I wish Kathleen Parker would stop prattling on about “moderation.” At least she realizes that moderation is a state of mind and not a location on the ideological spectrum. But she never reacts accordingly. There are plenty of Democrats and even a handful of Republicans in Congress who are capable of using “an open mind, a willing ear, an unjaundiced eye” when discussing public policy. But that willingness is meaningless when one party embarks on a scorched earth strategy of total obstruction.
I’m a progressive and a moderate at the same time, but in the current political atmosphere the following doesn’t resonate with me at all.
First, we must recognize moderation once again as a virtue, both in our public and private lives. Those who shun political moderation view its practitioners as traitors to some higher cause, spineless and weak.
I don’t consider people who are moderate in their tastes and style to be weak. I consider them well-formed, sane, reliable, and virtuous. But there’s nothing moderate about cutting a deal with a crocodile like Mitch McConnell. We’re trying to craft an energy policy with a party that pretends to disbelieve in climate change. We’re trying to reform the health care system by working with a party that talks about death panels. We’re trying to pass a surface transportation bill with a party that thinks bicycle paths are an insidious plot by the United Nations to strip our country of its sovereignty. We’re trying to address our long-term structural debt with a party that thinks math is for snobs. The GOP controls one half of one branch of government and yet they are behaving as if they have a mandate to totally rewrite the last 80 years of American political history.
The moderate in me knows that the way our government is structured means that progressives, Democrats, and people on the left generally, have to work with people on the right to craft policies. I don’t expect to enact laws that look like what I would create unilaterally. But there are no partners for crafting anything at all anymore.
I suppose there is a small infinitesimal benefit to Kathleen Parker’s bleating, but it would be better if she would be a lot more specific about why we’re having a complete breakdown in Congress.
Look to the party that is attacking women’s contraception in the name of religious liberty. Leave the Democrats out of it.
