Moderation is not a dirty word

[cleveramerican]

The far left is nearly as odious as the far right
I don't trust the extreme left any more than I trust the extreme right

I know many here pine for a radically progressive president, But its just not in the cards.


Working with the other party to achieve worthy goals is EXACTLY what legislators are supposed to do. Its not selling out, its getting on with it.

The middle is where progress happens.

[ellisonz]

1. But...

"Centrist" is without a doubt a dirty word. C'mon people stand for something...

How do you work with an autocratic party? Rubber stamps don't negotiate, they don't comprimise. The GOP Congress has rubber stamped this President and I don't think "moderation" is an acceptable excuse for obstruction and wrong-doing.

Down with the GOP.

:dem:

[eridani]

2. There is no "extreme left" period. n/t

[LeftishBrit]

4. There is in fact an extreme left (or rather, a number of extreme left-wing people and groups)

But no American Democrat would remotely correspond to 'extreme left'.

[eridani]

8. People, perhaps. Groups? I don't think so.

Even the various socialist splinter groups are fairly tame here by world standards. Not very many people either, and I live in an area where Kucinich events are leafleted by socialists warning us of the insidious plots to co-opt revolutionary fervor. About the most extreme left person I've ever met wanted Bush to get re-elected because his incompetence would hasten the end of American imperialism. I'm beting there aren't a lot of those around.

[LeftishBrit]

9. I suppose I was thinking of the UK

There are some rather extreme left-wing groups here; but none of them has real influence.

[Bridget Burke]

3. Progress does not begin in the middle....

But some moderates can eventually be convinced to tag along. (Or dragged, kicking & screaming.)

Here are some of the "far left." I'm not a member of either party, but I agree with some of their goals--to the extent that New McCarthyites would consider me a "fellow traveler."
www.cpusa.org/
www.socialistworker.org/

Dems in congress should work with Republicans who actually have worthy goals. If there are any left.

[Bassic]

5. All extremism is very dangerous IMO.

I believe in a more Center-Left approach.

[Solon]

6. Being in the center doesn't mean you are "moderate"...

it just means you are in the center, and the center is just as ideological as the left or the right. Being ideological isn't a BAD thing, unless facts, OBJECTIVE FACTS, don't support it.

[LWolf]

7. Bullshit.

There is nothing in American politics that remotely approaches "the far left." The left end of American politics is not extreme. Dragging the "line" so far to the right that the middle now rests where the right used to does not make the left "extreme." :eyes:

Being on the end, rather than the middle, offers up some problems, mainly with being marginalized so that the progress we want to see is continually blocked.

Being in the "middle" does, as well. At it's best, the middle allows for some compromise. At it's worse, it creates stagnation and prevents any progress at all.

At any rate, progress does not spring from that middle position. Progress springs from the forces stimulating change, and that doesn't happen in the middle.

[MrRobotsHolyOrders]

10. Jeebus

You can be "far left" and achieve important legislative measures. It's why Bernie Sanders is worshipped as a terra pounding demi-god in Vermont. Where this idea came from that leftist congressmen never sit down with their rightwing fellows and hammer out legislation, it's fucking daft.

Also, please define "the middle". If you're talking the mid-nineties warmed over platitudes of "triangulate everything important, and occasionaly ban gays from doing something", you probably didn't see the 2006 midterms.