Moderate voters face tough choices by Will Thompson

When one looks across the American political candidate board, one sees some very particular things.
In Florida, one can find a republican candidate that made comments concerning separation of church and state as being “a lie” and that God and the nation’s founding fathers did not intend the country to be a nation of secular laws.
In Connecticut, Senator Joe Lieberman, a highly supported candidate, was defeated in the democratic primary due to his opponent’s staunch anti-war views.
These types of situations make for great news — just ask CNN or FOX. They covered both adamantly. There is nothing that creates a better game of politics, both would tell you. One can only hope that in America we can see someone with such religious values grab hold of a Senate seat, or someone who is a democrat who doesn’t support immediate withdraw lose his party’s nomination.     It shows that Americans are focused on the important issues, and parties stand behind their own values.
Or does it?
Yes, a situation such as the Iraq war is important. But is someone who adamantly demands immediately bringing our troops home truly considering America’s best interests, or supporting the view of the majority of Americans?  Or, for that matter, is he even considering his party’s majority opinion on the subject?  It’s no big surprise to anyone that democrats don’t support the war, but I’m more than willing to bet the majority of them do not want to immediately pull out. Just as I’m willing to bet the majority of republicans do not support a candidate who makes such contradictory remarks concerning America’s separation of church and state, even if they are Christians.
Yet, ironically enough, both of these individuals became candidates in an upcoming election.
And they’re not alone.
All over America, similar “hard-line” party candidates are winning primaries. These winners are entering into the general elections, and being pitted against other hardliners, and in the end, someone is going to win.
Yes, someone is going to win, but unfortunately it won’t be me. Or any of the other many moderate people that make up a majority of America’s population. Either party candidate I choose to vote for comes with baggage. If I vote for a democrat because I believe in his higher minimum wage standing, I also get his hard-line stance on legalizing gay marriages. If I vote for a republican for his belief in an increase in school funding, I also get his hard-line stance on banning abortion. This might have been alright in the past when congress members compromised on issues and listened to what the majority wanted, but apparently that’s not the growing fad. There is something wrong when 82 percent of Americans in 2005 support an increase in minimum wage, yet it gets shut down due to inability to compromise.
Basically, what’s happening is the minority of hard-line voters are picking hard-line candidates to represent their parties in the primary, and the majority of moderate voters are left to vote between a rock and a hard place in the elections.
So how does a majority of moderate voters solve this problem?
That’s a good question…

Send responses to
colonnadeletters@gcsu.edu

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 22 2006. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry