Sometimes it is the most difficult task of all because it flies in the face of deeply held beliefs or base prejudices ingrained over time. More often, it hits us in the pocketbook and the sting simply is more than we are willing to bear. In fact, justice often walks slowly and the best way to nudge it along is for us to see what benefits the most people in the most beneficial way. We can argue until the cows come home about Obamacare and how to change it, but what was clear, even in 2008, was that the medical system needed attention. There was too much interference by insurance companies between doctors and patients and, in the greatest economy in the world, too many uninsured people. We probably still have a lot of work to do, but a long overdue process has at least begun.

Keep Continuity And Order: When the majority wins a principled election, the tradition of respect for the democratic process has its best opportunity to continue, even when compromise and modification result in less than perfect legislation in state houses and in Congress. Look anywhere in the world where there is no real middle-ground and no respect for the majority and you will find oppressive tyrants, violence, civil war, anarchy and racial cleansing. We may not be able to bring peace to the entire planet, but we should at least continue to be the best and highest example of how a country can deal with its problems and make progress towards solutions that are meaningful, fair, balanced and just.

I had a few more points I wanted to make, but after he promised to give what I said so far some careful consideration, he asked what I thought about RG3's chances of starting on opening day. Then we were off and running, two good Americans, often in conflict but affectionately respectful of the other guy's point of view, debating what some would say is a far less significant issue for the future of the country, but doing what, in many ways, is also what this lovely country and its great people are really all about.