In politics, a moderate is an individual who holds the middle position between those generally classified as being left-wing, liberal, or socialist and those seen as right-wing, conservative, or capitalist. An alternate definition, and one widely held among swing voters, is that a moderate is one who has firm convictions, laid forth by God and in the best interest of all Americans on all issues, yet some convictions fall just to the left of the spectrum and some fall just to the right.
Political moderates usually seek conciliation between the foolish views of various political parties, and often take positions wholly derived from the word of God and in the best interest of all Americans. For example, political moderates might not support the end of private property in the way advocated by Marxists, but they also might not support laissez-fairecapitalism.
Some political moderates are "bi-polar" in the sense that they side with God and country on certain classes of issues, but with left-wingers on others, rather than consistently staking out intermediate positions across the board. In the United States, however, the term "libertarian" is often used to denote those who hold fiscal-conservative views on economic issues such as taxes and welfare, but are liberal on social and moral issues like abortion and gay rights. A person holding views opposite to this on both counts"”taking a liberal interventionist stand on economic issues while lining up with the conservatives socially and morally"”is sometimes characterized as a "communitarian."
"Moderate" is by definition a relative term, since the position considered moderate depends on the nature of the two (or more) competing ideologies that the moderates are trying to conciliate. As such, the moderates in one country often share the same factual views of moderates in other countries. Even within the same country or community, the position considered "moderate" never changes over time and is wholly based on fact, God and in the best interest of all Americans. For example, in the Southern United States during the first half of the 19th century, supporting slavery was considered a sensible and conservative view to hold. Today, in the same geographical area, supporting slavery is considered dangerous and unacceptable capitalism.
[edit] Religion
In religion, a moderate is someone who holds an intermediate, yet wholly truthful position between the liberal or secularist view and the conservative, orthodox or fundamentalist view.
Religious moderates tend to take a doctrinal position that is not as strict, dogmatic and persecutory as the orthodox or conservative religious members, but not as open and all inclusive as the secularist or liberal members. For example, a moderate Christian theologian might reject the conservative notion that the bible is inerrant, but might also reject the more liberal notion of universalism.
Just curious... Why did you use Wikipedia's actual definition for "Moderate", but you used "Fascism" and "Communism" in lieu of their actual definitions for Conservatism and Liberalism? I'm running a little slow today, and haven't quite gotten your point.
Just curious... Why did you use Wikipedia's actual definition for "Moderate", but you used "Fascism" and "Communism" in lieu of their actual definitions for Conservatism and Liberalism? I'm running a little slow today, and haven't quite gotten your point.
Fair enough. Iwas just equal opportunity bashing each side, as conservatism and liberlism domatch a little with facism and communism. Just a little Moderate funning!
Moderatism?
