A Moderate Proposal
Moderates are suddenly on everyone’s mind. Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have dominated the conversation about the Democratic Party’s reconciliation bill. A few years back, moderate Republicans blocked the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. And polls show that a chunk of the American public finds the choice between a populist-nationalist Republican Party and an ever -more progressive Democratic Party unappealing.
But despite being decisive for both electoral outcomes and legislative-vote totals, moderates exert much less influence over the political system than they could. If they worked together, they could set the system’s agenda, make our political institutions more functional, and maybe save democracy itself. But to accomplish big things, they will have to recognize what more ideological members of Congress have long known: Politics is fundamentally a team sport.
Consider the current balance of power in the Senate. Several senators have, Manchin or Sinema or any other Democrat can effectively say “no” or “not so much” to just about anything.
