An observation about moderates

[Phony Moderate]

Has anyone else noticed that moderate politicians are often more tribal, hackish and partisan than those on the more radical or extreme ends of their respective parties?

Andrew Cuomo - said something along the lines of "conservatives are not welcome in NY" a while ago
Michael Heseltine - Made the (in)famous "Left, left, left" speech at a 1970s Tory conference in which he essentially accused Labour of being communist
Paul Keating - http://webcity.com.au/keating/
Denis Healey - "Being attacked by the right honorable gentleman is akin to being attacked by a dead sheep". Also many other instances
Newt Gingrich - Well, he's certainly moderate by today's standards and he has a long history of vicious attacks on the Democratic Party
Richard Nixon - As above, really

I will acknowledge that the Tea Partiers in Congress have challenged this recently, but my point remains. I don't necessarily have a problem with such behaviour, however.

[Mr. Smith]

There is a thing called Centrist Stupidity ya' know, it's not like the perceived center instantly means they are above it all.

And also moderates end up having to bear the burden of making the center and being reasonable all the time.

But there also good moderates that know sometimes an extreme end must be taken, that aren't so crazy such as

Olympia Snowe

John McCain

Tim Kaine

Harry Reid

Angus King

Dwight Eisenhower

Al Gore

Lisa Murkowski

That's for starters.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Sometimes moderates seem to want to "prove" how exciting they are to the base, by indulging in a bit of petty "omg I think the opposition are dumb losers" red-meat throwing.

Cameron is guilty of it a lot, especially with his parade of one-liners in PMQ's.


However, it might be a false pattern. There are a lot of centrists who are absurdly non-partisan to the extent of disliking large sections of their party (Ken Clarke, Simon Danczuk, Malcolm Turnbull, Nick Rahall) and plenty of stridently partisan radicals (too many to mention).

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Moderate politicians know how to play the game. They win primaries by making themselves seem just appealing enough to their base (be it at a national, statewide or local level) and then once they get into office, they legislate from the center, so when shyt goes wrong they can just say "well, i wasn't a part of that! I wanted to compromise but both parties are corrupt and caught up in partisan politics, I'm a reformer!" which just leads to a sadistic, rinse-and-repeat type of scenario where moderates just keep getting elected until someone learns to play the game better. No moderate politician is actually a moderate, they just know how to pander to whatever the lowest common denominator is during their election or re-election cycle.