Posted on 04/08/2005 1:50:03 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Can someone please explain to me what a moderate is, in political terms? Most Americans are able to agree on the general attributes of liberals and conservatives, but what constitutes a moderate?
Is a moderate someone who espouses, in relatively equal proportions, both liberal and conservative views, or is the term more indicative of a general attitude than a set of ideological principles?
It just so happens that I know several people who call themselves moderates, and I wouldn't consider any of them to be evenly split ideologically. They are either mostly liberal or mostly conservative, so I can only assume that the term is meant to apply to their demeanors... that is, I WOULD assume such if they weren't just as confrontational and unyielding in their opinions as I am.
Could it be that I too am a moderate, and I just never realized it before?
Okay, you can stop laughing now.
To be honest with you, I've yet to figure out what's so moderate about these folks, but if they say they're moderates, who am I to tell them they're not? After all, I'm lucky if I can make it through the week without someone calling me a radical, right-wing lunatic... and that's just among my immediate family members.
I often hear leftists decry the "extremist" views of right-wingers like myself, and frankly, it irritates the hell out of me, yet I must admit that there's just as many people on the right who have no problem responding in kind. The fundamental differences in ideology which separate the left and the right, tend to breed that sort of rhetoric. So be it.
Of course liberals and conservatives often consider each other to be extreme. That's only natural, because to many people, an extremist is someone whose views are so contrary to their own core beliefs that they cannot even begin to understand the rationale behind them.
Many other people think of extremists as those individuals whose opinions are only held by a small percentage of the population. To them, if a person doesn't agree with the contentions of the overwhelming majority, their views must be extreme.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines an extremist as "one who advocates or resorts to measures beyond the norm." That's all well and good, I suppose, but in this day and age, I can think of few tactics which are not widely accepted by people on both sides of the political fence.
Sure, most people would agree that resorting to violent acts in order to further a political agenda is extreme behavior, but aside from assassination attempts, terrorist acts, riotous demonstrations or open revolution, there is very little that's "beyond the norm" in today's political world.
So how should we define extremism in the year 2005, once the aspect of violent behavior has been removed from the equation? To tell you the truth, I have no idea, and I've been following politics for most of my adult life.
One of my moderate friends once told me that she considered lying about one's political opponents to be an extreme measure, until I asserted that lying is to politics as crying is to a maternity ward. And while I do not condone intentionally misleading people, the practice certainly isn't out of the ordinary in political circles.
She also wasn't able to clarify for me what a moderate is. To this day I still don't know, although the same dictionary I used to look up the word extremist, relates that moderates are "opposed to radical or extreme views or measures."
Heck, that's not very helpful, is it? I mean, if you can't even nail down what extremism is, how are you supposed to know who's opposed to it?
Still, if you think about the word moderate in its most generic sense, there are few Americans who couldn't reasonably refer to themselves as moderates, since the majority of us don't go around killing government officials, or advocating violence against our political opponents. Yet, at the same time, any one of us could just as easily be considered an extremist by someone whose definition of that word happens to differ from our own.
When you get right down to it, what mostly separates the moderate from the extremist is individual perspective. Practically everyone has an ethical or moral line that they refuse to cross, and when somebody else steps over your line, you're likely to think of their behavior as extreme. Keep in mind, however, that no matter where yours may lie, you've probably stepped over someone else's line on your way there.
Edward Daley was born to American parents on a U.S. military base in Stephenville, Newfoundland, Canada, and moved to the United States as an infant. He became active in politics in 1984--the first year he was old enough to vote for the President of the United States. Currently he is the full-time caregiver to his elderly father and a landlord of rental property. Edward has been a salesman, bar doorman, typesetter, and security guard. He is a college graduate with a number of hobbies and interests, including reading, writing poetry and short stories, web designing, watching professional football, and drinking 12-year-old single malt scotch. He currently lives in Thomaston, Maine.
Comments: thofab@adelphia.net
Someone who wants the right to stay out of his bedroom, and the left to stay out of his wallet.
There's only two things in the middle of the road. Roadkill and a yellow stripe.
"Moderates" tend to be gun grabbers as well.
Right, because conservatives never do anything to fuel these stereotypes...
A "moderate" is someone who can't take his own side in a quarrel.
Some are, some aren't.
Of course, most of the 'moderates' I know are moderate by the MSM definition: viscerally opposed to the right, but to call themselves liberal would be too constraining.
By moderate, I refer to who the media considers moderate, and anyone who calls themself a moderate.
I tend to respect self-proclaimed liberals more than self-proclaimed moderates with few exceptions. At least I know where the liberal stands when push comes to shove.
"'but have been brainwashed into believing that conservatives are meanspirited, closeminded, and bad'
Right, because conservatives never do anything to fuel these stereotypes..."
Sure there are conservatives who are mean people, just as there are liberals who are mean people. But that doesn't mean the stereotype of conservatives as mean is accurate or that the policies advocated by most conservatives are deserving of the popular stereotype. I know many people who call themselves moderates yet agree with the traditional conservative position a good 3/4 of the time or more, but they think if you call yourself a conservative, you are a bad person. That's not justified.
I agree. If you have religious convictions, moral convictions, or even just foundational principles, you aren't/can't be moderate. The hallmark of a moderate is the willingness to settle for a comprise on anything. If you are able to stand firm, then you aren't moderate.
Guess I'm a moderate, then....
Moderates have convicitions.
They usually get them after indictments.
Thanks for this.......and everyone else's comments also. I very much agree that a huge number of liberals call themselves "moderates" out of embarrassment, just as WinOne4TheGipper says. Excellent!
Note Thomas Sowell's super article in JWR for April 5th. Title: Liberal attitudes
His thesis is that modern liberalism has become a set of attitudes. I agree with Sowell.
Excerpts
"Liberals may think of themselves as people who believe in certain principles but, if you observe their actual behavior, you are likely to discover that most liberals have a certain set of attitudes, rather than principles.
Liberals may denounce "greed," for example, but in practice it all depends on whose greed. Nothing the government does is ever likely to be called "greed" by liberals.
"Diversity" has become one of the crusades of liberals, especially academic liberals. But, in a country that is pretty closely divided politically, it is not at all uncommon to find a whole academic department -- sociology, for example -- without a single Republican today or for the past three decades."
"Among liberals' most cherished views of themselves is that they are in favor of promoting the well-being of minorities in general and blacks in particular. But here again, it all depends on which segments of the minority community are involved.
Black welfare recipients or even black criminals have received great amounts of liberal political and journalistic support over the years. However, the great majority of blacks, who are neither criminals nor welfare recipients but are in fact their main victims, have their interests subordinated to the interests of their unsavory neighbors who are more in vogue in liberal circles."
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20050405.shtml
In the 2000 GOP race, there was one candidate, who wanted to raise minimum wage, link human and civil rights to free trade, opposed flat tax, consumption taxes, and big tax cuts, he also was opposed to privatizing social security.
His name was Gary Bauer.
I have yet to see him classified as anything other then right wing, conservative, or far right wing.
His views on economics and finance were at best populist, at worst, downright liberal, and he is still called a "right wing nut".
BINGO. Very well put, delacoert! Thanks. You're right on the mark.
No. That is a Libertarian.
Ditto! :o)
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