Voice of Reason: How Moderates Can Help Save America
Art by Madeline Monroe/Greg Nash
Did you know that according to the Pew Research Center in 2022, there are only about twenty-four moderate Democrats or Republicans serving in Congress? Fifty years ago, that number was over six times higher. Despite this decrease in the number of moderate officials, a Gallup poll found that the percentage of moderate voters is relatively high at thirty-seven percent. These polls indicate a significant disparity between the number of moderate government officials currently serving in Congress and the proportion of voters they represent. As this disparity increases, many factors continue to further polarize the country. If our country allows moderates to disappear, we will become more divided than ever before.
Differences Between Moderate Beliefs and Extreme Beliefs:
The DW-NOMINATE score of US Congressmembers, which can be viewed at Voteview, demonstrates their growing extremity. The scores range from -1 to 1, with negative scores showing increased liberalism and positive scores showing increased conservatism. The closer the scores are to 0, the more moderate they become, with a score of 0 being perfectly moderate. Members of Congress scoring between -0.5 to -1 for Democrats or 0.5 to 1 for Republicans would be considered on the extreme side. For example, Representative Barbra Lee (CA) of the Democratic Party has a score of -0.677 and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) of the Republican Party has a score of 0.8.
First, I’ll discuss Progressives, the extreme liberal side of the Democratic Party. They believe in higher taxes for billionaires, switching to renewable energy, and cutting military spending. Progressives believe the government should intervene in situations where citizens need assistance, such as with unemployment benefits and universal healthcare.
On the other end of the spectrum are the farthest right and the most conservative members of Congress. Often referred to as MAGA Republicans, the far-right wing of Congress holds more populist views. They view immigration as a detriment to society, believing there should be less legal immigrants and that illegal immigrants often make our communities worse. Members of the Ultra-Conservative wing of the Republican Party also don’t trust the government and its interventions with businesses and people’s lives. When it comes to voting, both sides can agree on one thing: they are almost never going to try to work with the other party.
In the center of the scale, from -0.4 to 0.4, are moderate Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. Examples include Joe Manchin (WV) of the Democratic Party with a score of -0.057 and Young Kim (CA) of the Republican Party with a score of 0.259. Joe Manchin’s score makes him the most conservative Democrat in all of Congress.
While both Joe Manchin and Young Kim are considered moderates, there are two different moderates: those who support policies that represent an average between the extremes, and those who take different positions from both extremes. For instance, the former example of a moderate, those that represent an average between the extremes, will take the most liberal minimum wage proposal and the most conservative minimum wage proposal and find that they want to find that the average of those two is what they think is the right approach to take. On the other hand, the latter example of a moderate can have contrasting views on different issues: they may be extremely liberal when it comes to issues such as race in the United States and may find that their views on taxes align with the Republican party. These members of Congress or voters that feel like they are more moderate, or centrist can either choose to go to either of the two major parties that they feel most represented by, affiliate with a third party, or register as a part of the Independent party.
Why Has There Been a Decrease in Moderate Officials:
More than ever, our current country is seeing a decrease in the number of moderate officials serving in Congress. While there are many reasons for this, the main one is the sharp increase in polarization, both in the government and amongst voters.
In the modern era, social media plays a significant role in perpetuating this polarization by curating our feeds to show us what we like to see. It ends up filling our feed with messages that follow our same ideologies, therefore implanting the same message in viewers' minds when they consume from the same outlets. These messages tend to favor the more extreme side, as they are looking to provoke a feeling inside the consumer that will make them want to support the cause and take immediate action. Combining this with the hostility that a lot of opposing members of the political affiliations treat each other, it will cause these viewers to adopt the same hostile feeling towards people that don’t agree with them or represent the other party. Social media is only becoming a bigger part of everyday life as time goes on, causing the new generations that are looking for the most change to be filled with more extreme views as they are not being exposed to different outlets with varying levels of ideologies.
Another big cause of polarization in our country is the highly divisive issues that cloud the political world that the United States currently resides in. Issues that divide voters and congress members the most are issues such as abortion rights and marriage equality. When you think about them, there aren’t too many, if any at all, moderate/centrist options for these issues; you’re really either on one side or the other. As a result, most people will make their decision on what side they are on and choose that party that coincides with that belief. Following that, they will move their other political positions to fit with that party’s platform, which will decrease the probability of voters and government officials having common beliefs. As a result, Congressmembers will start to attack the opposing party more often and everyday citizens will begin to see their neighbors of contrasting beliefs to be ignorant and even sometimes enemies. Not only is this pushing a divide between the government, but it is pushing a divide between us, the people who run this country.
Overall, though, it is not helping that moderate voters are a lot less likely to vote than voters of the two extremes. When the turnout for voting is seen to be low, candidates are a lot more likely to try to appeal to one of the two extremes. Appealing to one of these two sides can be a lot more aggressive and give off a strong, leadership type vibe that can appeal to voters that want to see everything they support be enacted in the government. It’s also easier for these candidates to focus on one of these two extremes because the voters that fall on either of those sides are also more likely to vote than moderate voters. The more candidates choose one of the two farther wings of political ideologies to favor, the fewer moderate voters are going to want to get out and vote and the less we are going to see moderate candidates be elected.
How Can Moderate Officials Help:
Despite these challenges, there are many benefits to seeing Congress become more moderate, including better representation of the moderate majority, more bipartisan connections, and averaging out extreme legislation when needed.
There are more citizens in the United States that hold moderate or centered views than we would expect. According to a Gallup Poll in 2021, 37% of the voters surveyed would consider themselves moderate. Meanwhile, 36% identified themselves as conservative and 24% of the survey considered themselves liberal, and 3% had no party preference. When we compare these numbers, we can see that a plurality of the surveyed voters is actually moderate. Most people would most likely not expect this, especially because most of these moderates most likely end up having to side with one of the two extremes when it comes time for elections. If our government was able to more accurately have a Congress and even White House that is made up of a proportional number of members of the different levels of ideologies compared to the voting population, many voters would see less of a decision where they have to decide between two candidates they don’t truly agree with.
Electing more moderate officials will also create more of the bipartisan connections that the United States used to see decades ago. Seventy years ago, Congress saw over half of their members voting moderate. As a result, there were frequent instances of members not only crossing party lines to work together on legislation but also frequent instances of them voting across party lines also. Now with less than 5% of Congress voting moderately, bipartisan work has become close to unseen. Our country needs to revive bipartisan work, as the lack of it is what is dragging our country apart. Crossing the aisle in Congress and working with the other party can form strong relationships that can be used in future situations. A crucial difference between what bipartisan work can look like now compared to what it looked like in the past is the impact it can have through social media. If the two major parties actively worked together in a professional manner, the news and media outlets would start to report on it through their social media accounts. These news reports will make it straight to citizens phones through their curated TikTok ForYou page or Instagram feed. These citizens, who most likely were seeing a lot of extreme government actions on their pages, are now seeing the two opposing sides able to work together as colleagues. This would be crucial in helping to turn our country around in terms of their views of their neighbors and community members that may have differing views of them. While not every piece of legislation can be fully compromised on, any kind of increase in bipartisan work would show citizens that it’s possible to work together towards a common goal.
Bipartisan legislation, worked on by moderate and extreme congress members alike, can lead to better representation and improved relations within our country and government. Whatever side proposes legislation that doesn’t get passed will end up blaming their opposers for the failure of the bill. While this does hold some truth, more moderates working within the government would help to solve the gridlock issue. Moderates can take ideas from both sides of the aisle and use that in order to pass legislation that both parties among congress members and voters can get behind. Some issues, such as abortion rights or action on climate change, might be too divisive to find common ground on (though not impossible). However, other issues such as the economy are easier to work on together to find ideas that make a lot more people happy. United States voters, especially ones with more moderate views, can take a huge swing at the gridlock and division issues that plague our countries by voting in more moderates to help combine ideas on legislation.
How Can We Get More Moderates Elected:
All of these solutions that moderate officials and voters can help bring to the country are great in thought, but it’s important to move beyond just thinking about them. As voters we need to take actions to get more moderates into office. Some of the actions that can be taken are widening the variety of news sources we consume and instituting a Top Two Primary election system for national and state offices.
Diversifying news sources is crucial for voters to form their own true opinions. Social media has plagued our community by curating our feeds to give us only what we want to see, but that’s not what should run our political minds. Voters need to be able to filter what they know through other ideas they may never have heard before or truly given a chance to. Just because one extreme issue of a party fits with what you believe doesn’t mean that you need to agree with one side of that party all the time, or even that same party. The beauty of what our democracy believes in is the ability to express a multitude of opinions and explore what we want to be. By exploring more of these other news outlets, many voters will find that there are other ideologies and candidates out there that represent who they truly are better than either of the extremes.
A more radical change that could make a huge difference in giving the moderate candidates a chance against the more extreme candidates is creating a Top Two Primary in state and even federal elections. Instead of having two separate party primaries, all of the candidates compete in one primary where the top two vote getters, no matter what party, go on to the general election. In the current electoral system, the parties end up choosing a more extreme candidate all the time because they know that extreme voters are the ones that actually get out and vote at high rates. However, with two candidates able to go on to the general election, moderate voters would be incentivized to stick to their candidate that better represents them. The Top Two Primary also allows for the true best two candidates to have a chance to win the general election. With the current electoral system, each party gets to send one candidate to the general election. The best two candidates might actually be from the same party, but one of those candidates has to settle with just going home. Implementing this change to the system can allow voters to choose from an extreme and moderate candidate and come together to actually give that moderate candidate a chance.
Overall, moderates can survive in our country at higher rates than we are currently seeing. It is going to take every centered voter and official in order to raise these rates. In times of such polarization, Congress and state governments need moderate members to help bridge the gap between the parties in order to create a better country for our future.