What Happened to all the Political Moderates?

[General White]

Lyndon Johnson is not a moderate.

Taken' 'way our right t' 'press 'm n*ggers, hur dur...

What exactly are you insinuating, that I'm supportive of Jim Crow for saying that Johnson wasn't a moderate? My comment had nothing to do with civil rights. It was with regards to economic policy. He created the Great Society programs. I think that would solidly put him in the left, and I think most people would probably agree with me.

I agree with you. How the hell is Johnson a moderate? he invented medicare and largly expanded the new deal was for progressive taxation , perserving the environment , created the war on poverty. Johnson is pretty much a Socialist.

For Moderates some are inn the GOP (on the ground there are much more moderates) and the Democrats are split between Liberals and Moderates but Liberals are much larger.

[General White]

Eisenhower & JFK are not Moderates.

[General White]

Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson.

When and why have these kinds of people, which America now desperately needs, gone away? Why can't we take a rational, pragmatic approach to our problems anymore?

They haven't gone away. Today's Democratic Party is the home of all reasonable moderates, whereas the Republican Party has become the anti-anyone but upper class, anti-non-white, anti-progress and anti-science party. Oh, and anti-facts in general.

Unfortunately, though , given the vast power that even a strongly defeated minority has in the U.S., nothing can be done if one of the two parties has gone off the deep end.

This.

A better question would be: What happened to the Political Left?

There hasn't been a political left in the US since before WWII

There is a political left but its not huge Bernie Sanders,Dennis Kucinich,Russ Fiengold,Progressive Democrats Of America,Barney Frank are many that come to mind.

[General White]

Regardless of what one's idea of a moderate is, the main point I'm trying to make here is that both sides of the political spectrum are moving further and further away from the center over time. Here's a little political compass chart I made based on ontheissues votematch scores from the following people. Unfortunately, I can't insert attachments or post links...

Left:

John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson: E -4, S -2
Bill Clinton: E -4, S -4
Barack Obama: E -5, S -6
John Kerry: E -7.5, S -8
Rocky Anderson: E -9, S -10

Right:

Richard Nixon: E 2, S 2
Gerald Ford: E 4, S 4
Ronald Reagan: E 4, S 6
Mitt Romney: E 2, S 8
George W. Bush: E 7.5, S 8
Rick Santorum: E 7.5, S 10.

Oh i got you. And i agree but i wold change around the chart a bit but thats just opinions.