Politicians Field Guide: The Moderate In The Race
By Mitch Berg
Elon Musk illustrated the truth for many in America’s political “middle”:
I’m not in “the middle”, by any means. I used to call myself “center right”, but these days I am proud to call myself a Paleocon, from the “let’s get back to the Sharon Statement” school of paleoconning.
Trump from 2016 to 2020 governed largely, but far from consitently, as a conservative; he secured the border, exerted productive pressure to support US interests overseas, and cut a crap-load of regulations. He also blew up the deficit – just as Dubya and Lightworker before him, and not nearly as badly as Joe “Obama 2.0” Biden have. Never mind his Democrat origin story – I have one too – but he’s a populist standup comic, not an activist. He can, and is, publicly on any side of any issue that suits him. No different than his opposition.
But as the Biden campaign settles in to try to battle back from polls that, at the moment, seem a little encouraging to Trump, it’s worth asking – what is “the center” in America today? Or, more accurately, where are the American people as a mean, and who is closer to it?
| Issue | Polling | Biden | Trump | ||
| The Border | Trump +21 | Mayorkas: “The Administration bears no responsibility for the problems”. | Illegal immigration is destroying the country. Build the wall. | ||
| Abortion | Trump +5. 16 week ban has 48% approval. | Biden supports taxpayer-funded abortion until and after birth and repealing the Hyde Amendment. | Trump opposed a federal ban and the six-week ban, and is casually pushing the 16 week ban. | ||
| National Security | Trump +6 | Do we even need to go into it? | “Make America strong again”. “Today, [the world] laughs at America” | ||
| Crime | Trump +13 | Crime is a result of “systemic racism”. | “We should execute…” fentanyl smugglers. | ||
| Inflation | Trump +18 | “Inflation is transitory, so let’s spend our way out of it” | Time to reel in the spending – but don’t touch | ||
| Jobs and the economy | Trump +5. Also – in 10/14, interventionism was nine points behind “government does too much” | Tripling down on “Bidenomics” – spending our way to | Pointing out, correctly, that Bidenomics is strangling the American dream. | ||
| Climate | Pew, 10/23: 30+ support phasing out fossil fuels | Administration is committed to “net zero by 2050” | “Drill, baby, drill!” | ||
| Israel vs. Hamas | 82% of Americans support Israel. 62% say any ceasefire must be contingent on release of the hostages. | February 2024: “The hostages should be released, but…” Administration is actively undercutting the Israeli war cabinet supported by 80% of Israelis. | Trump advocates revoking student visas for antsemitic students. | ||
| Ukraine | 54% of Americans support maintaining / increasing aid to Ukraine | Biden has no clear realistic end goal in sight. July 2023: “We’ll stay as long as it takes”, whatever that means. | Trump supports increasing aid with the goal of bringing Putin to an “off ramp”, a negotiated settlement. February 2024: “Trump is the only president who hasn’t given Putin what he wants”. | ||
| NATO | 53% of Americans support NATO | BIden has pushed NATO in no direction in particular. | Trump pushes for NATO members to pay fair share, thus strengthening the alliance. | ||
| Education | Biden +2 (43-41) – hardly a mandate. | Biden backs CRT, racial division. | Promises cutting federal funding to school systems teaching CRT. |
Say what you will about the value of moderation; I’m here to pull the conversation to the right however I can.
But if the center decides the election, then Trump might just have a shot.
March 19th, 2024 at 12:44 pm
As the guy standing on the far right end of the line – the lunatic fringe right-wing kook end – I welcome Elon and all like him. May there be many more.
March 19th, 2024 at 1:27 pm
A couple of your data points got cut off:
Inflation > Trump: Time to reel in the spending – but don’t touch
Don’t touch what?
Jobs and the economy > Biden: Tripling down on “Bidenomics” – spending our way to
Global economic Armageddon, at this rate?
March 19th, 2024 at 2:37 pm
Why in the world does any state accept federal government any funds for K-12 education?
Let’s see how the fed/state relationship plays out:
Dealer: Want some crack?
Addict in the making: Sure.
Dealer: Here is just enough to get you hooked – but not enough to sustain or even enjoy yourself.
Addict in the making: Oh goodie, that’s just what I was looking for.
March 19th, 2024 at 3:13 pm
For those who do not understand Trump, or where he stands on the political spectrum, know this: Trump is a problem-solver, first, best and always. Since most solutions are conservative, he could be called a “common sense” conservative, if you must have a label. And for me “curbing the crazy” is all I need.
March 19th, 2024 at 4:55 pm
Well noted. The shifts I’ve seen in our society in my life are amazing and often horrendous. A good picture of those shifts is a Little House on the Prairie episode about taxes where a character makes the then-wild claim that sooner or later, the government will tax a man based on what he earns. Not every change is bad, but a lot of them….
March 20th, 2024 at 6:35 am
Trump’s enemies always claim that he increased the deficit, without mentioning that the DemoCommie controlled house, blackmailed him into accepting their usual pork additions, in order to get military and border wall funding. Just like Tip O’Neill did to Reagan, they will lie to get their way. If I recall correctly, the media back then were at least kind of doing their jobs and called O’Neill out for it.
It also conveniently slips people’s minds that Trump was the first POTUS in history to not take a salary during his entire term and unlike the last four and ALL Congress thieves left office with millions less in net worth. He was required to take $1 of salary, but donated the remaining $399,999 to underfunded government agencies.
March 20th, 2024 at 2:15 pm
Boss,
Except for the first 2 years when the GOP had a Trifecta and still increased spending. Remember, Trump has said since 2016 that Entitlements will not be cut on his watch.
March 20th, 2024 at 2:21 pm
I used to challenge self proclaimed moderates to explain their political ideology to me. They never could coherently. When I started going issue by issue and showing them the binary choices they would just squirm.
People claim to be Moderate because moderation and compromise are viewed as objective goods in and of themselves regardless of what is being compromised. In practice, Moderates are people that choose the status quo because they fear offending someone by having an actual opinion.
March 20th, 2024 at 2:30 pm
Remember “social liberal, fiscal conservative”? It meant RINO and generally translated to Votes Democrat.
Simple example: abortion. Social liberal favors abortion on demand up to the moment of birth but not at taxpayer expense. But what do you do when a poor girl is raped by her uncle and can’t afford the abortion? You going to force her to carry it to term, rape and incest be damned? Of course not. So we pay for that one. And the camel’s nose is under the tent.
Principles are hard. They make hard choices. They make us live with hard decisions. It’s much easier to have none.