Moderates Missing the Fire

Nov. 26, 2023

The extreme ends of the political spectrum monopolize the discussion, dominate the media, and give the everlasting impression we are a country divided.

We moderates, who logically should be the bridge-builders spanning the big divide, stand by largely powerless.

That’s not happenstance.  We moderates come up short on leadership, a platform, and on passion. Each of these deficiencies is a topic onto itself, in totality involving much too much information to present or digest all at once.  Let’s limit ourselves here to the question of passion, the least explored of the shortcomings.

Our Common Purpose devoted a good portion of one of its periodic public opinion surveys, this was conducted two years ago by Survey USA, to exploring whether personality differences line up with political differences.  Are conservatives fire-breathing monsters?  Are liberals warm and fuzzy pushovers?  Are moderates milquetoasts?

The answers are to a degree reassuring.  We are pre-conditioned by continuous vitriol and disparagement to expect the worst of those on the other side.  But at least according to how survey respondents see themselves, we surprisingly track together more often than we might think.  In fact, there is no appreciable difference between conservatives, moderates and liberals on 11 of the 27 personality traits that were examined.*  Those of all political affiliations lean more toward:

 Taking charge, rather than following others.
 Getting organized, rather than taking things as they come.
 Adjusting to circumstances, rather than doing as planned.
 Hearing out others, rather than persuading them.
 Smoothing things over, rather than arguing the case.
 Assisting others when needed, rather than figuring it’s on them.

Even where differences emerge, those of varying political ideologies are not – in aggregate – totally opposite of each other.  They all generally trend in the same direction, just to greater or lesser degrees.

So, for instance, each persuasion is more inclined to follow the news than not be interested.  While liberals average +47 and conservatives +26 on the side of following the news, those in the middle come in at just +15.   Moderates follow the news, but on average the interest is lukewarm.

This pattern repeats.  Contrary to what we might expect, the biggest such differences – particularly involving traits that have a more direct bearing on political involvement – are not between conservatives and liberals, but with moderates.  In contrast with those on either side of the political spectrum, those in the middle tend on the margin to be:

 Less interested in politics.
 Less interested in following the news.
 Less likely to speak their mind and, in general, slightly less talkative.
 Slightly more inclined to second-guess themselves.
 More likely to wait to join in until they’re invited, rather than initiating.

Put this together and in aggregate we moderates profile as holding back.  We are not just moderate in ideology.  We practice moderation.  At best this might be characterized as ambivalence.  At worst, aversion.  Only 17% of those in the moderate category regard themselves as heavily engaged with politics. That compares with 33% of the “very conservatives” and 45% of the “very liberals”. **

This finding sheds new light on why those on the extremes get all the attention.  It’s not just that many of them are willing to assert themselves.  They get to shout loudly as they want because there’s pretty much no one else in the arena.  It also helps explain why so much attention is paid to so-called “swing voters.”  We are docile sheep waiting to be enticed in one direction or the other.

For anyone wanting moderates to push their own agenda, these conclusions are not encouraging.  The lower level of involvement could be one of those chicken-and-egg questions.  Does the lack of passion explain the lack of leadership and agenda?  Or does the absence of leadership and agenda give moderates nothing to be passionate about?

Whichever, the absence of a countervailing force in the middle is not good for the country.  We moderates have to find a way to overcome our personalities if we expect to build any bridges.

–Richard Gilman

Notes on methodology:
*Respondents were asked to evaluate where they put themselves on a 201-point scale (-100 to +100) for 27 traits. A particular trait would be shown at one end of the scale and the opposite behavior at the other end. For instance, “In group settings, I speak my mind . . . hold my tongue.”
**Respondents were placed into one of five categories – very conservative, somewhat conservative, moderate, somewhat liberal, very liberal – based on how they placed themselves on the same 201-point scale. They also rated their own engagement in politics. So of those who ended up in the moderate classification, only 17% gave themselves high marks for engagement.