That's what a lot of readers over at Ambivablog are doing with regard to my posts about Al Gore and Normal USA. I would describe the readers there as open-minded, Andrew-Sullivan Libertarians or maybe postmodern, conservative idealists, for want of any other easy way to describe so diverse a crowd. They are interested in religious questions and they were generally supportive of the Iraq War. They are sincerely interested in finding middle ground in the midst of all the oveheated rhetoric that is coming from the ideological extremists who seem to be getting the most airtime. They are also interested in ideas and good writing, or they wouldn't read Amba's elegant, eloquent, far-ranging posts. They are precisely the kind of people I would like most to enter into a conversation with regarding the issues about which we disagree.
In any event, my posts, from which Amba quoted, touched a nerve in many of her readers, and she has invited me to respond, and I will do so later this week in a guest post on her site that I will cross post here. I'd be interested in what any of the regulars here think about the responses over there as I prepare what I want to say. If you have a moment, read her post here and the comments that follow--maybe they were saying there what you were thinking here.