Three Cheers for “Moderate”

Bob Greene, at CNN.com:

But just how exactly did “moderate” become a political dirty word?

It doesn’t sting — you wouldn’t think anyone would consider it a killshot. If one politician calls another a left-winger, or a right-winger, or a communist, or a fascist, or a radical … now those are words meant to provoke.

But to use “moderate” as a weapon?

Is this really supposed to rile up the American people? Are voters supposed to say: “I don’t want that guy anywhere near the White House. He’s a moderate!”

To most people’s way of thinking, “moderation” has always meant balance, carefulness, calm deliberation, evenhandedness, dispassion, impartiality, judiciousness. It is traditionally a conscientious objector in the universe of bellicose language.

Moderate weather is lovely weather. How are we best advised to eat and drink? In moderation. “Moderation,” in the world of words, is the common-sense good buddy, walking the straight and narrow.

It has ever been thus, down through history. “Out of moderation a pure happiness springs,” said the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. “Moderation in people who are contented comes from that calm that good fortune lends to their spirit,” said the French author Francois de La Rochefoucauld. “Keep a mid course between two extremes,” said the Roman poet Ovid. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, may or may not have said the actual words that are often attributed to him — “Moderation in all things” — but he unquestionably believed in the principle.

So what’s going on here? In search of an answer, I turned not to Ovid or Aristotle, but to Cal Thomas, the conservative columnist and commentator whose love of language is as passionate as his interest in politics.

Thomas is resolute in his conservative beliefs, but he has always shown a willingness to at least listen to the other side. He and liberal Bob Beckel write a regular column for USA Today called “Common Ground,” where they seek to find precisely that: a meeting place where ideas helpful to America may be worked out.

So, Cal: What exactly does “moderate” mean as it is being used in the present political free-for-all?

“In today’s vernacular,” Thomas said, ” ‘moderate’ has come to mean that you have no fixed principles, that everything can be negotiated away because all that matters is ‘the deal.’ ”

He continued:

” ‘Moderate’ has also come to mean liberal on taxation, regulation and the social issues.”

We were conducting our conversation by e-mail, so I couldn’t see his face as he typed the next sentence. But, knowing his long understanding of politics and the people who practice it, I have a feeling he was smiling. Of “moderate,” he wrote:

“It is a label that means whatever the person applying it wants it to mean.”