in fact, doesn't the fact that we have moderators on DU sort of lend credence to the notion that our society does better with moderation?

and we have MIRT who hunt and expel trolls and disruptors; they are also disempowered to moderate.
and we have site-owners/admins who are unabashedly liberal.

If anything, that rebukes your notion that this society does better with moderation.

and such posts are then either hidden or kept. What is more, such alerts go to MIRT and admins where they can make determinations beyond merely whether a particular post was offensive/extreme/over the top.

So despite the fact that you want to play semantics with the word moderator--DU does have moderators--whether you want to admit it or not.

It's not my "semantic games" and I don't think it's the admins' either. I think they explicitly set-up a radically moderator-free system.

nothing is moderating our conversations here. you are right. wow. thank you for proving me wrong. lol.

to govern, God knows it couldn't hurt. It certainly couldn't be worse than what we have been doing for the past, oh, 40 years or so.

my research says we may not quite be there for a very progressive candidate in 2016. The last extreme liberal to get elected as president? I guess it depends on anyone's definition of it.

Are you starting a moderate think tank

was a "compassionate conservative" and not a traditional conservative. Granted that was obviously just campaign speak, but they didn't sell the Bush team as unabashedly conservative.

And it is not a pretty picture. America desperately needs some radical non-moderate liberals in power to make fundamental changes.

"moderation".

but then YOU admiringly post wingnut articles full of false equivalency and comparing Tom Harkin to Ted Cruz.

You know, like the one you just admiringly posted by Diana Medved.

I read the USA Today column and thought it made sense. Maybe that is a clue here. Does the fact that I read her words and agreed with her mean I am a religious Jew as she is? No. Does it mean I have the same social conservatism views as her? Absolutely not.

What it does say is we can find common cause with a lot of people--even ones we don't agree with on many things.

I didn't see her presenting false equivalency--I saw her defending moderation as a principle.

on reducing sentences for drug users, etc. That is NOT the gist of that disgusting piece of shit article you so lovingly posted.

Says everything about you that you love a wingnut article that bashes Tom Harkin and calls him an extremist.

good job at letting us see where you're really coming from, pretz.

the other.

You made it clear that you admire an article that calls out Tom Harkin as an extremist as much as Ted Cruz.

Diane Medved does not in any way create an equivalency between Ted Cruz and Tom Harkin. That is you conflating it. In fact, most of the names she mentions in her piece are the conservative extremist noise machine of Palin, Limbaugh, Hannity, and Cruz among others.

What she does say is that Harkin believes the sooner Democrats get back to a progressive populist message, the better and says "the left" bashes anyone striking a moderate tone as avoiding the need to focus on populist issues.

You made it up. There was no comparison of Ted Cruz and Tom Harkin as though they are equivalent cases of extremes.

you give an example of his extremist views.

It's used when things really fucking extreme are being shoved down people's throats, and people are being told to suck it up because it's "moderate". It's used when the 1% (or .01%, more like it) have agreed on a plan to fuck over the 99.9%, and figure they can easily do it because they own the MSM. The MSM that promotes exactly that kind of "moderation" by denying everyone else a voice.

yep

War is Peace.
Ignorance is Strength.
Freedom is Slavery.
Chained CPI is Superlative.
Drone Murders are Legal, Ethical, and Wise.
Corporatism is "Moderate."

There is absolutely nothing "moderate" about what's being done to this country.

Indefinite detention, "kill lists" and drone wars, pre-emptive war as administration doctrine, spy centers and a massive surveillance state, internet IDs and internet-censoring measures like ACTA, military drones in American skies and militarized police departments, prisons that profit from caging more of us, coordinated violent crackdowns against peaceful protesters, strip searches for any arrestee, corporate education deform, new drilling and selling off the Gulf of Mexico, job-killing free trade agreements, big agriculture appointments, bailouts and settlements for corrupt banks, austerity budgets, and attacking Social Security and Medicare in an economy that has already impoverished its middle class.....

.....These are not moderate or centrist positions. Not by a long shot. These are extreme corporatist, neocon, and police state policies, not "centrist" or moderate at all. And they are coming from corporatists in both parties.


THIS is the distribution of wealth in which our "moderate" President advocates cutting our social safety nets and fast-tracking the Trans-Pacific Job and Wage Killing Agreement:

Incomes Flat in Recovery, but Not for the 1%
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014400736

Top 1% get 121% of income gains since 2009 (100% of new income + 21% from your old income)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022384139

U.S. corporate profits stronger than ever, workers' wages fallen to lowest-ever share of GDP (CNN)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021922334

U.S. Income Inequality Now Worse Than Many Latin American Countries
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022268073

Ranks of working poor increasing
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022200197

Inequality Rages as Dwindling Wages Lock Millions in Poverty
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022198286

The Middle Class In America Is Being Wiped Out – Here Are 60 Facts That Prove It
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022144851

Child poverty rates increase unabated
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022268450

40 Percent of Americans Now Make Less than 1968 Minimum Wage
http://www.democraticunderground.com/111631016

Corporate Profits Have Grown By 171 Percent Under ‘Anti-Business’ Obama
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014372334

US poverty on track to reach 46-year high; suburbs, underemployed workers, children hit hard
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002998131

Poverty, hunger among retirees increasing
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002748342

The Economy is "Recovering" By Creating More Low-Wage Jobs... Increasingly Filled By Graduates
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022602162

"Recovery" in US is lifting profits, but not adding jobs
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014414149

Obama to use pension funds of ordinary Americans to pay for bank mortgage settlements
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002205218

What Recovery? Across America, People in Distressed Cities and Small Towns Face Economic Catastrophe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022545596

Real wages decline; literally no one notices
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11172387

Wall Street Soars with Wealth as Wages Stagnate, Jobs Remain in a Slump
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12526154

Wages for bottom 90% declined 1.2% during 2009-2011 recovery, top 1% income grew 8.2%
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022271466

Three Minimum Wage Jobs Needed To Afford Two-Bedroom Apartment
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022578738

Wages have fallen to a record low as a share of America’s gross domestic product.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022183930

The Real Numbers: Half of America in Poverty -- and It's Creeping toward 75%
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002290698

Is abstract thinking wrong?

and no...abstract thinking is not wrong?

you know ... Freedom!