Beware of extremists! And principles:
The moderate is the lifeblood of any viable political party. There is no winning without attracting their capricious support. The moderate, though, is a delicate flower that must be cultivated carefully. Its one goal in life is to appear reasonable, but there is no reasonableness that accompanies the adamant demands of conservatives. The conservatives keep asking that the Republican Party abide by its own ideals, but nothing — nothing — scares away moderates like steadfast principles.
Luckily, the Republicans have a friend like Colin Powell to prevent the destructive influence of conservatives and their beliefs. Powell is the ultimate moderate. When his party nominated a squishy moderate for president last year that the base had to hold its nose to vote for, he still voted for the other party. Now that is a moderate we can all learn from. He knows exactly what the American people want: two parties virtually indistinguishable from each other. That way if people ever begin to dislike one party, they can just vote for the other as a protest without having to worry about it differing from their values.
Eventually, people are going to dislike the Democrats — maybe thinking they’re going too far on spending (or not far enough) — and then Powell’s Republican Party will be waiting there as a completely innocuous alternative.
Conservatives could not see this simple wisdom, though. Rush Limbaugh (or “Fatty Fat Fat Stupid Druggy Fat Fat,” as I like to call him) had to pick a fight with Powell. His firm stances on issues scare away moderates like light startles cockroaches (cockroaches who often vote, mind you). All Rush did was point out the differences conservatives have with Powell — like how he supported Obama, is pro-choice, and is for bigger government. If Rush (who is fat and does drugs) had any actual concern for the party, he’d focus on what Powell and conservatives have in common like … uh … um … how they both don’t wear pants on their heads. Can’t we build a party around commonalities like that?
I think that Ross Perot tried it. Except toward the end, he was almost to the point of wearing his pants on his head.
(Block of salt: I cannot read minds.) I think Powell is a National Security / Armed Forces Republican. The only reason he identifies with the Republican Party is that the Republican Party loves the Armed Forces and so does Secretary Powell. The Democratic Party consideres the Armed Forces a distasteful necessity, so Powell doesn’t identify with them. Otherwise he would self identify as a Democrat.
Of course Powell loves the Army like McClellan did, which is why he developed the Powell Doctrine. The earlier version of the Powell Doctrine was the McClellan Doctrine. Translated into simpler words, it reads, “War kills too many soldiers. Let’s compromise instead.”
There is a lot to like about such a doctrine. But he seems to want to apply it to politics. “Politics kills too many soldiers. Let’s compromise instead.” It’s like he forgot that there is a bigger difference between ballots and bullets than the spelling. Ballots are seldom fatal.
Of course this is idle speculation and probably has no relationship to how Powell actually thinks. I just wish he’d tell us how he actually thinks. Maybe he really does have some good ideas for my party. But how will I know unless he gives us some details?
Yours,
Tom
Apparently Liberty isn’t the only “L” word that some Repubs have forgotten about. Leadership is another, as in leading people toward policies that are based on sound principles as opposed to following whatever happens to be the popular at the time — the true definition of a political “moderate.”
Strangely enough, the Democrats have twice nominated their most left wing senators as candidates for President and congress is run by the far left of their party.
So tell me again why moderates are so important? Answer, they’re important for the other party to have, because when you run your extremists and win, you move the entire system when the other party counters with their “moderates”.
I’m an extremist. If you try to poke me in the eyes 100 times, I will resist you, fight back or try to duck 100 times. Even if your thugs oiverpower me and hold me down while you poke me in the eyes, I will still not concede your “right” to poke me in the eyes–not for the Common Good, the Good of Society, the Good of the Race, Der Volk, the Poor, the Rich, the Middle Class, or any other reason you can name.
A moderate would let you poke him in the eyes about 50 times, if you convioced him you had some Higher Good in mind while you were poking him.
leading people toward policies that are based on sound principles as opposed to following whatever happens to be the popular at the time — the true definition of a political “moderate.”
Do I understand you to mean Powell is not a moderate because he seems to follow popular dictates rather than principles? Finger to the wind moderation, not Thomas Aquinas moderation?
OK. Politically, in this country, moderate seems to mean iconoclastic or compromising.
Yours,
Tom
Actually, in this country, “moderate” means having no coherent political principles.
I object to this idea of political “leadership”. As a self-governing republic, we elect people to REPRESENT us, not to lead us. Leadership in this country occurs from the bottom up, and our spineless politicians put their fingers to the wind to see which way the winds are blowing in their districts / states.
Also, I see purple unicorns in lanes 4 and 6 when I swim in lane 5.
MG, they’re not talking about leading us, they’re talking about somebody going to Washington to lead those useless parasites to do our bidding for a change.
I was once part of an effort to head off a bunch of elected officials trying to legislate a term limits ordinance out of existence because they could, whether the voters liked it or not, and to do so would be showing “leadership.”
With some shows of force at public meetings and a dropped hint to one official who was running for higher office, the momentum for repeal turned around on a dime, with one previous pro-repeal vote going instead to leave the term limits in place, with the comment, “Sometimes leadership means listening to the people.”
She was right. It was about the only time she ever was, but…
It’s so interesting that the GOP uses this Black man to attack a Black president so as not to appear the racists they appear to be — and they also leave it open for him to attack everyone else — this Blakc guy can say “we’ll come after you” to a bunch of White guys and no one can say anything. If Obama were White, no WAY would the GOP trot this guy out to say the dumb things he says. There are fewer far right conservative voters than the GOP thinks. They’re going to alienate a huge base of moderate Republican voters with this kind of witch hunt.