I am a political moderate. I tend to pride myself no looking at both sides and mixing the good from both of them. It gives freedom to critique and freedom to actually see what I think on issues instead of what some politician or journalist told me to think. I like to read academic accounts on issues instead of rants on blogs and I enjoy shying away from the biased American media for the more descriptive foreign counterparts. All of this sounds so dreamy and impossible in today’s extremist, ill informed era of that prides itself on mediocrity and telling you a thing or two about why you’re wrong. However, I’m here to say, I’m Alanna Marie Paris, I’m a political moderate, and yes we do exist.
It’s hard to be a moderate. The other side always assumes that you are of course, rooting for the side they disagree with. They then assume that we are of course awful people who don’t understand a thing and need to be changed. However, this is the exact reason moderates are needed (and we so rarely engage in discussion that reveals how moderate we are). This extremist and often-volatile debate that has occurred as of late in our country is completely silly and illogical. It’s the moderate that can bring unity to make real and good change. The moderate can cut out the stuff that is irrefutably bad, such as racism or true bigotry, and highlight the things that are unmistakably good such as job growth and societal justice. We moderates do exist, if we didn’t this country would have crumbled by now. However, we need to be given a voice because reason has been thrown out the window and without it change cannot happen.
The nice thing about being a moderate is that we don’t drink the political Kool-Aid, Due to our centrist nature we tend to look at both sides of something and then come to a conclusion based on that research. We haven’t sold ourselves to a ‘side’ and simply think through what is best. We don’t see the party name and decide what they say must be good. We don’t just add noise to the mainstream mantras; moderates are adding voice to the voiceless issues and balance to the crazy climate. Moderates are being drowned out by the loud and absolutist voices on the right and left, but no matter how frustrating it can be, we will continue to sit in the middle, sip our tea, and discuss the issues. The actual ones. Like healthcare and foreign policy. Remember those?
