A new survey from the Center for American Progress indicates that consensus levels of American voters strongly agree that our politics should be informed by both sound science and our faith, and that cheif among Amerivan values is respect for the individual. When asked what was the most significant moral crisis facing the country, ranking dead last, at a paltry four percent, was "abortion and homosexuality" the social conservative mantra upon which extreme ideologues hold the GOP, and real progress on other issues of the day, hostage.

Yet there are lonely Republican voices warning the GOP against the base politics that attempt to satisfy social conservatives and their anti-choice, anti-contraception, intolerant agenda.

"By a greater than 2-to-1 margin (46 percent to 21 percent), independents say they prefer Democratic control of the House," writes Sarah Chamberlain Resnik of the Republican Mainstreet Partnership in an opinion piece entitled For the GOP, a Base Hit Isn't Enough.

While moderate Republicans try to keep social conservatives limited to a base hit, Senator Hillary Clinton was hitting home runs. "Let us unite around a common goal of reducing the amount of abortions," the senator said. "Not by making them illegal as many are attempting to do, or overturning Roe v. Wade and undermining the constitutional protections that decision provided, but by preventing unintended pregnancies in the first place through education, contraception, accessible health care and services, empowering women to make decisions." Senator Clinton made these remarks at a conference held by the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association.

Senator Clinton may be joined by several new moderate voices in the Senate next year as Democrats are feeling good about strong candidates emerging from primaries around the country. Jim Webb in Virginia and Jon Tester in Montana have buoyed partisan spirits of defeating incumbents and rumors of a defection by Senator Joe Liberman continue to swirl as his primary opponent Ned Lamont gains ground in the polls. Lieberman's detractors claim he suffers the same plight as many social conservatives, over-reaching on ideology, kissing up to the President, and forgetting that democracy ultimately is about the many, not the few.

Each in its own way, the survey about American values, moderates in the GOP asserting a call to action against Rove's broken record appealing to base-instincts, Senator Clinton's role in properly asserting common sense into the family planning debate, and these interesting early primary developments all point to one unmistakeable conclusion — moderate America is waking up, and regardless of party, extremism is waning.