With Election Day rapidly approaching, it is important for voters to understand the language politicians use to entice them.
Across both parties, one of the most common buzzwords thrown around is that a candidate is “moderate” and will cross the aisle if it means reaching a compromise with the opposition. If you think about it, this is one of the most ridiculous positions someone could hold, regardless of their party affiliation.
You do not add anything to the political process by trying to include genocidal maniacs in a conversation about gun control. Those are clearly very distinct and separate lines of belief that I feel do not coincide in any way, shape or form.
Yet, even here in Pittsburgh, countless political leaders seek out votes on this platform of being “moderate.” They are more concerned with the business of the city and pledge to fix the broken systems that exist. I cannot wait to see how that goes for them if they win.
Moderates often campaign on a platform of fairness. They proclaim that they had to struggle to get where they are now, so why shouldn’t anyone else? Struggling should not mean not having food or a house to return to. They are all for helping unhoused people, as long as they work for it. This of course, doesn’t make sense in practice. After all, who could get through a 40-hour work week without access to food or a home?
It seems that moderates want voters to associate their policies with progressiveness. They want to be viewed as responsible leaders surrounded by bickering liberals and conservatives. Yet, I don’t see anything wrong with being able to pick a side in a debate. There is very clearly a right and a wrong in every issue and trying to mediate between them doesn’t add anything at all to the process.
This ideal of centrism has exponentially grown with the debate of climate change. Moderates usually never oppose action against climate change, but always put the economy first. Even if fossil fuel industries account for some social stabilization, global warming is way too dire at this point to debate over if it will disrupt the economy.
Federal funding is always a contentious idea as well. Veterans benefits, student loans and health services are all stripped from spending bills in the name of fitting into a budget. Moderates will gladly see to this but will never touch the behemoth that is the United States’ military spending. They perpetuate a modern Cold War by giving taxpayers’ hard earned money to the ever-growing military industrial complex.
If you want to see meaningful change in American politics, be it local, state or federal, do not vote for a moderate. All they do is sputter and sit dumbfounded as they try to find a middle ground between two polarizing ideas.
