Moderates

[Tiger the Lion]

Are there still moderates in the U.S.? This is the last time I remember personal integrity put before the party line.

 

[busker]

Not just the US
The world over, politicians have become more extreme on either side
Because the public has gotten more extreme

Because social media

[RiverNotch]

Tbh when these folks mentioned they were "scared of an Obama presidency", it seemed to me less like they were scared of a Democrat than that they were scared of a black man in power, and while I understand that the masses, however unsavory their opinions, need to be represented, and that America has a....history with such discomfort, for this particular outsider, there may not have been much moderation in the first place, if nearly half of the share of votes were meant to give voice to something like this. Of course, in this forum we must play at being poets, which for our largely Western traditions means imitating, at least in part, the example of the Holy Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, to whom there was never much moderation, only those better able to mask the injustices they indulge in with some semblance of civility.

[rowens]

This is how politics works.

Reparations for Slavery:
Great White Americans did great things for this country, were awarded/rewarded lots of money that has been given down through generations of their progeny. Great Black Americans, whether they were great or not, did great things for this country, and weren't paid and were tortured and killed for even assuming that they were human. So Old Money is alive and well, No Money is alive for a little while and told to shut up. 
   As even a moron teenager can become an expert in a matter of months as education and technological advances increase, Black Leaders have evolved, with help from their Rich White Benefactors, to create the illusion of an Equal Black Block, as the politicians insist.
   These White and Black experts have come up with Two Main Objectives for a Sustainable Future.
   The First is: Bring the Slaves, not all of them, but the ones who were actually stifled but otherwise Brilliant, back to life, and pay them a Millionaire's Salary. We can move up to the multiMillion status as we evolve.
   The Second is: Allow those who have created these Great American Things to keep what they have, while taxing those who enjoy Great American Things built and benefited by black slaves, which is everyone, including poor black people, and giving that money to poor black people.  . . . That way, Injustices will have been settled, those who benefit will be punished to an extent that they will barely notice, and the current Stable Economy will be allowed to progress in a liberal and democratic manner.

Continuing this subject:
The criminal proclivities of black men in urban areas and their wannabe white, black, mexican and laughably female counterparts in other, less polluted, areas of the county are really the direct product of Hollywood Romanticism. This was an idealized development of the sleazy gangsterism that had grown from half-literate penny novels and folktales told about wild west outlawism, itself a lowclass and bowdlerized imitation of the Founding Fathers with their Cavalier crossing of the ocean from Europe, massacre of the redskins and enslavement of the colored. Eventually codified and structured to task by an elitist railway system later known as the Ford Motor Company.  
  The aesthetic majesty and abdominal integrity of these folk heroes, silver screen demigods and red, white-blued portraits postered on rundown classroom walls got in the music of the innercity youth, spending several less than polished decades in the rural south with the Bible and Shakespeare-raped bluesmen.
  The idea, and really, too, feeling and emotion of these Rich White Founding Gangsters fermented a State of Mind where crime and doing what the hell we need to do, live or die, was as kosher as it was for the Jews in Egypt. An understanding of reality our Democratic Freedom Fighters have been honoring in deed and blood ever since, despite the mindfucking Republican-Democrat Reverse-Image-Modelling process that began in the late '50s.


Since, the counterculture has become the mainstream. And we have all forgotten that Great Founding Father's Wisdom about the lilies of the field. 
And we have all become gangsters, most of us lazy, some of us brave outlaws, and the moderate area of political thugs with a playlist and a bank account and cave on mars for when the lilies prove to be the cowards we are.

[rayheinrich]

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
- Malachi 4:6


So, I'm guessing we're living in the post-smite era.

[rayheinrich]

This is how politics works.

Reparations for Slavery:
Great White Americans did great things for this country, were awarded/rewarded lots of money that has been given down through generations of their progeny. Great Black Americans, whether they were great or not, did great things for this country, and weren't paid and were tortured and killed for even assuming that they were human. So Old Money is alive and well, No Money is alive for a little while and told to shut up. 
   As even a moron teenager can become an expert in a matter of months as education and technological advances increase, Black Leaders have evolved, with help from their Rich White Benefactors, to create the illusion of an Equal Black Block, as the politicians insist.
   These White and Black experts have come up with Two Main Objectives for a Sustainable Future.
   The First is: Bring the Slaves, not all of them, but the ones who were actually stifled but otherwise Brilliant, back to life, and pay them a Millionaire's Salary. We can move up to the multiMillion status as we evolve.
   The Second is: Allow those who have created these Great American Things to keep what they have, while taxing those who enjoy Great American Things built and benefited by black slaves, which is everyone, including poor black people, and giving that money to poor black people.  . . . That way, Injustices will have been settled, those who benefit will be punished to an extent that they will barely notice, and the current Stable Economy will be allowed to progress in a liberal and democratic manner.

Continuing this subject:
The criminal proclivities of black men in urban areas and their wannabe white, black, mexican and laughably female counterparts in other, less polluted, areas of the county are really the direct product of Hollywood Romanticism. This was an idealized development of the sleazy gangsterism that had grown from half-literate penny novels and folktales told about wild west outlawism, itself a lowclass and bowdlerized imitation of the Founding Fathers with their Cavalier crossing of the ocean from Europe, massacre of the redskins and enslavement of the colored. Eventually codified and structured to task by an elitist railway system later known as the Ford Motor Company.  
  The aesthetic majesty and abdominal integrity of these folk heroes, silver screen demigods and red, white-blued portraits postered on rundown classroom walls got in the music of the innercity youth, spending several less than polished decades in the rural south with the Bible and Shakespeare-raped bluesmen.
  The idea, and really, too, feeling and emotion of these Rich White Founding Gangsters fermented a State of Mind where crime and doing what the hell we need to do, live or die, was as kosher as it was for the Jews in Egypt. An understanding of reality our Democratic Freedom Fighters have been honoring in deed and blood ever since, despite the mindfucking Republican-Democrat Reverse-Image-Modelling process that began in the late '50s.


Since, the counterculture has become the mainstream. And we have all forgotten that Great Founding Father's Wisdom about the lilies of the field. 
And we have all become gangsters, most of us lazy, some of us brave outlaws, and the moderate area of political thugs with a playlist and a bank account and cave on mars for when the lilies prove to be the cowards we are.

I'd agree with you except I feel it's like checking one of those
"I agree to all the terms and conditions" things you find on various
hunks of software. I'm never sure if I've missed something or,
more likely, hadn't understood the full ramifications of what I was
agreeing to. Still, I find myself liking your overall mood.