We need more moderate politicians. That is quite a bold statement, but I think it is one that needs to be made. As we mentioned in the last post, The Two Party System... Yikes, America seems to be entering an era of extreme political divide, where there is little to no middle ground. Like a high school dodgeball tournament, it is one team or the other, and only one can win. I hate to break it to you, but politics doesn't work like that. When they say "governing a country is a team effort," I would assume they refer to a "team" as the American people and those who represent the people; not my team vs your team.

Why am I making this bold statement of needing more moderates in government? I think we have become too polarized on pushing individual party agendas in government and are steering away from legislating within the interest of the people, because after all, it is all of the people that our government needs to support, not just those of the current ruling political party. Our congress at both state and federal levels has a chamber called The House of Representatives. Notice how I underlined representatives? Our states are split into districts based on population, and a person is elected to represent that district in congress. Within a congressional district, there are many people, and of these many people, it is highly, highly, highly, unlikely that they are all of the same political ideology. There are democrats, republicans, and our third party friends too. So why is someone of one ideology representing a group of people with many ideologies? Obviously they were elected, but representing a single political platform for a diverse district of people doesn't seem very representative at all. Having more moderate representatives would allow all the people within the district to be represented, rather than excluding those of opposing political ideology.

What about the Senate? Our lovely senate, at the federal level, consists of one-hundred elected officials, two of which that represent each state. States are even bigger than congressional districts! Therefore, senators are representing the an even bigger, more diverse population than a representative. What good is it to have two republican senators or two democrat senators for a state made up of both? Aside from shifting the balance of power in the Senate, how much progress do we make when the controlling party can push a bill through because they have the majority? Here is an idea, if we can't seem to shake the two party system, why doesn't each state have one democrat senator and one republican senator? This would result in a 50/50 senate, but I know exactly what you're going say! How will anything get done if no one can have the majority vote? That my friends is why we need more moderates. As mentioned, a moderate can still be left-leaning or right-leaning, but a majority vote in congress should not be determined on the basis of political ideology, but on the ability to have a moderate perspective, and be able to formulate a majority vote based on what is best for all the people in this country. The first line of the US constitution is "We the people," not "me the democrat" or "me the republican." Let's leave the strong political opinions to the voters and not to the voted.

3/4/2021