Striking the Balance:
The Definition of Radical Moderation & the Anatomy of a Tradeoff...
"The sign of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." ~F. Scott Fitzgerald
Political moderates acknowledge Reality's ubiquitous tradeoffs... They also know that optimal solutions arise in the Middle, because that's the only place where the best features of multiple ideologies can be incorporated and where their worst features can be excluded.
Too often, however, once an optimal solution is forged, radicals from the far left and far right immediately decry its "impurity." They lambaste its inclusions and exclusions as if those things existed in isolation and not part of larger contexts. And
most moderates typically wither under the fire of extremists' rhetoric, because they have no slam dunk comeback to liberals who call them "heartless," for example, or conservatives who label them "socialists"...
Radical Moderates (RMs), on the other hand, are more than happy to fight it out with Radical Extremists. Unapologetic editors of public policy, RMs hold extremists in disdain, judging them immature, intellectually dishonest, and disingenuous. Radical Moderates love a good scrap with extremists because they know they have Reality on their side. And they don't compromise: they always choose evidence and pragmatism over group-think, hyper-emotionalism, and pixie dust...
The Quintessential example of a Tradeoff:
Whiskey
Here's how Mississippi Representative Noah S. Sweat, Jr., an early Radical Moderate, helped his "dry" state frame its debate over legalizing liquor sales in a 1952 banquet speech:
"My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey.
"If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.
"But;
"If when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.
"This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise."
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