Hear, Hear!!

Orson Scott Card has done it again, this time bemoaning the two-party system that requires a person to either conceal their true beliefs or turn off their brains in order to adopt the full raft of party policy. He contests that no one can be intellectually honest and an idealogically pure liberal or conservative. And I agree.

I have leanings, to be sure, but I think both parties are so full of crap and themselves that no sensible person could ever side with them completely. I'm a moderate, as Card describes it, and there is just no place for moderates in today's politics.

I'm reminded of this frequently by a friend of mine. If I remember correctly, he would rather vote for Hillary or Obama than McCain, even though by his own admission, McCain would do less damage to the country than the democratic candidates. Why? Because McCain has dared to vote with the other side. He has failed to live up to the party line. Better to vote for someone who will cripple the country than someone who has disappointed him, lest he reward that kind of behavior.

So instead he rewards completely unrepentant, assinine behavior. Straining at gnats and swallowing camels, in my view.

Such is the legacy of our two party system. I'd much rather be a moderate. Thanks to Card's description of what a moderate is and is not, I can begin to say that with pride.