What Happened to the Moderates?

I know it has been a long time since my last blog...  With the move and everything, it got placed on the back burner, and to be honest, I wasn't feeling very motivated...

So today, I am coming back with a dangerous blog.  I am going to do something I never do: talk about politics.  So, please keep an open mind and read all the way through...  Do not judge me on opening statements...  Our political system has serious problems and I want to honestly consider if it is even fixable.

(Dangerous statement #1)  I have been a Moderate Republican voting for the Republican Candidates for 39 years now...  As I saw a bright eyed and bushy tailed youth bouncing around our neighborhood with a big button on his chest proclaiming he was for the Republican Candidate and a clip board in hand, all I wanted to do was ask, so how far off the deep end has this one gone?  I know that the poor youth wouldn't understand my question.

Over the past several years both parties have become more polarized.  The moderates have been getting voted out in the primaries by the extreme Right or Left Wing Candidates.  I have been disappointed and occasionally embarrassed or even disgusted by things my party has said and worse yet voted on...  There is no one left in the middle!

When I started voting there were Republicans and Democrats all over the spectrum.  There was Jesse Jackson on the Left and Rush Limbaugh on the right, and everyone else fell somewhere in between.  In fact there were some Republicans and Democrats that sat right on that middle line.  It was OK to be moderate and somewhere in the middle.  Sometimes a politician might actually agree with some bill put forward by the other side and that was OK.  Not anymore.  If you like something that the other side puts forward you are publicly called a "traitor to your party" and don't have much longer before they drive you right out of office.  There now seem to be a whole lot of people way further right and left of  what I used to think was radical and extreme.

Lately I feel like everyone is voting for the "lesser of two evils."  That just stinks.  At some point both sides will go so far off the deep end that there will be no "lesser", both choices will be evil.

(Dangerous statement #2) I think that most politicians today need a refresher course on "All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" By Robert Fulghum.  Seriously, they have forgotten that to function in society you need to learn to share, to compromise, and to respectfully listen to people that you don't agree with.  The PC(USA) has had a bit of trouble with this concept too... It has only gotten better because some churches have decided that they don't need to listen, compromise, or love their fellow Christians anymore and have left for more conservative denominations.

Compromise is NOT a dirty word.  Both sides of any argument have good points.  It is OK to agree with someone on the other side.  If you don't agree it is OK for your opponent to have an opinion different from yours.  We are all human sometimes we will be right and sometimes we will be wrong.  The world will not come to an end if one party doesn't get every little thing on their agenda (no matter what the political adds say.)

(Really Dangerous and somewhat scary statement #3) If both the Republican and Democratic Parties keep getting further and further polarized then those of us left stranded in the middle may need a third party.  We need a party that can listen to opposing opinions and make their mind up without having to check with their party's stance first!  We need a party that is thinking about us, their constituents and what is best for the people rather than their party line.  And for goodness sake, a party that can be civil to their opponents and refrains from mud slinging.  So, I propose the founding of the Moderate Party for both those Moderate Democrats and Republicans who no longer feel represented by their own party.

We will need a mascot...  What is half way between a donkey and an elephant... Maybe that is the wrong tactic.  Maybe we need something new.  How about a dove for peacemaking?  No, that might offend the military...   How about a turtle for slow and steady win the race?  Or we could be historical and go with Ben Franklin's turkey.  It seems to represent most politicians pretty well anyway.

So, as we head toward the next set of elections I will again pray for some moderates somewhere to make it into office...  Until that day, grace and peace to you.