We need a third party - a party for the 70% of us who are moderates. We are the majority who abhor the way single-issue radicals, frothing at the mouth, have taken over our political discourse and both political parties.
We don't want to control what goes on in our neighbors' bedrooms, or in their doctors' offices, or [fill in the blank]. And we don't want our government to either.
We want our government to use our tax money to secure and ensure the safety and security of all of our citizens - within our borders. We do not want to continue to be the world's police.
We want our government to collect taxes fairly from all of its citizens. We want our government to use our tax money to improve the lives of all citizens. We do not want our government to use our tax money to first create, and then systematically enslave, an entire underclass of permanently non-contributing citizens by making welfare more life-sustaining and desirable than a productive, economically rewarding, and enjoyable job.
We want our tax dollars to be used to educate our children and grandchildren in a way that offers all of them the skills to create for themselves successful, productive lives. We don't need for our government to use our tax money to support an oppressively large Washington bureaucracy whose primary mission has become its own preservation and growth.
We moderates understand that there is no virtue in extremism. We moderates understand that in all things balance is the true virtue.
Unfortunately, our fellow citizens who lean center-left are afraid to challenge the far left because they know the immediate and loud reaction will be an accusation that they have no “heart”. Our center-left citizens understand that a hand-out without a hand-up is the most cruel and cynical form of discrimination. Our center-left citizens know that government restrictions on personal liberties has run amok, and that the far left is the sponsor of most of those restrictions.
But they are afraid to speak up.
And our fellow citizens who are center-right are afraid to challenge the far right because they know they will be accused of somehow being less than patriotic and god-fearing.
Our center-right citizens understand that patriotism is a virtue that doesn’t belong to one party or one religion. They understand that wrapping yourself in the Flag while waving a bible in the air isn't a prerequisite for patriotism. And our center-right citizens know that being "one nation under God" isn't justification for ignoring the vital importance of the separation of Church and State.
But our center-right citizens are also afraid to speak up.
We ask you to stop caring what the radicals on the fringes say. Stop being silent as they rant. Understand that their only power is in the volume of their voices, not in the merit of their agendas.
To you 70% of Republicans who don't agree with how the radically conservative far-right has taken over your party; and to you 70% of Democrats who don't agree with how the equally radical and fiscally irresponsible far-left has taken over your party – the first step is to proudly declare that you are a MODERATE.
Being a Moderate means you understand the extremes of our two major parties are unhealthy and destructive to our country. It means you realize that Moderation is not something a politician should be ablcan cloak himself in during the heat of campaign, just long enough to win your vote before he swings back to his true extreme agenda.
Let’s name our new party the Moderate American Party. Democrats can keep their kicking, braying donkey. Republicans can keep their trumpeting elephant. Our mascot will be the one that actually unites – a soaring eagle.
We'll invite all members of the Congress and the Senate - the RINOs and the DINOs - who feel marginalized by the powerful screamers in their own parties to defect and join us. We'll reconfigure the seating in both houses. No more center aisles. Instead, wide center rows of seats.
We'll select a candidate for President who owes no favors. One who isn’t obliged to court the single-issue, special interest voters from either end of the political spectrum.
Our candidate won’t need the super-pac money of corporations or labor unions who are each trying to protect themselves and their own selfish interests from the other.
Our candidate won’t need the NRA or The Heritage Foundation, or the endorsement of church leaders trying to influence government intrusion into our personal lives.
Our candidate won’t need the endorsement of the old-school civil rights leaders, or NOW, or the AFL-CIO trying to maintain a wedge of distrust and hate in an effort to remain relevant.
She won’t need photo-ops with entertainment celebrities with nothing but their smiles to contribute. She won’t need to be legitimized by the talking heads of the press as they slant their stories in the political direction of their personal leanings.
We'll elect her without the benefit of special-interest influence because her campaign won’t need their money. We'll elect her through the grass-roots of the electronic age – Blogs, Facebook, & Twitter. And on election night, as the dismayed political analysts on television begin coloring in their ubiquitous maps, the overwhelming majority of the states will be purple.
©2012, Deborah L. Horn
