If the truth is told, I have to confess to being somewhat of a moderate. I lean to the left, hard to the left some would say, but many of my positions are decidedly more moderate than far left. On social issues, I am decidedly liberal, as if it is a “liberal” position to consider equal rights for all and “giving” women the right to decide their own medical decisions.
I believe in giving folks a hand up, not just a hand out. Most definitely a hand out is warranted at times, but it is my belief that most folks would just as soon have an opportunity to make a place for themselves and their families in this life. I believe in the intent of the Second Amendment, a pro-gun position, but I also believe in strong laws to punish those that use a gun in the act of committing a crime. I am against the Death Penalty but I believe in life without parole for those convicted of heinous crimes. I believe in fiscal responsibility but embrace Keynesian economics. I believe in low taxes, but only when they make economic sense. I believe in war, but only when it is in the (true) national interest of the United States.
So why am I “accused,” sometimes in vile terms, of being a far left socialist that is anti-American?
The positions that I have noted should be mainstream, not positions that are vilified as somehow being “fringe or radical.” Recently, I read on another blog that moderates, or independents, are cowardly and ill-informed. Eh? Somewhere, I got the “radical” idea that we are to educate ourselves on the issues and make an informed decision for ourselves. In 2010, apparently it is not enough to label liberals as evil, but moderates fall into that category as well.
The pendulum always swings right when the left is in control politically, and visa versa. This election season the pendulum is not swinging right, it seems to be stuck on far right. The Tea Baggers are purging RINO’s while attempting to win state-wide general elections without moderates and independents.
There is certainly something strange tainting the waters these days.
William Stephenson Clark
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
Will, great pic of Pennywise up there–my all-time favorite evil clown!
I am right there with you on most of your stands. Though I am not a fan of guns, I am in favor of the right to carry them. My interpretation of the Constitution always was that the founders wanted the citizenry to be able to arm itself against the possibility of a tyrannical federal government. Not that it is going to do anyone any good with the new FISA laws; the Feds will have you in handcuffs before you can even think about reaching for your gun.
I have watched over time as the right has demonized the lawyers that help us to exercise our rights, scientists whose research helps us to make good policy decisions, professors who teach us about our history, our system of government and the world around us, unions that help us to empower ourselves as workers, and anyone else they label as “liberal.” If they have their way they will dismantle our whole society in the name of “conservative moral values.” So it’s no surprise that they are now villifying the “moderate.”
As Reverend Niemoller is quoted, “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”
LOL, Paula! I recognized old Pennywise, too, although my first thought was !TIM! (Tim Curry fan here…in any role, even a serial killer on Criminal Minds.)
I am there on Tim ever since Rocky Horror.
HUGE Tim Curry fan–one of the reasons why Pennywise is my favorite evil clown. LOVED him in Legend with Tom Cruise; he made the movie. There is something about his voice; I don’t even have to see him and I know it’s him. Have you ever seen the cartoon Wild Thornberries? He plays Nigel Thornberry and Flea (from the Red Hot Chili Peppers) voices a wild boy named Donnie. It’s funny how good performers can elevate something as simple as a cartoon.
Good taste, tstb. 😉
Yes, yes, and yes, Paula! LOL His acting range is so all over the place, from Dr. Frankenfurter in Rocky Horror to Rooster in Annie to the butler in Clue to a Russian sub sailor in Hunt for Red October. I think he ties with Vincent Price for evilness. He’s definitely made a fortune at trying, I’m sure.
It was his lips that gave him away to me in Legend. If the voice doesn’t do it, the lips surely do.
It must be something about the English, ’cause I love Eddie Izzard, too.
I’m unable to understand why President Obama is considered far left by those on the right. Anyone able to help me gain this understanding?
Because anyone who is not in lockstep with them is far left. All they have to do is say it to make it so. I swear, you’d think they were captain of the Enterprise. (Was it still the Enterprise when Picard was Capt? I forget. “Make it so, Number One.”)
Because to those that do not/cannot/will not think reflectively, there is ONLY black or white.
MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY
Funny you should ask, Will, because my bff for 40+ years (we knew each other pre-womb) said yesterday that she considered herself left of center, but that I was farther left. I guess that would mean that I’m way beyond moderate.
I’m not sure there actually is “moderate” anymore, at least not according to the right, near right, far right, etc., who are usually all wrong. 😉
Hee hee heeeeee!
I’m so far left I’m frequently confused as being right!
As my Texas pals would say, “I’ve been all around the rim of the cup and I’m back to the handle again!”
Boy talk about being timely! The last two days I have been felling under attack for being a “moderate”.
From both the left and right, it could just be that it is once again that time when both are feeling juiced up.
And it is more where you stand and with us or against us drawing lines in the upcoming battle.
Part of why I am a Republican has to be my Libertarian leaning but also from that comes somewhat a liberal lean on certain topics.
LOL I know which blog and what you referred to by “Recently, I read on another blog that moderates, or independents, are cowardly and ill-informed.”.
I as soon as I read it took that poster to task, of course his response was I am boring!
Not addressing what I said or explain just where he felt his observations were correct.
He is the poster child of all I find wrong or an example of with the stances of the Conservatives. I thought I was going to become “open season” when I brought up them being “Fascist light”.
What I see as be a Moderate is that they side with what they see as the right things.
Not that as being either one side or the other on the issues.
I repeat the most socialist concept I have is that universal health care is the correct course.
There are just some things that go beyond the limits of what you can afford to what is the right of being a human being.
It is possible one of the major concerns of so-called Conservatives would be solved if all Americans had health care. The pregnant woman may continue her pregnancy if she doesn’t have the worry of not being able to afford that care for her and her child(ren).
And if they didn’t have that drum to beat at election time how many of their ‘base’ would choose not to show up at the polls?
“I’m so far left I’m frequently confused as being right!”
“Part of why I am a Republican has to be my Libertarian leaning but also from that comes somewhat a liberal lean on certain topics.”
Both of these posts make my point about the FACT that, like it or not, we all have more in common than we differ. We certainly all share the common problems of the country right now; those are not hitting “the left” any harder than they are hitting “the right.”
I know that it is difficult to reach out to those who would like to hold themselves apart, but somehow we all have to find a way to come together. Neither party will save us; we have to save ourselves.
That poster was reminded as long as there are moderates and independents his kind and those on the far left will always be on the outside looking in.
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank recently wrote that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was a faithful conservative and got a letter from a reader telling him that someone with her voting record was no conservative and he should check her lifetime rating with the American Conservative Union. He did that and while he was at it, checked the lifetime ratings of Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT), who was denied renomination this year for being insufficiently conservative and of nearly every other prominent Republican going back several decades. The results were amazing. Many of them are more liberal than Murkowski and nearly all of them are more liberal than Bennett.
Put in other words, the Republican Party has moved so far to the right in the past few years that under the current standard, nearly all of its past leaders would be considered unacceptable.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/05/AR2010100504513.html
Exactly, fnord, exactly. I might suggest that this “trend” began when Ronald Regan allowed the so-called Religious Right, a/k/a Social Conservatives (and in my world, known as the Immoral Majority) to stick their noses under the tent.
Nothing like a small group of zealots taking over any group to which they have been granted admission after being excluded for many generations.
I agree 6176, it was the influx of social cons that took the party in a direction away from financial toward the more emotional driven. Away from the country being the concern to the individual actions.
I also accuse the Religious Right of abandoning they Christian tenets to make Politics their guiding tenets.
Adopting the adages of it is the ends that justifies the means and lying and baring false witness is the easiest way to gain your goals so be it!
I’ve identified myself as “liberal” in the past decade as it was vitally necessary to save the term from an false, ahistorical bad rap. I still believe that, but I also still distrust the overuse of labels.
Particularly, in the age of evangelistic political propaganda, where sloganeering files at light speed and people feel free to just make shit up (and believe the same), I think the more important distinction is now that of reality vs. fantasy.
An interesting opinion piece in the Village Voice, which offers the view that much of the full-tilt insanity we’ve seen since Obama took office is tension between the “brown and the gray” (i.e. the increasingly brown young people and white baby-boomers and–I might add–in times of overpopulation and dwindling resources).
http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-09-29/news/white-america-has-lost-its-mind/