About The New Moderate
Founded A.D. 2007 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Founder, Editor & Chief Author: Rick Bayan.
I’ve created The New Moderate as a community for centrist thinkers who are fed up with extremist dogma… fed up with feeling excluded from the national debates on politics, culture and religion… fed up with being fed up! In other words, I’ve created The New Moderate as a community for people like us.
Moderate, not timid.
We moderates have an image problem. We get no respect from the right or the left. For too long, we’ve been dismissed as gutless, dithering intellectual herbivores who lack the courage to take a stand.
Our answer: we stand in the middle, we stand tall, and we’re immoderate in our passion for moderation. The New Moderate will prove that our ideas are fresher, bolder, more sound and more just than the attention-getting ideologies of right and left.
Why call it The NEW Moderate?
We moderates have traditionally been a reticent bunch, too mild-mannered and apathetic to jump into the political fray. Our nuanced ideas haven’t attracted zealots, for better or worse. That’s why we have no magazines to call our own. That’s why today’s moderate blogs tend to languish in obscurity. The result: leftists and conservatives push their agendas across at our expense… and at the expense of society as a whole.
We aim to change all that. Our goal is nothing less than to create a dynamic new moderate movement, energized with forcefully expressed ideas, passion and commitment. With your participation, The New Moderate will become a vibrant community that can make its voice heard above the din of dueling left-wingers and right-wingers.
Read the whole story here.
Hi Rick! I have an award for your blog. It’s at http://beatniksbeatonlife.blogspot.com/2009/08/im-lovely-blogger.html
Thank you, my friend. I have to head out the door for my vacation, but I’ll definitely look it up when I return. I’ll finally check out your blog while I’m at it, too!
I checked out the site, and like it. I’m sure we won’t agree on all, but can’t see much we’d disagree on, I think. As I’m what I’d call a militant moderate, I’d say I fit into your category. I’ll add you to my blogroll. Good stuff.
For political parties (read other parts of your blog) you may want to look at MPRI (Moderate Party of Rhode Island)– for those in RI. I’ve followed their jumping through hurdles to get party status in that state.
‘elf
LOUDelf: Thanks for the friendly gesture; we need more “militant moderates” like you. I’ll give you a reciprocal link, and I’ll look into that R.I. moderate party for inspiration. There’s already a national Centrist Party with its own website (uscentrist.org), but you’d never know it.
Rick,
I’m so glad to have found your “New Moderate” blog. Over the last several weeks, I’ve thought about the idea of “energized moderates”–that is, folks that recognize the value of solving problems and getting things done for the greater good. Please count me in. As some of my ideas crystallize, I would like to share them with you and anyone else who’s interested in restoring a sense of balance, civility, and practicality to our political system.
dj
Glad to have you on our side, Dave. America’s moderates need all the energy they can get, and I think we can energize them. “Balance” is probably the most critical word in the moderate lexicon; it’s not that we take the middle position on every issue… it’s that we want to restore balance when we feel the boat tipping to one side or the other.
I hope you’ll be a regular visitor, and I look forward to reading your comments.
Your place is here and now. I encourage you to step up and speak out against the extremes – because the extremes of either side do not realize they are extremes.
We need your moderating voice – louder.
Best Regards,
Luke Pickett
Stratham, NH
Thanks, Luke. I like to think I have a “loud” voice, though I’m having trouble reaching the opinion makers in the big media. Still, we have lively discussions here, as you’ll see.
BTW, you’re probably right that the extremists don’t think of themselves as extremists; the lefties think the rest of us are reactionaries, and of course the right-wingers think we’re socialists.
Well, thank goodness.
Mr. Bayan, your blog is a breath of fresh air! The modern political arena is infested with ideologues. So precious few of them are interested in a productive discourse. They only want to hear themselves. Telling people that conservatism and liberalism aren’t fundamentally opposed garners at least one of three reactions: derision, suspicion, or just plain boredom. We moderates aren’t dramatic enough, are we? If we aren’t saying that “right wing racist capitalist pigs are hoarding the world’s wealth” or that “the left wing intellectual elite is destroying American values,” well then we’re just SNORES!
I’ll remain dutifully apprised of your writings. My appreciation for you endeavor is boundless.
Thank you. Thank you VERY much.
Yours,
Reuben Smith (aka sicklygreyfoot)
sicklygreyfoot: Enjoyed your remarks, which also happened to be the 1,000th comment posted here at The New Moderate. (I should offer you some sort of prize, but I’m afraid my writing will have to do.)
Yes, we moderates have our work cut out for us. We don’t get any respect from the ideologues on either side of the fence, and the truth is that too many moderate politicians and columnists are in fact “snores.” I’m hoping we can generate some excitement here without resorting to the distortions and acrimony typically generated by our friends on the left and right.
Be passionate, not polarizing. Listen more, speak less, and attempt to learn from those you appose. Argue based on thoughtfulness and intellect not dogma. Be willing to step away from the angry mobs on either end of our political spectrum and become a voice of reason. As Americans, there is more that connects us than separates us. Lets figure out how to return the country to the moderate majority rather than the militant minority.
Thanks for giving us zealous moderates a voice.
My pleasure, David. You have the right idea: we need to stop the polarization and remind Americans that we’re all the same nationality. (I honestly believe that most extremists give their primary loyalty to whatever faction they belong to.) Sometimes we have to confront the extremists, but I’m with you when it comes to bridging the great divide with commonsense solutions.
Hi Rick,
I’ve enjoyed reading your blog. I used to be pretty apolitical, but like you and many of your readers, I’ve gotten fed up with the influence of special interests and ideological extremists on the American political system. I’ve started to put a few ideas together in a podcast; I think the regular readers of this blog may have an interest in this. If so, please have a look at http://www.americanknucklehead.com/.
Regards,
Joe Knucklehead
Hi Rick – I’m glad I found you here at The New Moderate. I first found you couple weeks ago at your old blog site The Cynic’s Sanctuary, which I did find there
Keep it up!
Regards, Mark K
Ah, a moderate and a cynic! Sometimes I think the one leads to the other. Glad you’ve found us here, Mark!