Moderates in Politics. Oh those poor souls. We just finished another round of elections in the United States with the Republicans taking over both the House and Senate majorities. The term you here whenever the minority party becomes the majority after an election is “Mandate.”
Let me be clear. NO NO NO NO!
It is not a mandate when the Congressional Approval rating is at 20%.
It is not a mandate when citizens think things will be just as bad whether Republicans or Democrats control Congress.
It is not a mandate when the feet dragging, lack of compromise and overall government stand still is par for the course no matter which party is in office.
And it certainly isn’t a mandate when in most races you only beat your opponent by 4-6 pecentage points.
And where are the moderates and their voice in both parties? Either they are shouted out as not true to their party (as far right Tea Party candidates do to their more moderate brethren in the Republican party) or they just don’t fight back for the soul of the party and compromise which is what the American people really want. This article from the National Journal really shows the House Divided nature of our Congress.
Somehow we complain but don’t hold the moderates to the fire for not standing up to their beliefs and not pushing for their agenda. As a coalition on both the left and right, moderates would have a large voting bloc that could move legislation or kill it. They need to start working across the aisle instead of appeasing the extremists in the party.
Finally a warning for the Republican led Senate and House. You can take this majority and continue to divide Congress to the point that Democrats dig their heels in like you did as the minority. Thus in two year, when an open Presidential race is on the line, you will lose. Or you can lead by coalition building across the aisle and prove you are the party for 2016 to have not only the House and Senate but also the Presidency.
*** Side note: Sorry if anyone thought I gave up on the site as you couldn’t get to it. Took three days to deal with a hotlinking attack on the site. Hoping things are better. If you see anything wonky going forward please let me know.
Amen.
Was I preachy? haha
Just so. Just so.
Just so???
I’d like to see a third party come out on top. I don’t care for either side of the aisle right now. Both are doing the same thing, just in different ways.
Have a fabulous day. 🙂
agree agree. You too
hotlinking attack – I have not heard of that type.
I agree. I wish moderates would exercise more control. Many of the issues are complex because there are many options and results affecting different groups. So the political strategists use the complexity to spin and confuse the issues. They want the voters to get emotional and think less. I don’t know what the solution could be. Maybe it’s the nature of politics. I do wish the elected would spend more time dealing with issues and no time campaigning for the next election.
What happened to the politicians like Cincinnatus. Didn’t want the job and when he was done accomplishing what was needed., gave up power.
They’ll probably all just vote themselves a big raise and adjourn. No wait, that’s what they do in Canada.
No..they do the same thing here too haha
I don’t really understand political stuff so I don’t really get it.
That’s OK..neither do the so called experts
This so very true. Not only in politics, but in real life. I’m a Republican, but I am a moderate (with slight conservative leanings). Can’t tell you how many times I have been crucified over voicing my opinion on topics that run counter to what the vitriolic sheeples espouse. My view point offerings are always reasonable, if not reality based, but the hysterical hyperbole thrown in my direction is starting to wear on me.
You and me both…you and me. thanks
Yeahhh… yeh know what happens when you stand up to an extreme viewpoint as a voter? They compromise your twitter account and then bully you on twitter by not only attaching your account to various extremist websites that make you look worse than they do, but they also attach trolls to your interactions with them that insult and belittle your discussions. I’m not kidding, go to my twitter account and look at my tweets w/ Al [twitter has since removed the offensive links to the misuse of my account]. I’m a fiscal conservative and a social liberal, so aspects of both parties appeal to me, but these people wouldn’t allow it. Voters who express an opinion, suddenly need a spin room and a PR team to keep their viewpoints in tact.
Political ideology is getting out of hand when voters are assaulted for having an opinion. Private citizens have to engage in political warfare, simply to express themselves against their own representatives, its infuriating?!?
What does that mean “twitter has since removed the offensive links to the misuse of my account”
There are third party applications that allow your tweets to be used in others feeds w/o your permission outside of twitter. Those feeds can connect your twitter account to volatile news articles in media blogs, or whatever websites one wishes, that wish to use them. It makes you look as though you endorse the subject matter. Paper.li is a massive spam/ violator of twitter feed use and they are based in Switzerland. Twitter helped me to get them all removed by opening an identity theft ticket. I spent two days w/ them getting me removed from this service and the articles that it affiliated me to. If you want to avoid -ever- having your tweets used by this entity you simply tweet” @paper_li please blacklist me from your services” . Twitter currently does not have an ability to block what they do and I don’t get the sense they totally want to either. User beware. Twitter has no legal responsibility to protect your twitter identity outside of twitter itself, but they did go out of their way to help me pressure this service to pull my tweets.
Yikes.
Speak that truth, Brother Bearman!
Thanks Mark
That’s great!
Thanks Nate
Yes, I was a victim to the hotlink debacle but I just assumed you hadn’t paid your domain name renewal (like me 🙂 ) As for politics, no matter what a politician says you a) can’t believe them or b) their great ideas will be blocked by the opposition. People are sick and tired of wasting their time listening and voting for blue sky 🙁
haha…damn I could have stolen your domain name. Missed my chance 🙂
As soon as a person is in office, they’re main focus is re-election. We shouldn’t bother them with actual work and progress when they’re trying to re-get the job they already have.
Woo hoo I won!! Let’s get started on re-election
Curious, did you have an active plan to combat hotlinking before the attack? I’ve been using jet pack’s photon option. That way if somebody tries to hotlink they are doing it to wordpress… of course I’m not if that would impact my load time.
I have jetpack but haven’t tried photon. I’ll have to take a look. Thanks
It’s time for the common sense party.
Well overdue