For my fellow Moderates

[flintauqua]

"Moderates for the most part are apolitical.  We do not focus on what's politically expedient.  Our main priority is finding solutions that are effective.  We don't care if those solutions are best left to the free market or best solved by government.  We don't care which party proposes the best ideas or which party opposes them.  And most importantly we don't care which special interests they hurt and which they help.  Our only goal is to create effective solutions for the problems our families, communities, and country face.  But to do that we must be open minded.
. . . We need to make voters realize that being practical is not political.  Open minded is a good quality to have.  It means that we decide each issue and solution on its merits and not because our party or some special interest supports it.  We are not corporate champions or overtly self interested politicos.  Rather we are open minded, practical people who want to solve problems."

http://www.thepragmaticcenter.com/essay/practical-not-political

[flintauqua]

"But the great middle of America has time and again served as ballast for our ship of state, keeping her from listing too far to port or starboard. The challenge this time around will be to see if it can keep the ship from splitting apart."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/7498496.html

[redcliffsw]

It looks like you're very much open-minded to socialism and to Federal control.

That kind of stuff has been acceptable to Democrats and Republicans for years.

It's the same ole "moderation" that's got the USA down.

[Lookatmeknow!!]

I wouldn't say that, from what I got is just that. Make solutions that benefit everyone, not just certain groups of political groups. I would say that I am more of a middle kind of person, too. There are so many things that the government does that I don't like, but some are not that bad. You can't please everyone, but making this world a place that is safe and free from the hate would be my main goal!! Get tired of all the complaining all the time!! I am think I can see your point, too, red. But just remember this, we can't judge people, there is only one person that does the judging and the people in government that are doing wrong will met their maker one of these days!!

[redcliffsw]

Judging?  How do you mean exactly?

Who gets the Federal money?  Why do you desire some to receive Gov't money and others do not to receive any Gov't money?
That'll take some judgement don't you think?

[flintauqua]

http://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?search=site&catref=aran15&MA_Category=&ANDkeyword=democrats&ORkeyword=&TITLEkeyword=&NEGATIVEkeyword=

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonview.asp?catref=ddnn58

http://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?catref=aran5

[flintauqua]

"The further right Republican presidential hopefuls move, as the political truism goes, the harder it will be for the party's eventual nominee to craft a political appeal that will attract independent voters at the center — where elections are won. In their efforts to capture the hearts of tea party followers, Republicans may be sowing the seeds of their own 2012 demise."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52442.html

[mtcookson]

at the center — where elections are won.

That is just... absolute nonsense. It drives me nuts when people say a conservative can't win but a moderate can. BS! Throw a true conservative up against Obama and I think there will be much better chance of a win than a so called moderate.

[flintauqua]

"For most of American history, the two parties operated as ramshackle coalitions that harbored diverse and even antithetical views. Each party's Senate caucus housed ideological antagonists, such as progressive Democratic titan Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and segregationist stalwart Richard Russell of Georgia, or New Right Republican firebrand Jesse Helms of North Carolina and silk-stocking New York City liberal Jacob Javits. Such contrasts are not extinct. But since the early 1980s, they have vastly diminished as the differences within each party have narrowed and the distance between them has widened."

Over that period, "it's just a straight, linear increase" in congressional polarization, says Gary Jacobson, a University of California (San Diego) political scientist who specializes in Congress. "There's a little bit of bumping around in the numbers here and there, but the basic movement is toward the parties moving further and further apart. The 1970s are a high point of all the cross-party [coalitions]. The last three decades are ones of pulling apart."

http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/congress-hits-new-peak-in-polarization-20110224

[mtcookson]

That guy doesn't really seem to know what he talking about. It seems he's trying to say the left is going further left and the right is going further right. The truth is, both the parties were moving further and further left with minor difference between the two.

The last election improved this a bit, shifting the Republicans right a tiny bit more but they are still not far enough right I think.