I worked hard to help elect President Obama. I believe he will be a terrific President because he understands that change means listening and compromise, not political posturing. The way forward is almost always up the middle. I look forward to helping the President find that way forward on health care, energy, and our struggling economy. The left and the right shouting at each other hasn’t gotten much done. Red vs Blue hasn’t been very successful either.

I always try to be an independent voice for Missouri. I evaluate every issue, not as a party vote, but as a policy vote.  There is nothing about the group of moderate Democrats that undermines President Obama. Just the opposite, I believe we can help bring people together around good policy and get away from some of the nasty partisan food fights that have blocked real progress for so long.

–Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) on her blog

With all due respect to the good Senator, the middle of the road actually leads nowhere.

Throughout history, whether we got into deep trouble or reshaped the world for the good of all, lasting accomplishments rarely come from the center, in fact. The center almost always leads to ineffectual half-measures, baby-steps that are easily reversed, costly delays and the pervasive sense that government is inefficient and ineffective.

Whether you regard changes as good or bad, they most often come from the commitment of principled activists who pursue what they believe to be right and who risk their standing to fight for it, without compromise.

There were plenty of people who believed that compromise with King George was preferable to rebellion. There were plenty who knew that a country could prosper half-slave and half-free, who were certain that a mixture of government spending, tax increases and balanced budgets could reverse the Great Depression, that compromise and concession could prevent a World War. There certainly were plenty of people who thought small steady steps could eventually achieve full civil rights for minorities. We know how those things turned out.

More recently, conservatives have won massive tax cuts that changed wealth distribution in this country for a whole generation, nearly destroyed the labor movement, significantly reduced environmental protections and eroded our civil liberties. Like me, you may despise them for it, but they didn’t get there by compromise.

The middlke road does have one virtue – which may be why politicians and those who rule the village inside the beltway so  long for bipartisanship and centrism. It buttresses the status quo, extends the careers of politicians, and maintains the entitlements of those who run Washington.

Those who fight for what they believe risk their status and their position. If they’re wrong, if they’re out of step, they pay the price. (Just ask the GOP leadership). But more than that, they also run the risk of success, and for those whose status and perks depend on things staying the same, that’s the scariest prospect of all.

David Broder’s latest homage to the holy temple of bipartisanship, graces today’s WashPost with the sentiment that we’ll be better off if President Obama listens not to those who tell him that bipartisanship won’t work, but to Mr. Broder, who knows, that if he just thinks happy thoughts and claps his hands, bipartisanship will solve all our problems.

Broder notes that Harry Truman succeeded with a Republican Congress to implement the Marshall Plan, and that Lyndon Johnson allied himself with Sen. Everett Dirksen, a Republican, to pass civil rights legislation — just two examples of what” Broder nation” would look like.

These are, of course, great examples of bipartisanship. And, at the same time, they point up perfectly why President Obama won’t be able to follow their example in the foreseeable  future.

When Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson were working their magic, the Republican party was a pretty heterogeneous organization, made up of pro-business but otherwise liberal or moderate Northeastern lawmakers, socially conservative but somewhat populist midwesterners, and a smattering of constitutional purists and others. Think Dirksen, Percy, Brooke, Rockefeller, Lindsay, etc. The true believers, the arch conservative, states-rights, obstructionist filibusterers were Democrats from the south.

To pass anything resembling progressive legislation required a coalition of progressive Republicans and Democrats to unite against the great southern conservatve Democratic block — especially in the Senate, but also in the House where those same long-serving gents held most of the positions of power by seniority. Almost by definition, in these circumstances, every piece of significant legislation had to be bipartisan.

The situation today? The GOP is monolithic. It has driven out anything even resembling nonconformity. In Congress, the GOP votes as a solid block in whatever way a small group of ideologues order it to vote. The obstructionist southern Democrats of yore simply switched parties and drove out anyone who disagreed with them.

Far from being the liberal party they’re frequently portrayed to be, Democrats now include many who in another era would be Republicans — pro-business, pro-civil rights, moderates and balanced-budget conservatives, for example.

Mr. Broder, please note: Any legislation that gets a large majority of Democratic Party members’ support IS bipartisan in the sense that you’re recalling with regard to Truman and Johnson. The problem is that, for now, the ideologues and obstructionists have gathered in the GOP corner and sent all the moderates to the other side of the room.

In this climate, President Obama already has won a major bipartisan victory.