What is a Political Moderate?

While I was reading the Bush is back! thread, I couldn't help but notice that both major sides seem to think themselves quite moderate and the other side extreme and radical. Whether it's the "extreme leftist liberals" who have hijacked the Democratic party or the "fundamentalist neocons" who have warped the original intent of the Republicans, it seems that neither side sees anything at all moderate in the other. So the purpose of this thread:I'd like to know how you would define "moderate" politically and what you believe to be moderate stances on the issues that were most recurrent throughout the campaigns prior to the election. Feel free to debate the definition, but please try to stay on topic and avoid debating the issues themselves.

I'm trying to establish what people think is moderate, since so many accusations regarding the last election indicate that most people think at least one of the parties is getting much more extreme and radical ("out of place with America's values" is a term you hear a lot). So, while I feel the same way, particularly about gay marriage, and generally tend to agree with and respect your posts, that post is exactly what I was trying to avoid - hence the last paragraph of the original post.

quote:

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Well, to try to answer your question: maybe they only hate gays a little bit?

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I suspect that many of the people who support civil unions but not marriage think themselves moderate on the issue - at least, that's been my experience with them. Personally, I still find that view the most difficult to understand (especially the many people I've known - it's the most predominant viewpoint around here - who essentially support gay marriage as long as it's called something besides "marriage"), as it essentially advocates a "separate but equal" law - which, of course, never turns out to be the latter - and doesn't seem very consistent to me. I still think it's too far to the right, and I'm sure there are many fundies who would say that it's too far to the left by "encouraging" homosexuality.That's why I started thinking about it; so many people expressed a longing for more moderate opponents during this past election, but they have such different views on what moderation encompasses. I would suspect it's just people idealizing the past (as with those who believe that America is suffering a "moral decay"), but the differences between the two candidates were quite notable compared to the recent others.{Edited to shorten a run-on sentence... which is still annoyingly lengthy, just not as confusing as before.}This message has been edited by Morte, 11-06-2004 01:40 AM

You know, I actually thought about how that title could be interpreted the wrong way by the Admins right after I turned off the computer last night.