The State of the Union adress, hope rekindled.

I'd like to add my two cents about the State of the Union speech. I am surprised that I am hopeful still the day after the adress. Obama created a different kind of hope for a different vision than during his candidacy. His speech, along with Paul Ryan's response, gave me legitimate hope for a moderating of American politics.

The way I feel about my politics is such; Yes I ascribe to a certain political theory, ie liberal or conservative or socialist or communist or tea partyist. Yes, in an ideal world I would get everything I want. But our world is not ideal, our system is not ideal, and our ideals are not ideal. Nothing/no one is perfect. By accepting this it is easy to take a step towards personal political moderation. 
The next step for we the people is to infuse our state and national legislatures with similarly moderation minded representatives. That may mean voting for someone you don't always agree with or, instead of voting for candidates based on party, voting based on the candidates moderate v partisan views. Personally, I would rather vote for someone who sees the value in compromise and knows how to be a mature adult and work with people they disagree with than a partisan Democrat or Republican who believes it's their way or the highway.

I know I am not alone in this thinking. And while we probably disagree on some things, I hope some of my thoughts reverberated with some of yours. Moderation is the new school of American politics. The pendulum is swinging back towards valuing sensibility over bigotry, agonism over antagonism, actually-doing-something-about-huge-issues-ism over arguing-all-day-because-then-we-don't-have-to-adress-the-tough-issues-ism.