All Things in Moderation

When did moderate become a four letter word? Republicans in red states have been running on the “I’m more conservative than you are” mantra for a while now. Rick Perry used it in the last Texas gubernatorial primary and it was enough to beat Kay Bailey Hutchison. In the general election no Democrat not named Attila stood a chance. I can’t remember another talking point in the Perry campaign and I suspect I am not alone. It seemed he couldn’t string three sentences together without using the word conservative. In the presidential race he still can’t, and neither can a half dozen other candidates vying for the label.

Now it’s being taken to a new level. Newt Gingrich is in New Hampshire accusing Mitt Romney of being a moderate, as though the offense if not intrinsically evil is at least a venal sin. And I’m seeing attack ads on television with the same charge against Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, citing newspaper excerpts as evidence.

Politics is often described as the art of the possible. I remember when pragmatism was a virtue in a politician. Nowadays any compromise is selling out to the devil. Is anybody that conservative on every issue? I don’t see how. How can you be pro-life and pro-death penalty? How can you call yourself Christian and advocate deporting 12 million undocumented aliens? How do you save Medicare and cut payment rates to the point where doctors can’t afford to accept it? It’s committing intellectual suicide.

This is not a good thing. I’m criticizing Republicans because with the only contested presidential primary they are more in the news with their appeals to mindless ideology. Democrats are just as bad, and just as inconsistent with their calls for income equality to be achieved by making everyone poorer. Do they really think they can save the planet by dismantling the industrial revolution? Did anyone else notice they supported war in Iraq at the beginning, then turned against it when the going got rough? We have become so polarized that even the science of global warming is a political issue. You can pretty much tell a person’s party by whether he or she thinks it is man made.

We’ve got serious issues to deal with. We need thoughtful people to deal with them. And we need a reasoned national discussion to work out responsible approaches to them. Nothing is likely to satisfy everyone. There is no perfect solution to illegal immigration, entitlement reform, the debt crisis, or a dozen other urgent concerns. We may never reach a national consensus on gay marriage, abortion, health insurance, global warming, free trade, or even school choice. But shouting at one another over hard drawn left/right battle lines isn’t going to help.

Some pundits have commented that Barack Obama’s presidency is failing because he has tried to govern a center right nation from the left. There is probably some truth to that but I doubt that countering with a hard right strategy is any way to win an election.

Barry Goldwater famously said “extremism in defense of liberty is no vice” and “moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Lyndon Johnson used the quote to paint him as a war monger, beat him in a landslide, and promptly led us into war in Vietnam. I voted for Goldwater and supported the war in Vietnam but it’s time we let our politicians know once again that sort of rhetoric is not acceptable. Moderation, pragmatism, and civility in public discourse are indeed virtues where they serve to advance the cause of justice. Extremism is always a vice when it leads to unnecessary and damaging conflict, even in defense of liberty.