07/30/2017
Is it too late for Moderates?
Much has been made of the need for Conservative voices to "true up" to their historical message. That the expediencies of the recent political climate have shifted people into previously un-considered positions – ones from which they now find it difficult to extricate themselves.
I'd like to suggest that there are potential allies in this effort on the Liberal, Progressive side of the aisle. What must be recognized for this alliance to be realized, however, is the extent to which the most strident advocates of Progressive thought have alienated the Conservative populace. I believe it was the disaffected, voiceless part of the Right who first lined up behind candidate Trump, only to be followed by those whose principal aim was to defeat Hillary Clinton. In her Presidency, many of them saw only intransigence, and even an amplification of certain policies that they already found objectionable. And so the deal of expediency was made. And, in many respects, is still defended today because they still feel that a Clinton Presidency would have created a bigger crisis for their beliefs than they have thus far witnessed.
Surely, in a moment of candor, many such voices could be induced to acknowledge that our current President was not their first choice among those who began the primaries. But the incessant cacophony from the Left: daily shock and horror at this administration's latest outrage, belittlement of anyone who could have elected (or who continues to support) this man, and continuous calls for thunderous rebuke at the polls next year — these things only serve to feed the alienation. Is the best course for our country a Leftward backlash? Sailing through the Center and ushering in 2-6 years of "shoe on the other foot?" Haven't we all had a large enough dose of being on the outside looking in?
What will it take to return to the politics of engagement in the U.S.? To a broad political center? Not one which has yielded its ideology to meaningless compromise, but one which has demonstrated a willingness to conduct meaningful conversations - even debates! - with the "other side" in order to find the greatest good for the most people?
I would like to suggest three requirements:
1) cessation of extremist rhetoric - everyone who disagrees with you is not simply an ignorant fool. If you look closely, I think you'll find that at some level, there is substantial agreement - if not in tactics, then in principles and/or values - among even the most seemingly disparate groups. But to see those areas of commonality, we'll have to stop constantly launching epithets at one another.
2) courage - to be authentic and vulnerable. To be willing to express what we REALLY hold dear, and not simply advocating for the latest thing that we think will satisfy those desires. There's usually more than one acceptable way to solve problems. If we're willing to loosen our grip on our current favorite, we may just be able to find one that people from a variety of political spectra can support.
3) emergence of a leader - preferably an individual, but failing that, a grass roots organization. Leadership that refuses to get sucked into the current propensity to run to extreme positions in pursuit of better leverage. Leadership that's willing to be patient and to endure some initial firestorms, knowing that ideological fortifications are not easily broached - and that most must be disassembled from the inside.
This is not the easy course. In fact, being a Moderate is an increasingly radical stance. People act like Moderates' goal is to take the arithmetic mean of the various positions and dish out the resulting tasteless pablum like it represents some kind of victory. Those people have missed the point. Being a true Moderate involves hard work! It requires a willingness to spend time in respectful deliberation with others whose FaceBook posts they can never bring themselves to "Like" - confident that there's a solution out there that they can all "Like", even if it's a partial, transitional step. It requires sufficient self-awareness to recognize that some of the things they currently advocate are not really that important to them - they've just been packaged with other things that are. Un-bundling those solutions will be challenging and arduous. And it requires the willingness to give an inch - to take a chance that the opposition won't simply use the resulting momentum to steal the whole issue from them.
Is there anyone else out there that sees it this way? Am I hopelessly idealistic? Are we so certain that a tipping point has been passed that we won't invest the effort to reclaim this kind of statesmanship?
