Hey there, hi there, ho there!

Welcome everyone, to my new blog!  My name is Cecily, and I'll be your hostess!  This is a blog beginning its life as a government class assignment, but I have been meaning to start a blog, and hope to continue forward after the class ends.

Politically, I am somewhere in the middle, as the blog title might suggest. I am known to irritate both the far left and the far right in political discussions because I prefer a pragmatic approach that tends to have my stances changing depending on the issue, not so much the predefined left or right position. Many of my more "liberal" stances are fed by a conservative value set, and vice versa on my so-called "conservative" viewpoints. For example, I believe strongly in LGBT rights and equality, but this comes less from a desire to "redefine" or "progress" anything, but more from a perspective that all men (and women) are created equal, and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. I can't think of a more conservative document to allude to, in America, than the Declaration of Independence. America, ever the land of ideas, has also become the land of labels. Left, Right, Republican, Democrat, all are just labels that try to neatly box up complex and crucial issues into all-or-nothing categories.

Personally, I believe that's not how people or politics works. The greater good is not best served by factionalizing and dividing the identity of Americans. To move forward as a nation, we must come together as a people.

My political experience has been varied. I have voted in every national election since 2004, and local and state elections since 2001. I have voted all over the board, really, depending on office and who I felt could best fill positions. Presidentially, I have voted for Libertarian Michael Badnarik in 2004, Democrat Barak Obama in 2008, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein in 2012. I have worked in political polling and demography both at The Gallup Organization and a smaller company called Promark Research. I have volunteered in voter registration drives, worked in student organizations for assorted causes, and worked for nonprofits including Equality Texas and Environment Texas. I participate in several active political discussion groups on Facebook, and I never miss a chance to discuss political issues with others, because political discourse is where Americans can find their voice, and in that voice, power.

I look forward to learning and discussing with my fellow classmates, and anyone else who should happen by.