The Issues
Explore the Issues from Three Sides
Here we debate the larger issues behind the everyday news stories. Just click on each issue in the column at right to see the prevailing conservative (red) and leftist (blue) arguments, followed by the supremely sensible New Moderate (purple) position.
- Righty is our hypothetical right-winger. He’s probably a middle-aged white Christian male, a loyal middle manager, definitely a churchgoer, educated at the state university, married to the same white Christian woman since college, father of two white Christian children, resolutely suburban, and a diehard member of the vanishing middle-middle class.
- Lefty is our model left-winger: middle-aged, possibly male or female (we’re not sure about Lefty), director of a nonprofit organization as well as adjunct professor at an urban university, a self-proclaimed atheist, privately educated, divorced, resident of a fashionable downtown neighborhood, and unmistakably upper-middle class in manner and social connections.
Righty and Lefty are more than foils. Yes, sometimes I’ve caricatured their ideas for our amusement, but just as often I’ve put impassioned and well-articulated arguments into their mouths. Remember, not all conservative and liberal ideas are nonsense. They’re just extreme.
My New Moderate opinions reflect the biases and preoccupations of their author, and they’re mine alone. (If they’re also yours, so much the better!) I don’t pretend to represent all moderates or pose as a model of moderation in all things. Some of my ideas might strike you as radical, reactionary, over-the-top or downright embarrassing, and that’s fine. (I like to take intellectual risks.) Yet you’ll note that nearly all my arguments spring from moderate impulses. I’m a relentless seeker of balance in our political and cultural attitudes. I hate to see any one group tilt the pinball machine to gain an unfair advantage.
When you’re done reading these opinions, be sure to give us your own! Write as much and as often as you want — it’s your forum! I’ll keep adding new hot-button issues to the list, so be sure to return regularly and catch up on the debate. I look forward to counting you among our growing band of impassioned New Moderates.
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Although you are a great writer, your Lefty, Righty characters lack the zeal of true believers in those positions. Perhaps, Balzac or Dostoevsky could pull it off, maybe.
Could you get guest writers sometimes for bigger issues; it would be interesting and might provide the New Moderate a greater challenge in the debate.
dduck: I have to admit it was fun to play puppeteer in these 3-way debates. You don’t think Righty and Lefty sound zealous enough? Hmm, I didn’t want them to sound like crazed, certifiable fanatics ALL the time; sometimes I actually let them make persuasive points. But you’re right that an honest-to-God 3-way debate would be more challenging.
Someday, when my site is as big as Huffington Post (cough, cough), I could hire a REAL Righty and Lefty to spout their ideologies here. But what self-respecting ideologue would be willing to serve as the foil to a staunch moderate? Maybe if they think they can win… that’s the ticket!
Good comment… thanks!
Some people might volunteer if asked once in awhile. Perhaps Moore has a brother who sometimes runs low on pain killers for his bad back or Beck might have a cousin, who would be willing to leave the target range for a quick 300 word essay.