House of Eratosthenes

A relative cc’d me on a disagreement he’s having in the e-mail. It seems he offered his opinion where it wasn’t welcome. One should, out of politeness, always withdraw speedily from such exchanges, and it seems he did so, but I thought his brush-off to the brush-off was pretty elegant:

Sorry you aren’t open to dialogue on controversial topics. I’ll try to remember to exclude you from them.

We’ve got a lot of folks who aren’t open to dialogue on controversial topics — provided they’re assured their guys are winning, and things are goin’ their way. Once you have, let us say, a smirky arrogant cowboy in charge of things, these “neutral” folks are suddenly open to dialogue on controversial topics just fine, thankyewverymuch.

I jotted down a comisserative reply, and my flaky treacherous wireless card, and/or my slick “New Coke” Hotmail interface that likes to give me dumb looks when I dispatch it to do something — one of those two — promptly ate it.

Computers. They’re like traffic lights. I can hear ’em giggling at me, I swear I can.

Oh well. I’ll just upload it here.

Given that there’s a connection between these moderates who don’t want to see anyone criticizing anybody else, and our new President-Elect hopey-changey President-God, I’m looking forward to the answers that must surely emerge as we are deluged by these four years of “change”:

Is there a difference between what will soon engulf the entire union, and the oily machine politics that are the hallmark of the buroughs from whence the Messiah comes? And if we are to think there is to be such a difference, why is that exactly?

What does the ascension of the MOST liberal Senator, to the White House, have to do with moderation, compromise, a new tone in Washington, or an end to partisanship?

How come it’s over the line to say Obama is Carter’s second term, but quite alright to run around repeating, ad nauseum, that McCain is Bush’s third term?

I can’t think of any democrat contender more extreme than Sen. Obama, the guy who won; can you?

I can’t think of any Republican contender more “moderate” or “middle of the road” (liberal) than John McCain; can you?

I’m hearing a lot about how Republicans should strive for moderation, in order to properly learn from their mistakes. What, exactly, am I supposed to be inspecting within the events of the past few months, to conclude this is a sweeping mandate for more moderation? On either side? What am I missing?

Since Obama’s strategy for dealing with other nations sounds so much like John McCain’s strategy for dealing with other political parties — admit to your mistakes, and apologize for being what you are — wouldn’t the most likely ultimate result for America, of an Obama administration’s foreign policy, look a great deal like the electoral outcome for the GOP in the 2008 elections? Why or why not?

Last but not least: How come these “moderates” are so passionate about having everything done their way? The more I study it, the less it seems to have to do with ideological neutrality, and the more it seems to concern a drive to wallow in ignorance, melded with a determination to stay that way and make others that way.

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.” — Thomas Jefferson.

Well, they might be hoping for change from the economic courses of action which caused the current meltdown. If they did however, they canned the wrong people and left the wrong people in place. Neither presidential candidate has a good record for stimulating the economy. and the congressional Dem’s have a continuous record of trashing it. As I told a coworker.

“The sun rises, the sun sets, and Dems raise taxes.
The sun rises, the sun sets, and Dems increase corporate regulations.
The sun rises, the sun sets, and Dems suggest gun control.”

So for at least two years we can expect socialist ideas to be tried time and again.

When the republicans canned their reps for voting for bailout, they voted their conscience, and when the Dems reelected their congressmen they betrayed their principles. Because last I heard EVERYONE across the political spectrum hated the bailout idea but only the Republicans punished anyone for it.
- Tom The Impaler | 11/14/2008 @ 10:59
Moderates are people who can’t be bothered with the trouble of having principles and just want someone to give them a reason for feeling the way they feel.
- JohnJ | 11/14/2008 @ 11:39
“Since Obama’s strategy for dealing with other nations sounds so much like John McCain’s strategy for dealing with other political parties — admit to your mistakes, and apologize for being what you are — wouldn’t the most likely ultimate result for America, of an Obama administration’s foreign policy, look a great deal like the electoral outcome for the GOP in the 2008 elections? Why or why not?”

Effing BANG!!! Seriously Morgan, you belong on the radio, TV, somewhere where you can be heard by more people. Your insight deserves a larger audience.
- tim | 11/14/2008 @ 12:13
This is a question regarding your site and how it loads within Internet Explorer 7.
Why do the pictures on the left bleed into the text. That makes it very difficult to read. I usually wait for a couple of days until they index downward.
I checked on other computers with Explorer and they all show the same as mine. Do we with Explorer just have to grin and bear it?
Stay well,
- Pixelkiller | 11/14/2008 @ 16:11
I’m a moderate… and the FIRST thing I learned about being so is you catch flack from BOTH sides. Sucks, to put it bluntly. Politics is all about compromise, which is something ideologues (Left AND Right) don’t seem to understand. I find ideologues inflexible… but entertaining.

Oh… and @ JohnJ: I have principles, thanyouverymuch. They may not be YOUR principles, but they’re principles none the less. Your argument (if that’s what it is) reflects ignorance, but Hey! To each his own. 😉
- Buck | 11/14/2008 @ 18:58
Now now, I think I have a pretty good idea what John has in mind, and I have an idea of what you’re like. Been reading your stuff for awhile, I’d have to be some kind of dumbass to have gone this long without forming some perception.

These two images, in my mind, aren’t the same. John’s talking about the yeller-bellies. The ADD-ers. The “politics is boring, I like pie” types. I think.
- mkfreeberg | 11/14/2008 @ 19:03
Ya, I (mis)spoke in haste. I should have said “ONE kind of moderate…” I don’t agree with the Republican party about everything (the Federal Marriage Amendment, for example). But it does seem like way too many people feel that being moderate by definition means not having any principles. These kind of “moderates” take pride in their lack of principles. They seem to think that not taking a side is a virtue.

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.”
- JohnJ | 11/14/2008 @ 20:56
Thank you both for the clarifications, Morgan and John… most appreciated! I’ll retract my horns now. 😉
- Buck | 11/14/2008 @ 21:14
I’m a little confused as to why they poked out in the first place.

If I were to make a list of opiners who have taken one side or the other in the Great Conflict of ’08 (drawing names of advocates on both sides), Mr. Pennington’s name would be very close to the top. Certainly you’re moderate in relative terms, in that you think your positions are centrist…but that applies to us all, does it not? I mean, I think my positions are dead-center on each and every single issue; although with regard to my vision for what I’d like to see happen to the democrat party, I’ll confess, there’s nothing moderate about it at all.
- mkfreeberg | 11/14/2008 @ 21:32
I’m a little confused as to why they poked out in the first place.

Mostly because of the implied (as I interpreted the post) assertion that moderates are wishy-washy people with no firm grounding… or, as John originally put it: a lack of principles (since retracted, of course).

And… yeah, I suppose we ALL think of ourselves as moderate, reasonable types. Even Lefties. Maybe especially Lefties. 😉
- Buck | 11/15/2008 @ 13:13
Maybe the point here is that the lefties have more or less co-opted the “moderate” tag in recent decades. I would submit that if you are truly a moderate (or for that matter a liberal) your self-definition may have been highjacked on you by the forces of the self-righteous.

I read the punch line of Morgan’s post as this one:

‘How come these “Moderates” are so passionate about having everything done their way?’

That certainly describes lefties (and ONLY lefties, btw) in my experience.
- rob | 11/15/2008 @ 17:45

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Questions for ModeratesFriday, November 14th, 2008

Questions for Moderates
Friday, November 14th, 2008