Hi J-O,
My concerns are about our country, and the erosion of the middle-class as well as the erosion of civil liberties. As you stated, things are like a pendulum and hopefully they will swing back. A recent poll said 81% of Americans feel this country is on the wrong track. So I am not alone in my concerns.
While we may have different outlooks on some things, I wholeheartedly endorse what you wrote here:
Some of my postings on the forum may come across as dyed-in-the-wool liberal (and add in the fact that I recently came out as atheist -- I must really be off my rocker).
But I am at heart a centrist, or I am really trying to be. I believe that America is like an eagle with two wings -- and it needs both its right and left wing working to fly straight. America has greatly benefited from progressive ideas which got it out of previous centuries' type thinking. However it needs the conservative wing to make sure that the changes the country makes are pragmatic, we can't let government get out of control.
Since the early 1980's the country has shifted right-ward. During much of that time though, there was a counterbalance between the executive and legislative branches. i.e., one being majority Democratic and the other being majority Republican. However in the early part of this decade both the White House and Congress have been controlled by the right, and we've seen the implementation of many neoconservative ideas.
IMHO the country moved so far right, that we now need to veer left to get back to the middle. And that's what we're likely to see during this upcoming presidential election.