Monthly Archives: August 2014

That Election Across the Pacific Ocean

Published in Beijing Review, October 26, 2012.
http://www.bjreview.com/report/txt/2012-10/26/content_493141.htm
Approximately 1818 words.

Those of us who are thousands of miles separated from that American election are looking on with just a little surprise as the enthusiasm and emotion generated by the 2012 event unfolds. Such vigor! Such controversy! So many ominous predictions! So many conflicting opinions. Does it all really matter? The week after the voting is all over are the conflicting parties and their partisans going to make up and forget the whole thing? Continue reading That Election Across the Pacific Ocean

A Plea For Political Moderation

Published and archived on History News Network (hnn.com) on September 30, 2013. Approximately 1446 words.

Listening to NPR or the BBC or some cable channel recently, I learned that “Moderates” are disappearing rapidly in the Republican and Democratic Parties and, indeed, on the whole political scene in America. This was bad news for this aging Moderate Republican. I have enjoyed more than half a century of avoiding both appeals and threats from arch liberals and stern conservatives in order to cling to flexibility and avoid overly blind partisanship to “Party First!” Meanwhile, I continue to be a bit active within one of the parties as an irritable member and undependable supporter at election time. As a Moderate I am a vanishing breed, ‘tis said and evidently ‘tis all too true. Clearly, it’s time to strike a blow. Continue reading A Plea For Political Moderation