07-28-2022, 10:54 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-28-2022, 10:57 PM by Eric the Green.)
One thing I thought I would like about concentrating people of the same persuasion within the two parties, is that the people could choose to defeat the Republicans if they get too extreme. That might be a good idea now, since they DID get that way. But the danger of them winning makes this more dangerous.
Middle of the road doesn't really get us very far. Right now, the Forward Party hopes to take some moderate voters away from the extreme Republican Party, but who don't want to be Democrats; along with some moderate Democrats some of whom may have already left the Republican Party some time ago. But the Forward Party is misnamed, because only a Left party can move us "Forward." It's what the Left does. A moderate party just sort of ambles along and refuses to face up to what's truly needed. Is that goal what they hope will get the most voters? I don't know. I think the main thrust of the Democratic Party is what is needed now. Real concerns need to be addressed, and moderates usually just dawdle and approve half-measures that don't do the job.
And the extremist Republicans don't want to dawdle either. They want to take us backward in huge steps. How many Republicans would really switch to the moderate party, and how many also don't like regressive half-measures?
I think the moderates who don't like the extremist and personality-cultist Republican Party need to realize that their other Republican ideas ALSO need to be junked and opposed. Gov. Hogan, a moderate Republican from Maryland who worked well with Democrats, nevertheless referred to a would-be restored "moderate" Republican Party as "Reaganesque." But that just ignores how far right the Republicans have gone. Reagan was also an extremist, and he paved the way for all the extremist views the Party holds today, including its racism. And who needs them? Who needs "moderate former Republicans" who still hold to free-market neoliberal trickle-down Reaganomics? That is the biggest scam of them all.
No, the people just need to join the real center-left party, the Democrats, which is already moderate by the standards of better days and places than the 21st century USA. We already have a "Forward Party," and it already uses that description for itself.
Middle of the road doesn't really get us very far. Right now, the Forward Party hopes to take some moderate voters away from the extreme Republican Party, but who don't want to be Democrats; along with some moderate Democrats some of whom may have already left the Republican Party some time ago. But the Forward Party is misnamed, because only a Left party can move us "Forward." It's what the Left does. A moderate party just sort of ambles along and refuses to face up to what's truly needed. Is that goal what they hope will get the most voters? I don't know. I think the main thrust of the Democratic Party is what is needed now. Real concerns need to be addressed, and moderates usually just dawdle and approve half-measures that don't do the job.
And the extremist Republicans don't want to dawdle either. They want to take us backward in huge steps. How many Republicans would really switch to the moderate party, and how many also don't like regressive half-measures?
I think the moderates who don't like the extremist and personality-cultist Republican Party need to realize that their other Republican ideas ALSO need to be junked and opposed. Gov. Hogan, a moderate Republican from Maryland who worked well with Democrats, nevertheless referred to a would-be restored "moderate" Republican Party as "Reaganesque." But that just ignores how far right the Republicans have gone. Reagan was also an extremist, and he paved the way for all the extremist views the Party holds today, including its racism. And who needs them? Who needs "moderate former Republicans" who still hold to free-market neoliberal trickle-down Reaganomics? That is the biggest scam of them all.
No, the people just need to join the real center-left party, the Democrats, which is already moderate by the standards of better days and places than the 21st century USA. We already have a "Forward Party," and it already uses that description for itself.