All Things in Moderation II: Towards a Moderate Methodology

In my initial essay in this series, I suggested that the policy of the Moderate Party be based on an operating philosophy that is methodological rather than ideological. I believe party founder and chairman Ken Block suggests the same, from the description given on the party website. This series of essays argues that a meaningful, continuous, and democratic process of compromise between differing interests will be broadly more politically acceptable and ultimately more feasible over the long term than ideological puritanism.

I also believe that the majority of Rhode Islanders – the thoughtful center – will probably agree that this is the case. Ideologues – and I do not use that word disrespectfully, but simply as a category within the realm of political thought – would disagree, in the belief that they had found truth, and if the polity of Rhode Island mostly disagreed with them, then that polity were simply wrong. A party with this mentality would ultimately marginalize itself, and indeed one has.

I feel that I need to reiterate my respect for ideological partisanship (that is, running a party as the vanguard of an ideology). After believing in a naive socialism in my high school years, I converted to Christianity and embraced “movement” conservatism. I read National Review, and largely agreed with it. I voted almost straight Republican in 2006 and 2008. On the other hand, I found myself in a state that had rejected “movement” conservatism for a brand of New Deal liberalism and organized corruption that crippled its ability to provide the social services its populace demanded at a price it could afford. The opposition party, rather than aiming to reform Rhode Island's political culture – in my opinion the real culprit – the Republican party accused the RI Democratic party of being ideologues who forced huge tax liabilities, unaffordable social services, and a corrupt and swelling bureaucracy upon unwilling Rhode Islanders. They proposed radical cuts in budget, bureaucracy, and social services, major union concessions, and other serious changes, not to Rhode Island's political culture, but to its government.

What the RIGOP offers, so to speak, is “movement” conservatism, an ideology committed to loosening the ties between state and citizen, tax- and services-wise, which have been built up in the past century. The problem, though, is that Rhode Islanders mostly voted for these services and, while they may be disgusted by corruption and dismayed at the cost of what I call Rhode Island's social democracy, they don't want the services to go away: they just want to manage cost and banish corruption. The RIGOP, ensnared by its own ideological puritanism, has relegated itself to the margins because Rhode Islanders won't buy what they're selling and they won't adopt a more lucrative product.

So our opposition party doesn't offer a functional opposition. And yet debate takes place in the General Assembly; serious, spirited debate that ends up determining state policy. The difference is that it takes place within the Democratic Party. Politicians with varying ideologies and varying local constituencies' interests must come together to compromise on their positions in order to pass legislation. But as they do this, they wield power. A transactional quid-pro-quo arrangement develops, where one politician will back a bill, but only if offered some sort of concession. Ultimately a deal is reached which is acceptable to the legislature, and to the long-term power-retention of the Democratic Party, but not necessarily to the voters. All of these politicians are beholden to the same party, and incumbents can count on party support in elections, where the Democratic primary election has become the most important vote.

With The Moderate, we have the opportunity to take the debate out of the hands of our stale political class and put it back in the hands of the Rhode Island polity. The purpose of this website is to provide a forum for earnest debate about policy, and in that capacity it can serve a central role in the moderate method. The Moderate will publish work from writers across the ideological spectrum, and with widely varying interests, with the intent that vigorous debate will follow. Serious interest in a topic will warrant further publishing on that topic and further debate. This website holds that only debate can bring us to compromise; that Rhode Islanders possess all of the cognitive skills to shape their own policy through debate; and that if Rhode Islanders can create a community where policy is formed through moderation, our esteemed public servants in the General Assembly will take notice, and pay attention to the voice of this (small-d) democratic community.

The Moderate believes that the Moderate Party of Rhode Island is the greatest hope that this 21^st-century idea has for near- and long-term success. As I remarked in the first All Things piece, the MPRI does not have the long-running ties to interest groups that the Democratic Party does. It does not have the rigid ideological commitments that bog down the RIGOP. What it does have is a revolutionary idea, and an historic opportunity.

The Moderate is an independent project, unbound but by friendship and hope to the Moderate Party of Rhode Island.