Don't wait for me to leap into the breach. I am pretty much over it.
I enjoy this place for different reasons and my participation will always be more or less limited. I am nothing like TB. He is even tempered, I am volatile. He is thick skinned I am less so. He at least claims to try to see both sides and I am totally opinionated and intractable on many of the issues discussed here. Tom is Don Quixote and I am Klatu wishing for Gort.
Most of all, I don't like to hurt feelings and some of the people I care about would get their feelings hurt if I released the hounds, so to speak. And, I would not enjoy the treatment that Tech1 gets for his biting wit. There are still some conservatives here like Rob, Scott and SDG and a few others (they have been pretty scarce around here recently) that might choose to pick up the pace.
As to allowing TB to shoulder all the burden, I seriously doubt that has an iota of relevance in his departure. He relished it until he stopped relishing it, for whatever reasons.
All in all I like the company that I keep with my limited input. Even among the liberals the best are not prolific.