A New Third Party: the Moderate Party

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 6:14 PM

If I were a moderate Republican, I'd be worried right now. (To set the record straight, I am NOT a moderate Republican. Anyone who read my blogpost from yesterday can see that. In fact I am not sure I am any kind of big-R Republican at all.)

However, I am a compassionate person, and I have compassion for moderate Republicans, and it is because of that compassion that I am writing this blogpost.

If I were a moderate, I'd be using the word "extremist" a lot. Barry Goldwater, that notorious extremist, once said "extremism in defense of liberty is not a vice." Now that is a typical extremist statement. It is all black and white. There is not a shred of nuance. Moderates are nuanced. Shades of gray. Much gray. Not much black, not much white.

Let's look a Goldwater's extremist statement: Liberty? There can be such a thing as too much liberty. Those who "take liberties" for example. Libertines. Libertarians! The most extreme extremists in the world.

Vice? Is vice always bad? Only vicious extremists would push their black-and-white agenda that vice is always bad. Having sex with interns in the Oval Office is not all that bad. It doesn't rise to the level of impeachment. Deplorable, yes. Reprehensible, yes. Bad? A word without nuance. Black. Pitch black. Bad is an extremist word.

Anyhow, on to the point: The extremists are threatening to take over the Republican Party. Moderates could have a general agreement that it would not be a good thing if they did. One could even make the case that it would be seen as a deplorable thing for moderates. Moderates, hope, of course, that the extremists will not take over the Republican Party. They've had a few scares before. Lincoln, for example, and Reagan. For the most part, however, it's been smooth sailing for moderates. Eisenhower. Rockefeller. Gerald Ford. Those were the days.

The trouble is, things could change and they could change fast. What if the extremists, the Rush Limbaugh crowd, the gun-toting Sarah Palin types who shoot wolves from airplanes, the Jesus freaks, the doctor-bombing pro-life fanatics, the Orthodox Jews, the Zionists, the golf-haters — what if they took over the Republican Party? It would be a moderate's nightmare.

It is time for American moderates to think about a third party, the Moderate Party. The party of the moderates, by the moderates, and for the moderates, in a nuanced sort of way, of course. Such a party could have a great future.

Most likely the state of Maine would instantly become a Moderate Party stronghold for all time. No more just red and blue states. They'd have to find a new color. Beige, maybe. The whole electoral map would change.

Colin Powell would join the Moderate Party, and bring the Black vote with him. Not the extremist Blacks like Chris Rock and Clarence Thomas, but the moderate Blacks like those Black guys you see on NPR. A new moderate era of race relations would be ushered in.

John McCain would join, of course, and bring all those moderate people who got him nominated for President and those who deplored his horrible choice of running mate. Strength in numbers.

In a coalition with the Democrats, the Moderate Party could become very powerful, very fast. They could drive Rush Limbaugh and Mark Steyn off the air for good, and get extremists like Michelle Malkin and Daniel Pipes off the Internet. Some day we could all be living in a moderate world.

Liberty Rant says, give it a shot, moderates. Think about it very seriously. It's not an extremist idea. It's a nuanced idea. You could get rid of those GOP extremists once and for all, and the Democrats would love you and Washington would love you and moderates all over the world would love you. Even I, golf-hating extremist libertarian that I am, would love you too in my black-and-white sort of way.