Let's play "I'm a moderate/You're a Lefty-Looney"!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

I love how all the DU thread starters who bemoan that the party has no "room for moderates" never define what moderate is.

Is supporting the brutal invasion and occupation of countries that didn't attack the U.S. a moderate policy?

Is aggressively pushing for and justifying arbitrary and indefinite imprisonment without charge a moderate policy?

Help me out here!

[Rex]

1. I'm a moderate and think it is all knee-jerking.

Some 'moderates' are giving the rest of us a bad name! Joe lost guys, he was no moderate so let it go and get behind Ned Lamont.

Moderates don't go Independent and fight against the very party they say they support. IMO. That sounds more like a 'radical' move.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

3. I would say opposing reckless, disastrous, unilateral invasions is a

moderate position, and supporting such policies is radically right wing.

[Guaranteed]

4. Totally, 100% agreed. nt

[Rex]

8. Yes and I would hope common sense.

I support the military so that must make me a moderate and hopefully not a wacknut as some here would like to think. What is radical is PNAC and the BFEE and if Joe supported those groups, then he was no moderate.

I think Ike was a moderate and hope Clark will be on the 2008 ticket.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

13. I spent most of my adult life as a military officer. But that doesn't

mean I have to support every inane Godawful thing a chickenhawk like the shrub would order the military to do.

[Rex]

14. I served in the Army when a real Commander In Chief was in charge

Bill Clinton. Bush is a tin-horn dictator. I can't stand how the military gets abused by supposed people who care and are in position to make our troops lives a living hell. Pisses me the hell off it does!

[krkaufman]

26. Exactly. And "on your knees" ....

... must NOT be our initial bargaining position. There's nothing wrong with compromise, but we need leaders who will insure that compromise is accepted by both sides and that bargaining is done in good faith.

[LincolnMcGrath]

2. LEFTIST!

[WI_DEM]

5. Lieberman is no Moderate he is supporting a radical policy in Iraq

one of pre-emptive invasion into a country which posed no threat to the USA.

[EFerrari]

7. jinx

lol

[EFerrari]

6. There is no moderation in supporting this radical extremist

"president".

Moderation would forbid it. :)

[Oversea Visitor]

9. I see all the branding and name calling

I am a conservatives, liberal, moderate, progressive depending on the issue.

So if you do not like anyone of those terms you are free to kick my butt :rofl:

[EFerrari]

12. Lol!

Well, why make the target so big?

:rofl:

[Oversea Visitor]

18. I got super BIG BUTT

And I got a mix of superior donkey and elephant hide tech.

Not the normal inferior human hide tech.

[EFerrari]

22. . . .

:rofl:

[Swamp Rat]

10. Moonbat checking in.

Actually I'm a MoonRat, but we're related so close enough. :)

[readmoreoften]

16. who is that, SR?

[Swamp Rat]

20. The alien lizard who calls himself "Sean Hannity"

:yoiks:

[readmoreoften]

23. Ah, he looks much better there than in real life!

Hannity must be sub-lizard!

[Truthiness Inspector]

11. There is room

To me a moderate means someone who supports human rights here at home as well as abroad. All human conditions matter, and how we deal with that is in dispute.

Being moderate also means the ability to recognize and address threats, and not just dismiss them, but also paying attention to accountability.

Times change, the world changes, and we all change along with that.

There is a lot wrong with the world, but a moderate realizes that there is a lot right too. I learn new things every day. My opinion only, of course.

Great OP, good question.

[charlie]

15. All that is immaterial

One ostensibly "moderate" Senator gets bounced and there's thread after post after thread from one guy who wants to frame it as "no room for moderates." Well, WTF are Bayh, Nelson and Nelson, Salazar, Landrieu, Pryor, et al? Cripes, you want to hug a moderate, take your pick, we've got plenty of them!

What he's really keening about is that there's apparently, resoundingly "no room for Lieberman" in a party sponsored seat. The fact that Joe's outside the party is Joe's own goddamned choice.

[dorktv]

17. YOU LOONEY! LEFTY LOONEY in fact!

:hug: Just teasing.

Moderates are people who support gun ownership with some sensible restrictions, they support wars like Afghanistan, they are okay with the death penalty, they want to have better health care but probably not a universal system, a better economy but not if it costs a lot in taxes, some affirmative action but feel vaguely uneasy about it...

I think anyway...I have a few middle of the road positions but mostly left wing ones, and I also am willing to compromise on some things by wanting double then what I should want so we compromise at what I do want.

Like I want women to have total dominion over men with them being the stay at homes but I am willing to compromise on full equality.

[Praetorian7]

25. Completely agree on the definition of moderate there

... except, in my humble opinion, women already have total dominion over men, and, I for one, welcome our female overlords.

[dorktv]

29. You are just joking right? Because outside US (which is not 100% yet)

women are NOT in dominion over men.

I say let's arm the women of the world and ask them if they want to kill off their oppressors. Then maybe we can get the men to be nice.

[Douglas Carpenter]

19. "moderate" seems to be a euphemism for supporting forever war

[Rex]

21. We must get rid of the Military Industrial Complex and get our military

back to being something that can be respected far more than feared. Tools that get abused always get dismissed; well these are human tools indentured to the nation we supposedly control. I can't stand war and I bet not a military man or woman alive does either.

[LittleClarkie]

33. I'm moderate, and I don't support that. Centrist better describes

people like Joe.

[hfojvt]

24. am I a moderate then?

maybe on this board

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=82755#90116

If Clinton is a moderate (DLC type) because he is conservative on economic issues and liberal on social issues and uses lots of Republican rhetoric ("the era of Big Government is over") then what does that make me if I am liberal on economic issues but conservative on social issues? I am not even sure about the social issues part since I had three or four DUers jump me because I defended the right of a bicycle to run stop signs on empty streets. Plus I favor legalizing marijuana (even though I really do not want anybody to smoke it).

But it's kinda like Carlin said "anybody who drives faster than me is a maniac and anybody who drives slower than me is an idiot". In the same way, anybody who disagrees with me from the left is a looney and anybody who disagrees from the right is a fascist troll.

[Solon]

27. I'm a guy who defines himself...

On social issues I'm pretty much a Libertarian, legalize drugs, legalize gambling, legalize prostitution, I don't care. On economic issues, I'm extremely left though, I support a progressive income tax, I believe in a 3 strikes rule for corporate malfeance, in other words, if a corporation breaks the law 3 times, doesn't matter how severe, the government should revoke their charter, liquidate their assets, take out whatever fines/taxes are on those assets, and distribute what is left over back to the shareholders and backpay for employees.

On gun issues, background checks, etc. are fine by me, but confiscatory laws I generally oppose, but then again, I don't like CCW laws either, they are useless anyways.

[Danascot]

28. The Repukes have sucessfully framed

the definition of a moderate as the territory between a center-right dem and a right-wingnut. Anything left of there is a liberal extemist.

[Generator]

30. I think being framed as "anti-war"

is the problem. I think Lieberman is the extremist. I think the Republicans of today and the last few years are the extremists. To be labeled anti-war immediately frames it as the Democrats won't defend this country. I think we should stick to being against the false, based on lies, decieving a nation CRIME that is the current Iraq war. But being anti-war as a label creates that belief. Most Democrats are not for any more Vietnams. Most Americans are not for any more Vietnams. And now most Americans are against the Iraq war. War isn't good, but war based on lies and continued lies is even worse. Never using the military is extreme. And that's what the right means, when they say anti-war. They mean we don't have the balls to defend ourselves. And we need to call them on that shit. Ned Lamont is pretty damn moderate. And so are most Americans. And most Americans agree with the mainstream of the Democrats.

[pitohui]

31. straw man, facts not in evidence

no one supports invasion or occupation of countries who are not a threat to us, nor does anyone here support gitmo/torture/abrogation of our civil rights

the game of "i'm a moderate, you're a loony" is played out on the field of lifestyle, meaning
snotty fashion choices -- an example would be diet: the moderates eat meat, the loonies won't even drink milk which last i looked milking the cow actually relieves pain rather than causing it -- another example would be: moderates actually buy a car and go to work, loonies smugly ride a bike and refuse to get a real job more than a mile from home (which means they are either students or rich enough to afford v. expensive manhattan, los angeles, etc. penthouses)

i think a fair amount of these lifestyle fights are picked by either arrogant snobs who really don't realize how offensive they are -- or by deliberate disruptors

the average vegetarian or average meat-eater don't care what you eat, and the average person rich enough to own a condo overlooking central park in nyc prob. doesn't have time to post on DU abt how awful working people are for owning SUVs....

it's high school crap, i hate you because you are not wearing the "cool" pair of jeans

[LittleClarkie]

34. Elitist fact-mongerer!

Also, moderate, lefty or Repuke-lite all depends on where the person who's calling someone those words is standing. Here, I'm a moderate. At the local pub, I'm a lefty moonbat. Someone called me nuts for having a Kerry and a Doyle sticker on my car. Doyle is a DLCer for pete's sake. I once got called a Communist at the same pub because I made it known I was working on the Kerry campaign.

I live in Sensenbrenner's district. Trying to change that, actually.

[dpbrown]

32. It's telling rape victims to "try the hospital down the road"

That's it.

[Moderator]

35. Locking

This is flamebait.