Beware the Moderate

One of the most significant barriers to progressive change in America is the moderate, also known as the centrist. While the labels are different, the agenda stays the same. The moderate seeks to maintain existing power structures, and in doing so, chooses to support oligarchy. It is a political philosophy that ignores the reality of our circumstances and perpetuates inequity.

Like any political ideology, the moderate comes in many forms. Some benefit directly from the existing legal, economic, and political structures. They may have inherited their wealth, earned it through a combination of effort and luck, or benefited from intangible aspects such as race or religion. For them, any change is a threat to their power and position within the universe. It is for these reasons that they seek to maintain the status quo.

There is the generational moderate, people like my mother. She thinks Donald Trump is an unqualified and unfit president, but to her, the fast pace of change is a threat. As a hard-working single mother, she built a career for herself during the ’80s and ’90s, a time when being a professional woman was even more challenging than today. Everything was going great until the 2008 recession hit, and suddenly after 20 years, she was out of a career. Radical change can be dangerous and often entirely out of our control.

The generational moderate is less an enemy of transformation then they are a product of circumstance. They grew up at a time where change was linear, slow and gradual but consistent. Then the 2000s came, and the exponential pace of change began to speed up growth in all directions. The generational moderate chooses to approach politics from the same perspective because they fear the unknown. They did not have the opportunity to grow up in a world where radical change was commonplace. Their opposition to progressive political and structural change has less to do with progressive policies than it is an attempt to maintain stability.

Consider also the career moderate. Politics in the United States is a career for millions of people. It’s a line of work that depends on corporate patronage to sustain itself. Some may have joined the process intending to become wealthy, while others may have entered politics to make a difference. For the career moderate, politics and our national direction is a…

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