Since this is my first ever post at RedState, I thought I’d introduce myself and explain why I just joined this site. I believe that we may be standing at a historic crossroads in American history, and that for the next 4 or 8–or conceivably even 16 or 20–years, sites like this one may be the only places where non-approved news and views may be exchanged. I hope I’m wrong, but I have a sad feeling I’m not. I don’t believe the polls–no sane person would, any more than they’d believe medical studies financed by cigarette companies–but at the moment there exists the very real possibility that John McCain may win the popular vote and still lose the electoral.In which case, Barrack Obama will be our next president. And in conjunction with a filibuster-proof Democrat Congress, a new New Deal will rule all our lives for the foreseeable future. Along with a mass media that has attempted, in the best traditions of the Bolsheviks, to stage a left-wing ‘soft coup’ in American politics–and which has become so extreme and so irresponsible that it can no longer be trusted to correctly report even the weather.

Now, I’d like to say a few words about myself and my own politics. I’m a lifelong centrist Democrat, what used to be called a “Scoop Jackson” Democrat, who is now an independent. What this means is that I’m fine with gay marriage and believe in a woman’s right to choose, but support our wars, our troops, and all measures to root out terrorism. Period. What it also means is that I’m an advocate of free markets and dislike socialism. I grew up half in Europe in the 60s and have lived there as an adult, too–and I hated the ‘nanny state’ then, just as I hate it now. But if the polls are even half-right, that’s where we’re headed. And while individual components of that package may seem necessary at the time (like bank bailouts) or even attractive (like day-care credits), the total package will be harmful and potentially even irreversible.

So I’m not a conservative. But I’m no liberal either. And there aren’t many sites left where a moderate or centrist like me can speak his mind without being shouted down. Certainly ‘The Moderate Voice’ is anything but. So I’ve come to join you here at this dark time, to sit at this Resturant at the End of the Universe and watch the lights go out, one by one, on American civilization. There may not be much we can do about it–but at least we can still choose the company we keep.

For the time being, anyway.