WaPo - OpEd - What political moderates could learn from the political extremes

[@DCGoldPants]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/to-be-effective-political-moderates-should-learn-from-the-political-extremes/2011/09/08/gIQA8jaYrK_story.html?hpid=z2

What political moderates could learn from the political extremes

By Perry Bacon Jr., Published: September 23

What is a campaign platform that most Americans would support but will never get a chance to vote for?

Don’t call it “marriage,” but give gay couples the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual ones. Reduce the federal budget deficit with spending cuts, modest changes to Medicare and Social Security, and tax increases, particularly for the wealthy. Reform immigration laws so they don’t punish the children of illegal immigrants for their parents’ misdeeds, but also increase border security and make it harder for employers to hire illegal workers.

An agenda like this would never get anywhere because politically moderate ideas, though generally popular among voters, rarely get traction in Washington. This past week, President Obama dumped his down-the-middle deficit-reduction plan from this summer for one beloved by Democrats and reviled by Republicans. Centrist candidates, such as former Utah governor and current GOP presidential contender Jon Huntsman Jr., struggle to get above 1 percent in the polls. A Pew Research Center survey in the midst of the debt-ceiling debate found that a whopping 68 percent of Americans wanted lawmakers to compromise, yet the parties fought until the very end.

In our current system, partisans on the left and the right have great sway over the candidates on the ballots, as well as their positions. Moderates complain that they are usually forced to choose between a conservative ideologue and a liberal ideologue, both of whom won their primaries by making a bunch of promises that mean they can’t support bipartisan legislation.

Centrists tend to think that the path to bipartisan politics lies in civility, grass-roots organizing and candidates who magically emerge from the political center. But in today’s politics, that may not be enough.

Moderates may not like the tactics of the left and the right, but if they want to have an impact on our major political debates, they need to learn from the extremes and borrow their methods. Here’s how:

Lots more after the jump

[Prosperity]

that sounds like Obama's agenda

[Larry]

I'm thinking that if there's this vast legion of hard-core moderates, then what they should be doing is registering as Republicans, so they can force the Republicans to nominate a moderate.

[@DCGoldPants]

I'm thinking that if there's this vast legion of hard-core moderates, then what they should be doing is registering as Republicans, so they can force the Republicans to nominate a moderate.

That would be a good idea if you could find something that all these moderates had in common. I think that's the problem. Being moderate might mean you lean a certain way, but wouldn't oppose the whole working together idea.

[mjah]

Anymore, it would seem that the whole willing-to-work-together thing is the one and only requirement to be considered a moderate.