The Last Moderate
Tom Cruise is the Last Samurai, Daniel Day-Lewis is the Last of the Mohicans, and that creepy murder house at the end of the block is the Last House on the Left. I wonder who will be the Last Moderate? I consider myself a moderate – but that is the point right there – everyone considers themselves a moderate. Every mace wielding Capitol crashing revolutionary considers themselves a moderate, as does every socialist pushing for 50% income taxes and 100% inheritance tax. No one is an extremist in their own eyes anymore.
I used to think that a moderate was someone that just naturally found themselves in the middle of two more extreme positions. I no longer feel that to be true. Being a moderate is an intentional and deliberate decision. It is possible for anyone to be a moderate, or at least to try to be one. The secrets are humility (my position is a position to hold, but not the only position and those that think differently are not de facto evil) and empathy (my opponents are not evil but are good people that have reasons that differ from mine to make their decisions.) The secret to moderate is this – find the position of the side you least favor. Find the desires of the other side. Now – and this is where choice comes in – compromise the ideal for the attainable and sustainable.
To illustrate I have two examples, one quasi medical and one medical. First – gun control. Ideally my point of view would not need to be known – but I think in these cases I will have to open up some so that people of both sides can evaluate fully my points. I am a Texan gun toting white Christian male that votes almost exclusively Republican. And yet, even with those caveats, I consider myself a moderate on gun control. I own every caliber of Sig Sauer I am aware of (except the pellet gun, its on my Christmas list) and several rifles, including an EBR (evil black rifle AR-15). I have a hunting rifle, lots of guns. I really like guns. I don’t hunt anything; I kill only paper targets.) So how am I a moderate? I see the side I gravitate to (don’t take my guns) and I see the side I naturally gravitate away from (take away all guns.) Then I push myself as far as I can toward the side I naturally gravitate away from. In this case, that means I must believe the gun control people are good people that have had experiences that cause them to hold that position. I respect and love them even if I don’t respect and love their position. I cannot push myself to abandoning the right to bear arms – but I can sure push myself down paths of heavy regulation.
It took a ton of work, and continues to take a ton of work, to keep my medical license. It took a fair amount of work to get my driver’s license. It should take real work to get and keep a gun license. I want gun ownership to be regulated a ton – because if it is not the odds are so much higher that I will someday lose my ability to legally own a gun. If I don’t take the wind out of the sails of the other side, they will sail on and get their extremist way. That makes me a moderate. Moderates on gun control are uncomfortable with gun shows, no background check gun sales from private dealers, and no meaningful background checks (including psychiatric checks) before purchase.
So that is gun control. The next one is insanely controversial (like people killing other people controversial). Abortion. There are the two positions – pro-abortion and anti-abortion. I am a moderate (as stated) but for disclosure I came from a very anti-abortion background and worship at a church with a very immoderate anti-abortion legacy.
On first, second, and a lot of subsequent glances there is not a lot of room for compromise – and therefore a more difficult position for the moderate to find themselves in. The first rule of moderate is the most important here. It is imperative to respect the opposition while still disagreeing to the opposition. The other side is not inherently evil. I suspect adherents to both sides are right now shaking their head and thinking, “Oh yes they are!”
Let’s start with some basic definitions. Let’s talk about abortion, or the destruction or termination of an unwanted pregnancy. Post-birth abortion is not abortion – that is infanticide which is murder. Similarly, allowing abortion only before a heartbeat starts is not abortion since it is not feasible to know of a pregnancy that early. Heartbeat starts right around the time of the first missed period, so enforcing that guideline is eliminating abortion.
A basic definition of abortion would be “a problem.” And not a recent one, not one since Roe v. Wade. Think longer, much longer. Likely this issue goes back to the dawn of civilization, but we clearly know Spartans in ancient Greece struggled with it and settled on infanticide for unwanted babies. The issue was such a hot topic it made it into the relatively compact Hippocratic Oath with the phrase, “I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion.” This portion of the Hippocratic oath has been removed from most medical schools when the oath is administered at graduation, but the original has it in there.
So to discuss why the moderate position is the correct one I will use a recent example of how close to impossible it is to remain a moderate. There is a figure in the pro-abortion world that is very polarizing to the anti-abortion crowd: Hillary Clinton. She is viewed as pro-abortion without any limits, without any restrictions at all including late term and partial birth abortions. I cannot say with anything but a guess what her actual views are – but there is a dramatic discrepancy between that viewpoint and what she said earlier in her career. In 1994 she called abortion, “Morally wrong,” and as late as 2007 she stated that she wanted to make abortion, “Safe, legal, and rare.” She further emphasized, “By rare, I mean rare.”
As stated earlier, moderates need to choose the moderate position to ensure that the position they hold does not get eliminated – why I want extreme gun control to make sure no one makes gun ownership illegal. Clinton should have not allowed the extremes of her party to drag her into positions on abortion that she did not hold herself. It is not easy to hold that moderate line, but it was critical. Her position on safe, legal, and rare is the position that I hold. That most of America holds. Had she kept her position I do not believe she would have lost the 2016 election. Her extreme adopted viewpoint mobilized the right into voting in a president with confused and poorly stated views on abortion, but he was willing to adopt the other extreme of anti-abortion. Her loss cost three supreme court justices and a dramatic limiting across the country to safe access to abortion. Now with the courts limiting (not abortion, but limiting the federal government’s right to enforce abortion standards on all states) the reach of federal statutes, the anti-abortion position is in grave danger or seeing the same thing happening in reverse – with discussions of court packing and supreme court justices term limits.
Here are some basic facts: most of the country agrees with 2007 Hillary in making abortion “safe, legal, and rare.” Most agree that saying that phrase out loud is political suicide. Say it in church and you are a baby killer. Say it anywhere else and you are thought of as subjugating and abusive to women. Making women watch ultrasounds before abortion will not suddenly make the woman seeking an abortion realize it’s a life, realize the enormity of the decision, or stop. She already knows. This is an enormous horrible time for these women and they are tortured by the decision. A woman that had an abortion five years ago looks long and sadly at every five year old they see. This decision is not easy, it leaves scars. It needs to be rare through better access to contraception and information.
We need to keep this option safe and legal – because illegal will not be safe. Women have been dying for a minimum of 2500 years seeking terminations to pregnancy, and they will not stop regardless of the legality. Making abortion illegal will 100% and without a doubt kill some women seeking illegal abortion. I therefore have a bone to pick with the phrase, “pro-life.” Anti-abortion is accurate, but pro-life is not. At best, it should be phrased, “pro some life but anti others.” Which is exactly the same position as the pro-abortion side.
So, Clinton – I voted for the bad hair guy, because you refused to refute the knock against you that you were wanting everyone to get abortions without limits, including in some cases days after delivery. You lost your moderate position (and you were going to totally make it illegal to not get all recommended vaccines.) Abortion should not have “heartbeat limits,” as that makes it impossible, and I believe a rationale and moderate limit should be 22 weeks – it makes no sense for two women to walk into a hospital at 25 weeks and one turn right to labor and delivery and one to turn left to women’s services. If life is sustainable, sustain it.
Not a funny blog entry – but important. We as a healthcare community have lost much of the nation’s trust and respect over the last few years. Reclaiming moderate is a way to earn some of it back.
Thoughtful essay, thoughtful comments all.
My take is a little different. I think for purposes of analysis and empathy, trying to actively see the other guy’s point is a mentally and spiritually healthy attitude. And Kenneth framed his rationale well, with a couple of supporting examples. Bravo to a good read.
That said, it ignores the nature of government, the mob, and incrementalism. Whatever position one takes on whatever issue, it is the very nature of government to attempt to grow, always, and in so doing diminish the individual. As this happens, the individual becomes more dependent, dumber, more frightened, and more easily malleable by the government. That is what we have seen for decades, and it is accelerating. That is why I disagree with licensure of guns. The collective will always revert to a mode of incrementalism, and the idea of using moderation as some sort of fire break will absolutely not work, as the anti-gun forces will march right up to that perceived wall, and then start looking for ways to scale it, tunnel under it, or tear it down. The right to self-defense – for anyone naive enough to reference our largely defunct Constitution – is inalienable, bestowed by the Almighty, and therefore not subject to man’s law. Moderation by its definition affronts this and begins its destruction. Moreover, physician groups weighing in on this as a health issue only make themselves agents of the state, and we see how well THAT went over the past two years. The NRA has made a lot of enemies, and sometimes has been clumsy in their marketing, but one thing they have completely understood is that ANY ground ceded will only encourage more aggression. Physicians arguing for more gun control ultimately empower the forces of anti-individualism, which leads to very dark ends.
As to abortion, it boils down to a conflict between two questions:
1) Whose body is it?
2) When does life begin?
I believe that a great many people of both sexes and from all age groups will not look at these questions honestly, and never will. There are wrenching circumstances when termination is the most sadly understandable course; and to argue that it does not end a unique genetic combination of rapidly dividing and differentiating cells is absurd.
This issue will NEVER be solved, and the best a physician can do is to be honest about their own understanding and recommendations.
I like your guts to address this. Below is part of an essay I didn’t have the balls to publish.
Do you think it is ok to kill a baby after it is born and viable at 40 weeks? 99.9% of people would say no (but some have advocated for just letting them die after a birth)
So then you start going in reverse until a person thinks it is ok to get rid of “the products of conception”. 24 weeks-(the time generally considered that the baby can be resuscitated at delivery and survive without significant morbidity)? 21 weeks and 2 days? (the absolute earliest a baby has survived), heartbeat (about 6 weeks), implantation in the uterus (1-3 days), conception?
So, at some point a human life is formed. We as humans generally don’t feel it’s ok to kill people so then you just argue about when life actually begins. Pick your time. .
Here is where I think the argument is.
Per the great Maha Rushie, a moderate is someone who cannot take a stand for things they believe.
Riding the fence is a cowardly way to go through life. Was America founded by a group of moderates? Did moderates destroy the Nazis in WW2? I’d rethink my life philosophy, bro.
What? Over? Did you say ‘over’? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!…
It ain’t over now, ’cause when the goin’ gets tough, the tough get goin’. Who’s with me? Let’s go! Come on!..
Best.Movie.Ever!
Very good opinion piece on a difficult subject. I agree with you I have found it very difficult to reconcile spending a million dollars on a 23 week old premature infant and at the same time aborting it. The ethical ramifications are mind-boggling both in terms of morality and financial.