March 2010

The Politics of Moderation: Why Moderates Lose Elections

Reason, moderation, and rational decision making are barely noticeable in American politics anymore. Watch the news and what you will see are two parties constantly bickering, blaming the other side, and disagreeing on almost every issue that they can. We know that compromise and moderation are possible because for about 40 years after World War II that was how American politics worked. What went wrong and how did moderation and rational decision making become vices?

• American Politics

Bing’s Pragmatism: The Common Sense Solutions of Detroit’s Mayor

Moderation allows our political leaders to have open minds and make decisions based on reason and not ideology or partisanship. Rational decision making then can be used to find the right solution no matter what party or politician supports or opposes it. The results of moderation, reason, and rational decision making are pragmatic policies.

• Reforms

The Broken Branch

Thomas Mann & Norman Ornstein

This analysis of the People’s Branch reveals just how dysfunctional it really is. The Broken Branch is a short read full of interesting stories and details that exposes the flaws of Congress. Written to be more marketable to mainstream Americans it lacks the in depth research you would expect from these two scholars. Still a very good read.

• Congress

Nicholas R. Goebel

Here in the United States, our political leaders tend to put off solving problems until they are crises and even then they usually create half ass solutions.

• Policy