Reply #172: My take on "moderation"

[SwingVoter2006]

If you are against gay marriage, you are not a moderate, you are a bigot.
Yeah. but what if we think the state has no business "marrying" anybody? I think the state needs to get OUT of the business of marrying people. Period. A state-issued marriage contract is just a legal device anyway. Take the "marriage" out of "marriage license" and you have a boilerplate document for all kinds of funky couplings: homo, poly, what have you. Let the churches do the MARRYING. That way, straights can't claim the state is "stealing" marriage, because the state will no longer be in the business of doling it out. Churches will not be obligated to honor marriages between different denominations, just as they currently do not honor baptisms between denominations. If Southern Baptists don't like gay marriage, they don't have to. If Universalist Unitarians embrace gay marriage, there is nothing stopping them. EVERYONE still has to follow the law, and gays will have TOTAL and EQUAL protection under the law, through this plan. Does that make me a bigot?

If you don't believe in free health care for all, regardless of one's income, you are not a moderate, you are uncaring and selfish.
Are we talking about nationalized medicine or a national form of health insurance? Because the problem is not that our mechanisms of health care are broken. It's just that too many poor Americans can't get work, or can't keep work, which insures them. I think we need to leave the actual hospitals, doctors offices, etc, in private or non-profit hands, and just set up a basic federal health insurance program for which everyone can qualify if they are truly in need. It wouldn't be the fanciest insurance program in the world, but it would allow poor folk to go to the doc when they need to (as opposed to the ER) and get meds and antibiotics and other basics from the local RX via copays and whatnot. I think most Americans would be willing to pay a little extra in taxes for this kind of thing; we already fund medicare and medicaid. But lord, please, let's not let the government take over the actual apparatus of health care! The government fucks up enough in our lives. Let's not have it fuck up that. I don't want to deal with shitty patient service and a diminishing talent pool and shitty facilities and vanishing choices because the goddamned government runs the whole show.

If you support the war in Iraq ala Joe Lieberman "because it's the right thing to do", you are not a moderate, you are a chickenhawk warmonger.
Yeah, but what if you happen to be a Sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve? Are you still a "chickenhawk" then? What if you never gave a fuck about Bush, but just thought the Iraqis had been screwed one too many times, by us and Saddam, and thought they deserved a chance at a different government, a different way of life? What if you still think this?

If you don't think Bush, Cheney, and many others should be impeached because you would rather have everyone work together like in some fucking episode of Sesame Street, you are not a moderate, you are a coward.
What if you think impeachment is doomed to failure, ala the Clinton impeachment, and that the public will sour so badly on this kind of beltway dodge-ball game that the Dem success in 2006 will be largely wasted for the sake of political revenge? Besides, who will care about Bush or his crimes if/when Dems run the White House, Senate, and Congress, and can roll back all the damage anyway? Just bide your time, and if the investigations pan out, then take Bush and Cheney and the rest to the woodshed once they are out of office. If true criminal acts have been carried out, and can be proven in court, there is nothing stopping us from prosecuting Bush and Co. once they're no longer in charge. Doing it now, in the form of a showy and needless impeachment, is a foolish and wasteful gambit IMHO.

If you think there should be no limits or checks or regulations on who can own a gun, where one can purchase a gun, what type of gun one can own, or how one can purchase a gun, you are not a moderate, you are a lunatic.
I believe in the basic right of firearms ownership. But there should be limitations, namely in terms of licensure and training. You can't drive a car without proving you know how to drive a car to a licensing official at the DMV. And just because you know how to drive a Cooper mini does not automatically mean you know how to drive an 18-wheeler tractor trailer. For those willing to get trained and prove to a state licensing official that they know how to handle a particular class of firearm, they should be able to own and operate that firearm as a licensed citizen. People licensed for a small-bore double-action revolver shouldn't be able to purchase an AR-15 or similar "assault" weapon until they have upgraded both their license and their level of training. In the military it takes weeks to train a Private how to fire his/her M16A2 safely and with proficiency. It should take at least that long, or longer, to train a civilian. How any honest citizen could balk at the idea of being properly trained and properly licensed to have a particular class of firearm, is beyond me. Also beyond me is how anyone can blame firearms themselves for the stupidity and ignorance of the people who improperly purchase and wield them. Guns are not the problem. PEOPLE are the problem.

If you are against stem cell research because of some superstitious religious belief, you are not a moderate, you are uncompassionate, hypocritical, and ignorant.
What if we're against harvesting any kind of biological tissue from the bodies of the unborn; bodies which are prematurely ripped from the womb because some arbitrary court order has deemed that they are not really human, and therefor undeserving of the same rights and dignity as everyone else lucky enough to have already survived a sail through the birth canal? But then we're debating abortion, and that's a whole other Oprah.

If you are against taxing the rich because you think the market is perfect and capitalism works 100% for the benefit of everyone, you are not a moderate, you are an asshole.
I think everyone should pay a FLAT TAX regardless of what they are worth or how much they make. Every year, a flat tax: 5% of whatever you happen to make, and another 5% of whatever you happen to be worth. 10% total. That way nobody can bitch about being taken to the cleaners because everybody is the same and everybody is bound to the same rules. No shelters for the ultra-wealthy who manage to "make nothing" every year while at the same time they seemingly HAVE EVERYTHING. No cop-outs for even poor folk who never pay taxes anyway, yet seem to soak up so much tax-funded social welfare in the process. And the middle class doesn't get stuck with the bag, like it always does, because the poor don't pay AND the rich don't pay. Everyone is the same, pays the same percentage, and it's a done deal. Why is this concept so hard? Why is our tax law thicker than a phone book and as abstract and obtuse as the most obscure legal document? FLAT TAX. Sounds like a solid plan to me.

If you call yourself a moderate, but you voted for the GOP in this election, you are not a moderate, you are a lying freeper troll.
Can't help you here, I voted Dem down the line in 2006. Though this has not always been the case. Especially in local races.