{"id":60,"date":"2006-08-09T07:48:15","date_gmt":"2006-08-09T12:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2006\/08\/09\/the-irate-moderate\/"},"modified":"2006-08-09T07:48:15","modified_gmt":"2006-08-09T12:48:15","slug":"the-irate-moderate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2006\/08\/09\/the-irate-moderate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Irate Moderate"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t worship at the political altar of the moderate, but the NY Times Op-Ed page makes some excellent points here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The rebellion against Mr. Lieberman was actually an uprising by that rare phenomenon, irate moderates. They are the voters who have been unnerved over the last few years as the country has seemed to be galloping in a deeply unmoderate direction. A war that began at the president\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choosing has degenerated into a desperate, bloody mess that has turned much of the world against the United States. The administration\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contempt for international agreements, Congressional prerogatives and the authority of the courts has undermined the rule of law abroad and at home.<\/p>\n

Yet while all this has been happening, the political discussion in Washington has become a captive of the Bush agenda. Traditional beliefs like every person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right to a day in court, or the conviction that America should not start wars it does not know how to win, wind up being portrayed as extreme. The middle becomes a place where senators struggle to get the president to volunteer to obey the law when the mood strikes him. Attempting to regain the real center becomes a radical alternative.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t worship at the political altar of the moderate, but the NY Times Op-Ed page makes some excellent points here: The rebellion against Mr. Lieberman was actually an uprising by that rare phenomenon, irate moderates. They are the voters who have been unnerved over the last few years as the country has seemed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-society"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t