Hearing the Falconer #12 ~ 20-March-2019 ~ What is a Political Moderate?

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

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20-March-2019: What does it mean to be a political moderate?
What Moderation Means
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What is a moderate?

Extremists are true believers; they always know the one true answer, sometimes even before they understand the question.

Extremists always want to do the same things, always want to apply the same "solutions," always ignore the specific and unique details of actual situations.

Extremists want to avoid making hard decisions; they want simple formulas they can follow without thinking.

Moderates, on the other hand, believe that different situations call for different responses. Sometimes it might be the right thing to cut taxes, for example. At other times it might be the right thing to increase taxes.

Moderates believe there is more than one value to defend; there are many values and sometimes they conflict with each other, like the value of democracy and the value of individual freedom, for example, like the value of gun rights and the value of public safety, for example, and moderates believe ALL these values are good and they ALL have to be balanced against each other so we don't end up with ALL of one and lose ALL of another.

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The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Indpendent Thinkers

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority