Q: What's your favorite phrase in American politics?

A: "The pursuit of happiness." We like the wishfulness of it. It suggests that, however you define it, your happiness can only be pursued. It can't be guaranteed-by government, business, nature, art, love, a god, a revolution or anything else.

Q: When you say you're VAGUE, do you mean like Brit P.M. Tony Blair? He coined the phrase "permanent revisionism" to describe his new, ever-flexible, anti-ideological politics.

A: No. We like some flexibility in a leader, but reeds in the wind, as we have seen here, bend to the strongest hurricane in town. That makes us nervous.

Q: So, you stand for the powerless against the powerful?

A: No. We don't say that Might and Right can't marry: We've seen them do it often. It's just that, in the odd event that they divorce, we want people to be able to choose whose house to live in.

Q: So what DO you call your position?

A: Picnic Pluralism. It implies that there are many different kinds of potato salad at the feast, and many different kinds of ants competing with everyone for it. Picnic Pluralism on the Internet means listening to many voices and trying to figure out which policies best deliver what people desire in common.

Q: And are there any things that people desire in common?

A: Well, freedom, prosperity, a fair shot (if not a guaranteed win), a share of power in trade for shouldering a share of responsibilities, and, most of all, some wiggle room, a corner safe from the mob, the boss, the state, the people who ring your bell while you're washing your hair to give you a copy of The Watchtower. Oh, and freedom from spam.

Q: So in terms of Left and Right, your position is...?