As my
kids know and others can attest, I have for at least 40 years referred to
myself politically as a “Radical Moderate”.
I include the adjective “radical” to differentiate from many people’s
conception of “Moderates” as indecisive, shallow thinkers who aren’t interested
enough to find out what’s going on and make decisive choices. I could just as easily call myself a “conservative”
Democrat, but that would be just as misunderstood. There are certain moral
issues about which I have definite private opinions, but which I believe should
not be addressed through legislation and governmental action. I will skip for
now a lengthy discussion of examples on both sides. But I do offer this introductory paragraph as
a prelude to my thoughts on current politics.
Many
people across the political spectrum decry the efficiency of America’s de
facto two-party system as it seems to be straining in 2020-2021. This leads
them to call for the emergence of a third party to solve whatever they believe
are the failures of the status quo. The latest efforts have been public musings
by Donald Trump himself suggesting he might form a “Patriot Party”. One assumes
he means by this he would take with him all the “true Republicans” who were not
RINOs. The obvious observation is that
this would be the opposite of expanding his base and would, therefore, fail. Not
only would the Patriot Party be a fringe party, the Republican Party they left
behind would be more akin to the Republicans of the 50s and 60s in terms of
size and strength.
As a
Democrat I could navigate through those waters. But as a moderate I’d still
strive for a more perfect party. That is to say, I do think a third party could
succeed and even improve the American political landscape if it was positioned
as a mainstream moderate party. A good 30% or more moderate or conservative Democrats might
have more in common with moderate Republicans than with the fringe leftists in
their party. A Republican Party freed of its “Patriot” element might be
open-minded enough to forge an alliance with enough moderate Democrats to
produce a center party strong enough to win elections.
I doubt
this will occur, though. The gaps in the
parties’ approaches to economic justice and civil rights issues will take more
time before sufficient common ground is achievable. Even the moderate wings of their parties. But
one can dream.
