Beelzebub doesn't live here.

Here we go.

Thanks to the ubiquity of, well, ubiquity on the net, you can find any number of definitions for "devil's advocate," including the very pessimistic "someone who takes the worse side just for the sake of argument."

However, I rather like the idea that a devil's advocate is someone who critiques "ideas to ensure that different viewpoints are fully explored."

It is nearly impossible to write politically without your own views seeping in. There are plenty of news outlets that have a hard time with it, and political outlets don't even try. (Although, in fairness to them, that's their job.)

That's what this space is for. If this blog had a mortal enemy, it would be propaganda. Since it's a Presidential campaign year, it's as pervasive as Washington cicadas.

As a disclaimer: I have never been a good party person. I have friends, however, on both sides that do their respective parties a lot of good. Unfortunately, these dear friends of mine, and more like them, have a tendency to forget that there are two sides to each argument. DA is here to remind them.

Someone - and with all due apologies, I can't remember who - recently said that if party activists on both sides would concede simply that the other side is acting in good faith, much of the party nastiness we see today could be dispelled.

That is absolutely true, but it's not going to change anything.