Stanford University’s Morris Fiorina, in the book “Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America” (Longman, 2004) demonstrated that while party operatives and the media want to split America starkly into “red” and “blue,” most Americans — and states — are actually shades of “purple.”

Even on abortion, the hottest of hot buttons, voters generally take a middle ground, keeping Roe v. Wade but also requiring parental consent and restrictions on late-term abortions.

On gay rights, polls show that voters oppose gay marriage by roughly 60 percent to 40 percent but are evenly split on civil unions and on a gay-marriage constitutional amendment. A majority now views homosexuality as an “acceptable lifestyle” — up 20 percent in the past 20 years.

According to the University of Michigan's American National Election Study, only 33 percent of voters identified themselves as “strong partisans” in 2004. Twenty-eight percent said they were “weak partisans,” 29 percent “lean independent” and 10 percent were “independent or apolitical.”

That’s a good base to start with. Maybe Unity08 can sound the call for action.

Morton Kondracke is executive editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill.