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Because the moderate party would lose every election in a landslide. What would its policies even be? People tend to be extreme on individual issues that they c

by csallen 10y ago

Because the moderate party would lose every election in a landslide. What would its policies even be? People tend to be extreme on individual issues that they care about and apathetic on the rest. The more extreme parties could, for example, just come out for or against abortion and steal a huge percentage of your voters. Same with many other issues.

Practicality 10y ago
Abortion and other black and white issues would definitely be a weakness for a moderate party. I would think their strengths for better economic policies, better military policies, better domestic policies and on and on would outweigh the black-and-white single issues but I am afraid you might be right. People would rather have simple dogma on single issues. It's just easier to understand a single point of view on a binary issue. Personally, on a related tangent: I find that the weakest part of most discussions is the tendency to try to make every discussion into 2 opposing viewpoints, rather than seeing the billions of permutations possible on nearly any issue. But it happens all the time. It's so common that I believe it must be something somewhat hardwired into the way our brains work.
gremlinsinc 10y ago
How about the moderate party being a democratically governed one, where it's members have an app that identifies them so they can only get one vote. Then whenever the candidate they choose votes on issues, the people decide via the app, how that senator will vote. If he doesn't go w/ the people he is banned from the party. in this way the moderate party would cater to the demographic of the area... where one member might vote for gay marriage in NY, another in Alabama would not, but still be part of the same party, but only answer to their local constituents.
- jbpetersen 10y ago
  Now I'm wondering if there are any good existing examples of that sort of Democratic Populism finding support. (Not sure what else to call it)
  - gremlinsinc 10y ago
    I'd call it a new TYPE of party altogether one built on top of technology... even the Technology party would be a cool name.
    - jbpetersen 10y ago
      Start it and then convince sama to run as a presidential candidate circa 2020.

by csallen 10y ago

Practicality 10y ago

Abortion and other black and white issues would definitely be a weakness for a moderate party. I would think their strengths for better economic policies, better military policies, better domestic policies and on and on would outweigh the black-and-white single issues but I am afraid you might be right. People would rather have simple dogma on single issues. It's just easier to understand a single point of view on a binary issue. Personally, on a related tangent: I find that the weakest part of most discussions is the tendency to try to make every discussion into 2 opposing viewpoints, rather than seeing the billions of permutations possible on nearly any issue. But it happens all the time. It's so common that I believe it must be something somewhat hardwired into the way our brains work.

gremlinsinc 10y ago

How about the moderate party being a democratically governed one, where it's members have an app that identifies them so they can only get one vote. Then whenever the candidate they choose votes on issues, the people decide via the app, how that senator will vote. If he doesn't go w/ the people he is banned from the party. in this way the moderate party would cater to the demographic of the area... where one member might vote for gay marriage in NY, another in Alabama would not, but still be part of the same party, but only answer to their local constituents.

jbpetersen 10y ago
Now I'm wondering if there are any good existing examples of that sort of Democratic Populism finding support. (Not sure what else to call it)
- gremlinsinc 10y ago
  I'd call it a new TYPE of party altogether one built on top of technology... even the Technology party would be a cool name.
  - jbpetersen 10y ago
    Start it and then convince sama to run as a presidential candidate circa 2020.