I get the author's point, I was a moderate too now I'm a 'doomer' because we 'moderate'-ed ourselves into useless discourse because a surprising amount of our political discussion is fluff. Even if solid science showing a correct direction for incremental change, getting all these ideologies to get their bases on the same page for it is impossible. There are a surprising amount of votes that are purged by region, and surprisingly obfuscated voting system to make it harder to vote properly, requiring more from voters than other western nations. So both sides realistically are pandering to 100-200k people that actually have the voting power for the rest of the nation so w/e they think and feel is what matters<p>What America understands as liberalism is actually a 'moderate-conservative' ideology in line with neo-liberalism. Where they will be socially liberal but fiscally conservative by most of the western worlds standards. Where the burnie holds the most popular ideas with majority of Americans surprisingly, but those who vote lean more neo-liberal so he is the underdog.<p>The right is more conservative ideologies big tent, including everyone from social to fiscal conservatives and everyone in between. Evangelicals are their main base, so they tailor everything to pivot around them, and now more so the trump base.<p>I feel like once anyone starts diving into the differences of ideologies in those in groups with each of those two groups, you become slightly less moderate. Then, if one looks at how each side's representatives on either side actually implemented policy, and the lobbiests all these figures speak with, they'll quickly find themselves not to be a moderate but a doomer.