New Politics (eBook)

Moderate Politics for Post 2020 America

Harry Martin (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
192 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
9781098363383 (ISBN)

Infos

New Politics is a book of politics and political self-discovery for those who seek progress on the many festering issues that are holding America and Americans back. Regardless of your political affiliation, if you are frustrated with both political parties, the media, and inaction by Congress, New Politics will help you unpack your frustration. You may discover you are really a moderate in your heart-not a conservative or liberal. Reunifying America post 2020 election amid the pandemic, predatory partisan Washington politics, and divisive media is a formidable challenge. New Politics takes that task head on with a provocative look at American politics through a completely different lens than the traditional 'left-right' lens. It introduces an ideology of Moderatism to help you compare your political views and values against Conservatism, Liberalism, and those the author believes define a 21st-century moderate's political core. It asks hard questions and challenges Americans to look squarely at two big blind spots - children's rights and adult political discrimination of children. It prescribes ideas to reunify and rebuild America by taking a hard look at a number of raging left-right debates - abortion, children, climate, debt, education, family, guns, immigration, inequality, jobs, media, racism, and more. It invites those ready to call themselves a moderate to stand with moderates and... Imagine America with new politics if moderates led the nation at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue with America's children and future in mind.

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Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, Liberal or Conservative New Politics should be on your reading list. New Politics is not a book about politics, it is a book of politics and political self-discovery. Regardless of your political affiliation, if you went through 2020 frustrated with both political parties or the media or inaction by Congress, New Politics, will help you from a new perspective... that of a moderate. It is intended as a badly needed counterweight in the middle of the political scale for those who seek real progress on many festering issues that are holding America back. Based on one simple idea - more moderates in politics create more political moderation, better policies, and better outcomes for America, it prescribes ideas to reunify and rebuild America through a new lens that challenges the traditional left-right political lens. It also challenges Americans to look squarely at two profound blind spot issues - children's rights and adults' political discrimination of children. New Politics will let you catch a glimpse of what moderates talk about when extreme partisans aren't around and what might be on their agenda if they had a seat at the table or voice on stage. It will leave you with the ability to imagine America if moderates led the nation from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue with America's children and future in mind. The narrative opens with a look at the current state of American politics, media, and defines who American moderates are and what they likely believe. It introduces an ideology of Moderatism to compare your political core against Conservatism, Liberalism, and those the author believes define a 21st-century moderate's political core. To further compare your beliefs with how a moderate's beliefs differ from those of a conservative and liberal, it goes through four hot button issues (guns, immigration, education and climate) so you can decide where you stand. Throughout the book you will be challenged to identify where you stand on a number of raging left-right debates: abortion, children, debt, guns & dangerous people, elections, family, government, inequality, jobs, media, racism, and more. Your journey into the middle of America's political prism ends in the last section with thought provoking solutions for children's rights, skills and jobs, civic duty, healthcare, and federal fiscal responsibility. The final chapter opens with a one minute self-assessment that will answer the question, "e;Are you a moderate?"e; And closes with an invitation and a plan for you to participate in an American Revolution of conscience to implement a political solution that encourages America to become a more moderate nation.

Textauszug

Chapter 1: 21st Century Politics—A House Divided

Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.

—Abraham Lincoln

The determination to vote out the opposition—and the broader trend of acute polarization within the American political system—has altered virtually every facet of our political life. Negative partisanship is affecting the behavior of voters and reshaping the voting coalitions aligned behind each major party.2

—Rachel Bitecofer, political scientist, Christopher Newport University

Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” In today’s deeply polarized public arena, liberals and conservatives, their ideologues, and special interests, dominate the national politics with very divisive discourse. They have incessantly looked for the bad in anyone who does not subscribe to their point of view. They condemn anyone who does not support their agenda. Both factions have become more extreme and radical, leading Congress to become tribal, uncivil, dysfunctional, and increasingly irrelevant while the federal courts have been the battlefield for politicized justice by liberal and conservative activism. Financed by deep pocket, dark-moneyed special interests, and obsessively focused zealots at the core of the two deeply divided ideological factions, both are hell-bent on influencing anyone susceptible to their propaganda or convinced by their narrative. Both factions drown out the voice of the majority of Americans who are only interested in living their lives and raising their children best they can, in peace in the natural world. Many Americans are not interested in Progressives’ new dystopian world or Libertarians’ brave new world of a few rich and a lot of not-rich people, nor do they subscribe to the values, agenda, or ideology of twenty-first century conservatives or liberals.

As the national dialogue has divided us, the political process discriminated us, and powerful economic interests have disem-powered us, polls record that Americans say the two political parties are not doing a good enough job of representing them. A majority of the American people believe that a third political party is needed. Over two-thirds of Americans say they want a third party.3 Let us call them nonpartisans. Those interested in a third political party, however, don’t agree on what that third party should be—moderate, more liberal, or more conservative. Nearly a third of Americans, either liberal or conservative, are partisans and are uninterested in considering a third party. They are interested in either promoting their ideology or voting the other party out of office. According to polling by the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, partisans are not about to abandon their party. By their polling, over three-quarters of Americans feel better with one party or the other, leaving less than a quarter to bounce between the two.4

Furthermore, with the two factions deeply embedded in our political, legal, and electoral fabric, it is hard for Americans to understand or support the reforms needed to change the two-party system. Consequently, addressing the political discord by creating a new, third major political party, equally embedded in the political, legal, and electoral fabric, would be very hard. It has only happened several times in our history successfully. While hard to architect and implement, the notion of a third political party should not be completely dismissed as Americans consider their options today to redress their grievances. While the internet and World Wide Web may create new possibilities, the process begins with the formation of ideology and a platform that people can inspect and consider before they decide which party they want to support.

The current ideological frame spans liberal to conservative with multiple groups in between called independent, undecided, and moderate. Pollsters conclude that the in-between groups are all over the ideological map5 and that there is not a good definition of an independent, undecided, or moderate voter. Despite some overlap independents, moderates and undecided voters are pretty distinct without a common cohesive ideology within or across the groups, according to the Voter Study Group referenced above. Pollsters have trouble parsing out self-identified moderates from the others because moderates survey across a wide range of choices in the ideological map on any given issue. That finding is not surprising as a key attribute of a moderate is that moderates seek solutions, not political causes. Honest differences in how best to address any issue create a diversity of ideas, primarily when the choices presented by the two standing factions do not provide solution-oriented proposals. As pointed out in “The Moderate Middle Is a Myth” by Lee Drutman,6

There are political scientists (Donald Kinder and Nathan Kalmoe) who have concluded that "the moderate category seems less an ideological destination than a refuge for the innocent and the confused." and a "poor predictor of centrism" (David Broockman).

Pollsters and politicians treat people who self-identify as undecideds, independents, and moderates as the “swing” voters for party politicians to sway. While pollsters will determine who they say a moderate is by the way they categorize the electorate, my book proposes a way for people across the political and ideological spectrum to reclassify themselves based on a moderate ideology that challenges the traditional political spectrum. A key goal of this book is to provide a moderate ideological destination for the reader to consider. The aim is to test whether politically moderate thinking can be transformed from a refuge to a destination for independents, undecideds, moderate Democrats, and moderate Republicans. They all then become swing voters away from the extreme liberal and conservative platforms. One of the questions this books asks is, “Can politically moderate campaigns and positions be advanced by a new breed of moderately minded people and politicians that attract at least swing voters toward solution-oriented politics and policies?”

One of the reasons so many Americans feel a third political party is needed is because the moderate, nonpartisan view has been ignored by partisan conservatives, liberals, and one-percenters who straddle both parties. Partisans are the ones who are determined to vote the other party out of office. Nonpartisans are the ones who are drawn to the center for civil, moderate dialogue on ways to make progress. They are potential moderates. No one is listening to them or representing their interests. With a great deal of help from media, the voice of America’s center has gone silent because it has been silenced by politically elite. With control over well designed agendas and orchestrated media messaging, both factions have made sure that hardly anyone is talking about moderate views or issues in any forum, despite the reality that nonpartisans are the majority of Americans.

How did we get back here? Yes. America has been here before. American politics have been deeply divided before with factional disputes over scandals, elections, and policy. The casual student of American history will recognize the similarity with today’s focus on scandal and charges of presidential misconduct during the administration of the 45th president and the 1st president. Even during the time of our first president—George Washington—there was great controversy. An issue that dominated the attention of the nation was the hotly debated John Jay Treaty with England, which aligned the United States with England versus France. President Washington desired to revitalize relations with England and resolve open issues from the Revolutionary War. At the same time, Thomas Jefferson, his secretary of state and a Francophile, fought to align with France and avoid England. At one point, Jefferson accused Washington of treason in negotiating that treaty.

As contentious as the election of 2020 has been it is not the first. It feels like it may be the worst. Only history will be able to judge whether it or one of the other contested elections that preceded it, each with their own dramatic consequences, was the most controversial election. Consider the elections of 1800, 1824, 1860, and 1876.‡

The election of 1800 between Federalists John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (with Charles Pinkney Adam’s candidate for vice president and Aaron Burr as Jefferson’s vice president) ended with Jefferson becoming the third president of the United States after winning against Adams who got 65 electoral votes and Jefferson’s vice presidential running mate, Aaron Burr, who received the same number of electoral votes as Jefferson. Because the Constitution did not distinguish votes for president and vice president who both got 73 electoral votes, it took 36 votes in the House of Representatives to break the tie. The presidential contest between Adams (incumbent) Jefferson was filled with vindictive mudslinging with both sides’ partisans making outrageous and enraging claims about each other. Both sides thought the election of the other would be the ruin of the country. The political intrigue of that contest was matched with the infighting in the House of Representatives that ensued as Burr attempted to beat Jefferson in the run-off election. Unintended consequences of the divisive election of 1800 led to the 12th amendment to the constitution to redefine how elections...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 29.4.2021
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• ISBN-13: 9781098363383 / 9781098363383