What is a moderate? Is someone who is pro-choice, against the death penalty, opposed to gay rights and in favor of lower taxes a “moderate”?
And what is the opposite of a moderate? An immoderate? An extremist? Careless? Gluttonous?
I ask because yesterday, as most days, The Washington Post used the word a lot.
“[W]hen a more expansive proposal…was modified to appeal to moderate Democrats and Republicans….” (Does this mean all Republicans are moderate or that none of them are?)
“…troublesome moderates…”
“Some moderate Democrats are arguing…”
…the type of moderate who could cool the nation’s long-simmering judicial battles.” (as opposed to those hot-headed progressives and conservatives?)
“…judicial moderates with … a record of what he considers good judgment…” (as opposed to progressives and conservatives with poor judgment?)
I’m not passing judgment on The Post’s good reporters. It is a institutional problem, not only at The Post but at virtually every newspaper in the U.S. They feel compelled to describe people in politics as either liberal, conservative or moderate.
I think moderate is a word with meaning. My unabridged Random House dictionary that always sits opened next to my desk is not, at more than 2,000 pages, moderate. I guess that makes it inferior to a smaller, more moderate, student dictionary. Nonetheless, according to my sidekick, the first definition of moderate is “kept or keeping within reasonable or proper limits.” Which means liberals and conservatives are not proper or reasonable. The second and third definitions may be more accurate, i.e., “of medium quality, extent,” or “mediocre, fair.” By the fifth definition we come to what Post writers and editors must mean: “a person who is moderate in opinion or opposed to extreme views or actions, esp. in politics or religion,” thus placing progressives and conservatives in the “extreme.”
If you examine a recent report on the political ideals of the American public, you will find them extreme. There is widespread support for many typically “liberal” policies, along with large pluralities who think that homosexuality is “unnatural” and nearly as many people who think immigrants are a “burden” on society as those who don’t. Are these people extremists?
Are moderates more measured, reasonable, temperate, level-headed, thoughtful? Or are they just the people who think with both hands, as in “on the one hand…”?
Describing politicians as moderate is passing judgment on them because the word itself is affirmative in meaning.
What if The Post banned the words moderate, liberal, conservative, progressive, reactionary and extremist to describe politicians? What would readers lose, other than the newspaper’s pre-defined category of thought?
Journalists often describe those who are commenting on a policy as belonging to a political caste. By preceding Kathryn Kolbert’s comment with an identification of her organization as a liberal advocacy group, The Post enabled a lot of people to discount her thoughts before she uttered them. But, The Post is bi-partisan, or perhaps prejudicial on an equal opportunity basis. “The Judicial Confirmation Network, a group that supports conservative nominees….” Pity the poor reader who doesn’t know how to judge ACORN as it is described in the story as only an “advocacy group.” Advocates for what? What would readers be left with if the newspaper didn’t feel compelled to ascribe a general, vague definition to political thought? Heaven forbid they would judge the comment on its merits. If by using terms like moderate, liberal or conservative to describe someone who is quoted journalists are forewarning the reader that, as Mark Twain once said, “taffy is being pulled,” then why include the quote at all?
A quick search finds 14 articles or Post blog postings yesterday that used the word moderate to describe someone in the American political area.
Here’s a proposal: If The Post wants to raise the level of political discourse above that of a pre-pubescent argument, e.g., “Your mother wears combat boots,” let’s drop the pre-ordained descriptions.
I hope The Post will consider this modest, dare I say moderate, proposal.