(07-16-2020 11:13 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(07-16-2020 10:18 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(07-15-2020 09:12 PM)Rice93 Wrote:  Yeah... that's what you have to do when you have a two-party system that has moved to the extremes. Moderates are left out in the cold.

Alas, from what I see in social media, the typical lament is "It's too bad the other party has become so extreme."

I hate to say it, but I still think the primary system is to blame for a lot of this. I thought it was a great idea to give, "power to the people," but it just hasn't worked well. Back when the party pros picked the candidates in the proverbial, "smoke-filled rooms," the only consideration was electability, because if the other guys won, you weren't going to get the spoils of victory. So the incentive was to pick centrists who could pick up votes from the independents and even the other side. Look at Truman-Dewey, or Ike-Stevenson twice, or Kennedy-Nixon, and they weren't nearly as far apart on issues as today's candidates are.

With primaries, the extreme wings of both parties are the people who show up and vote in disproportionate numbers. So to win the primaries, you have to go extreme. I don't know what the solution might be, but I do see the problem.

And 93, you're no moderate. I know the republicans look extreme to you, but if the democrats do as well, then they have really gone off the deep end.

I'm pretty moderate on quite a few issues, actually. Probably the ones where I am farther left are the ones that I comment on.

You probably don't see me commenting on, for example, tax policy.