In Praise of Political Compromise (Applebaum on Slate)

[Recursion]

Jon Stewart's Million Moderate March shows how skewed the center has become.

I don't know about you, but my heart sank when I read about Jon Stewart's Million Moderate March planned for the National Mall next weekend. My heart sank further when I learned that liberal groups, lacking any better ideas, have decided to take this endeavor seriously. It's bad enough that the only way to drum up enthusiasm for a Rally To Restore Sanity is to make it into a TV comedian's joke. But it's far worse that the "moderates" in attendance will have been bused in by Arianna Huffington and organized by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

This is how words, and then ideas, vanish from our political lexicon: Whatever connotations it once had, the word moderate has now come to mean liberal or even left-wing in American politics. It has been a long time since moderate Republicans were regarded as important, centrist assets by their party. Nowadays, they are far more likely to be regarded as closet lefties and potential traitors. Moderate Democrats, meanwhile, no longer exist at all. In their place, we have "Conservative Democrats." Nobody pays attention to them, either—unless, suddenly, one of them threatens to vote against the health care reform. And then he is vilified.

There is no lack of interesting people in the political center. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg—one of the few popular incumbents in the country—has not only declared himself a centrist, he has launched a campaign of support for other centrists. He flies around the country endorsing both Democrats and Republicans who he thinks show the ability to compromise and who have the courage to depart from party orthodoxy on issues like gun control (he is in favor) or financial regulation (he is against). He nearly lost me when he inexplicably endorsed Harry Reid, but never mind.

I'm not even sure what "moderate" and "centrist" mean today, and whether they're the same thing. For that matter I'm not totally sold that "liberal" and "conservative" are good labels anymore.

[Bluenorthwest]

1. The Slate writer utterly misses the joke

The labels are terms of art, mostly used not as identity but as a passive way to define the 'other'. Also, the event is a double event. The other half is called 'Keep Fear Alive' and that is the other half of the joke Slate misses. Stewart is not declaring himself a moderate, just as Colbert does not really wish to create fear. Dang.