OK, I understand that in much of America, "liberal" has been a dirty word for ages.

The 21 percent of Americans who identify themselves as liberals, they're loathed, reviled, hated, scorned and spoken of as traitors to their nation. The liberal media, liberal Hollywood, liberal writers and artists, liberal college professors -- all those elite people who read books and travel places and think deeply, they're goddamned liberals. They're "other." And we real Amurricans hate 'em.

I got that.

That whole side of our political spectrum, fuck you.

But when did "moderate" join "liberal" on the shit-heap of curse words?

Throughout the Republican presidential primary, I hear self-proclaimed conservatives complain about moderates, how moderates are ruining their party and this country, how moderates are in some ways worse than liberals because at least liberals stand on firm principles, while moderates seem willing to consider both sides of an argument and change their minds on occasion.

The Tea Party hates moderates. Right-wing bloggers and radio blowhards hate moderates. Republicans backing candidates other than Mitt Romney complain that Romney is a moderate. Frantic to win the GOP nomination, Romney says that's a lie, that he's "a severe conservative." (I'm trying to think of any other use of the word severe that doesn't involve an undesirable medical condition, like a severe burn.)

Here is a transcript of Rush Limbaugh and a caller:

CALLER: If you could pick and choose what kind of conservatives and what kind of Republicans made up the Republican Party, would there be room for moderates, moderate conservatives or even liberal Republicans, that sort of thing? Would there be room for those?

RUSH: (sighs) Well...

CALLER: ...

RUSH: They can vote for us, but I don't want them in the party.

And yet.

Thirty-six percent of Americans identify themselves as moderates.

More than half the country either is liberal or moderate.

If people on the left side of the political spectrum are traitorous scum who should be exiled (if not worse), and the same now goes for people in the middle of the political spectrum, where is politics going in our country? The minority of Americans who identify as conservatives -- are they the only true Amurricans left who should be allowed to hold elected office?

I like/liked Radio personality then tv guy Larry King. He was avowedly liberal. And he was asked if he thought that people on the other side of the abortion debate, the "Pro-Life" people were nuts. He said, no, quite to the contrary, I think if you believe Abortion is murder, you should oppose it with everything you are and believe in. That there is no moderation on some views. If you agree or disagree is one thing, being in the middle of the road is nothing.

I think this is an example then of how Moderates to people of any persuasion seem to be luke warm. On the other hand, no one wants their bath to be cold, or tepid, or hot, they like it luke warm. So fuck it. Moderates in my tub forever!

Interestingly enough, I disagree with the concept that you have to be of one extreme on abortion. Being a child of rape, January 1, 1963, I am well aware that I am only alive due to the presence of anti abortion laws. However, I'd hate to have been the burden that I was.

So I believe especially in cases of rape and incest, abortion should be legal, life is too fucking hard to be burdened with another human life.

Abortion is a good example, but it's only one issue.

(It's also an extreme example because there isn't an acceptable compromise on abortion. Either it's legal or it isn't. Since the Roe v. Wade decision, many states have tried to negotiate the middle ground by setting limits on who can get an abortion and when and under what conditions. They've satisfied neither side. Ultimately, it's a rare binary issue, like slavery: It's either legal or it isn't, and either way, roughly half the country is going to be passionately upset.)

Frequently, the Republicans who get tagged as "moderates" are fiscally conservative but socially liberal. They're pro-business Chamber of Commerce types but not particularly religious. They want lower taxes; they don't care how other adults choose to fuck each other because it's none of their business.

This sort of moderate Republican once dominated the party.

I describe the moderates as Business oriented, and the others as Values oriented. The difference between them is one works for compromise when possible, and the other sees compromise to be traitorous.

I read a study recently in which scientists examined the partisan divide in our current Congress.

It's more than a cliché: Republican and Democratic lawmakers no longer work together like they once did. If you study votes, the most liberal Republican in Congress now is well to the right of the most conservative Democrat. Gone is the overlap, the middle ground, where deals sometimes were struck in the past.

"It is clear that the most moderate Democrats and Republicans in both chambers have become more liberal and conservative, respectively, over the last 30 years," the researchers wrote. "This shift has been more dramatic among Republicans than Democrats."

Which all shows why a guy like Mitt Romney is struggling to beat a guy like Rick Santorum. The Conservative cred goes beyond how you personally live, you have to govern that way as well, or its meaningless. I never had sex before marriage, never cheated on my wife, never did drugs, am a Christian, I don't drink much, I don't abuse women, I don't protest much of anything, I am a conservative in how I live. But if I were to govern it'd be as a moderate. And as such, I'd be called, Liberal.

The New Left attacked liberals, communists attacked liberals, socialists who confined their revolution to one nation attacked liberals. Lenin called you all useful idiots (or Stalin, I've seen the term attributed to more than one person). You're used to that, and they're ideological brothers.

Shouldn't people who flat-out disagree (property, rule of law, minimal government intrusion, no fat chicks) be expected to, you know, really disagree?

Don't worry about right-wingers. They may be armed and hateful and all those media cliches, but they proved they couldn't smash nearly as much stuff as the Occupiers. The Tea Parties didn't have as many rapes either.

Lawson: Why can't people work together?
Weemie: YOU'RE AN IDIOT RAPIST WHO LIKES STALIN AND STANDS AGAINST THE RULE OF LAW.

Not often you see a question answered so readily, so effectively, and with so little self-awareness.

Hey fucker, Stalin visited his mother every weekend, and sent her chocolates on Mother Comrade's Day.