Thursday, August 10, 2006
Irate Moderates
RSR readers have probably noticed -- if you haven't, you weren't paying attention -- that this blog has spent a lot of time talking about "moderates" lately. What we haven't done, until now, is define what that means beyond supporting real science standards as opposed to intelligent design inspired religious indoctrination in public schools.
Now comes a New York Times editorial commenting on the primary defeat of Sen. Joe Lieberman that gives a good working defininition of what constitutes a moderates in the current political climate. It's worth reading:
Now comes a New York Times editorial commenting on the primary defeat of Sen. Joe Lieberman that gives a good working defininition of what constitutes a moderates in the current political climate. It's worth reading:
The rebellion against Mr. Lieberman was actually an uprising by that rare phenomenon, irate moderates. They are the voters who have been unnerved over the last few years as the country has seemed to be galloping in a deeply unmoderate direction. A war that began at the president’s choosing has degenerated into a desperate, bloody mess that has turned much of the world against the United States. The administration’s contempt for international agreements, Congressional prerogatives and the authority of the courts has undermined the rule of law abroad and at home.
Yet while all this has been happening, the political discussion in Washington has become a captive of the Bush agenda. Traditional beliefs like every person’s right to a day in court, or the conviction that America should not start wars it does not know how to win, wind up being portrayed as extreme. The middle becomes a place where senators struggle to get the president to volunteer to obey the law when the mood strikes him. Attempting to regain the real center becomes a radical alternative.
