What am I trying to do?

The Pragmatic Center is a political blog and a social networking site. I utilize the blog to analyze issues and ideas important to political moderates. The social networking component connects me, the moderator with political leaders, activists, and citizen contributors like you. 

As Politico reported in 2011, political blogs have become the most influential gatekeepers in American politics. Candidates seeking support have a much better chance of success if they seek the endorsement of political bloggers.

A study by the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet notes that the most politically active voters, those who contribute time and money, consistently read political blogs. Therefore, it’s most effective to go straight to the source.

So blogs such as the progressive DailyKos.com and the conservative RedState.com have become launching pads for political candidates at the federal level and increasingly at the state level. Red State founder and CNN political analyst Erick Erickson’s motto is “We support conservatives in primaries and Republicans in general elections.” And his support or lack of support can make or break a candidate. Political blogs have become the most influential political organizations of the 21st century, albeit they are virtual.

However, there are few political blogs that appeal to moderates. While most Americans are moderates and agree on most of the issues, as Yahoo! News recently reported, our democracy is dominated by a highly partisan and extremely ideological minority who profit from excessive partisanship.

So too is the internet. “No Labels” founder Mark McKinnon explains, “Middle America is being ignored by Washington and the media. Centrists are desperate for a voice today; they feel entirely unrepresented.”

My hope in launching The Pragmatic Center was to give moderates or what I call the Rational Majority a voice in American politics. But there was one major problem, which I knew beforehand – most moderate voters do not recognize how they are different than the partisan ideologues on either side of them.  

Since our democracy has been hijacked by the political parties, voters must choose between the lesser of two evils. But moderates know they do not full heartedly believe in either progressivism or conservatism. Nor do they believe that either party, Democrats or Republicans fully represent their views.  Moderates believe that neither party has a monopoly on good ideas and they are defined by their desire for more options or a third way. 

But what is that third way? That is my main objective – trying to figure out what the third way is.

There are people like Red State’s Erick Erickson who say moderates are just people who can’t make up their minds. He argues they should pick a side and stand up for conservative or progressive principles. I and a majority of Americans could not disagree more.  

Americans are proud of our individualism, so why would we move lockstep behind a political party and be straight jacketed by party orthodoxy and ideology? As Thomas Jefferson once wrote, "I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all."

Moreover, there are more than two choices. But the problem is we don’t exactly know what the third way is.

For example, when Roosevelt’s New Deal policies and coalition dominated American politics in the 1950s, progressivism was the status quo. No other alternatives competed for votes. The Republicans, for the most part, were just watered down Democrats trying to succeed in a political environment dominated by Democrats and progressive ideas. 

There was no conservative movement.  In fact, most conservative voters were an eclectic mix of social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and market libertarians. The consensus was that these large, unorganized, disparate groups could never be united let alone influence the political debate of the country. 

But because of articles and research by people like William F. Buckley and Russell Kirk in the pages of the "National Review" magazine, the conservative movement was united and ignited. It began with a philosophical debate about the role of government and its beliefs in certain principles such as limited government and American exceptionalism. The intellectual foundation they laid out helped to determine what ideals to promote and what policies to support, all of which helped to rebrand the Republican Party, gave voters an alternative option, and united a conservative coalition which has dominated American politics for over thirty years.

If you don’t know what you want, then how can you get it? What are your goals and vision? That’s the question Buckley and Kirk helped conservatives answer and that’s what I’m trying to do with moderates.

Moderates are unique in every way. We have a different perspective and approach to politics; we want a different role for government, and we have a different political philosophy.  But just as conservatives in the 1950s, moderates are undefined and unorganized.

What I’m trying to do is to weave together all of our ideas, ideals, and best policies to create an intellectual foundation for the moderate movement. To that end The Pragmatic Center is positioning itself as an intellectual hub of the moderate movement.

The Pragmatic Center’s most important objective (and the objective of my quote book “Write that Down”) is to answer the question, what does it mean to be a moderate?  Currently, there is no consensus even on what term to use, moderate or centrist, let alone what principles and policies we agree on.  Specifically, I would like to help determine our philosophy, the moderate perspective on the role of government, the brand moderate politicians should use to market themselves, the narrative of how pragmatism fits into American history, and the reform agenda that moderates should promote.

So The Pragmatic Center is a unique political blog. I do not profit from partisanship nor do I try to exacerbate it. Instead I try to reveal the ridiculousness of the political games destroying our democracy, explain how partisanship is America's biggest threat to its short term success and long term survival, promote politics of problem-solving rather than petty point-scoring, and offer a different vision for America in the 21st century.

Because just as Abraham Lincoln once said, "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

If moderates had ideals and ideas to guide them then they would be able to unite and offer a new vision for America in the 21st century. That’s what I’m trying to do. So over the course of the past two years and for many years to come I will continue to define and promote the moderate movement. I hope you join me.   

If you're interested in collaborating with me please contact me at NicholasGoebel@ThePragmaticCenter.com

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