What makes a moderate?

I stumbled across a website for the Michigan Conservative Union, and on this website was a post entitled "What's an uber-conservative?"

Thinking this sounded like it might prove to be an interesting side source, I read it. 

But along with describing what conservatives believe, the author, Ron Estrada, included a paraphrasing of political theorist Russell Kirk:

"A Conservative, according to Russell Kirk, relies on history, social norms and tradition to guide his political philosophy.  And a Conservative is always willing to compromise."

Estrada went on to claim "In the truest sense of the word, Conservatives are moderates.  In the vernacular of the mainstream media, however, ‘moderate' means willing to surrender liberty, property, or beliefs."

Unfortunately, Estrada does not seem to understand what moderate means in our current political discourse.

Being politically moderate does not include giving constitutional liberties, but rather being open minded about what both sides have to say and picking the best solution that satisfies everyone.

In an Aug. 7 report, TheHill.com reported that Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell expressed his feelings about President Barack Obama's jobs plan, which has since been presented to U.S. legislators:

"‘We certainly intend to listen politely to the recommendation the president has, but I think I can pretty confidently say everybody in the Republican conference of the Senate thinks that we need to quit doing what we've been doing—quit borrowing, quit spending, quit threatening to raise taxes and quit having a big wet blanket on top of the private sector of the economy by this explosion of regulation.'"

McConnell had already made up his mind that the plan was not something he was interested in while supporting what he wanted.

And the democrats can't say they are any better.

An Indiana Statesman article from Feb. 24 said that Indiana State legislators walked out of the Statehouse in response to the "Right to Work" bill, which they believed was too anti-union. 

Instead of fighting to improve the deficit, they walked away.

No one wants to give any ground.

And moderates are hardly seen.

In fact, they are sometimes reviled, going all the way back to Dante Alighieri's "Inferno," where the third of the angels who sided neither with God or Satan are still being tormented with biting bugs and darkness.

A quick search on the phrase "politically moderate" turned up 12,600,000 results.

And while that number does seem impressive, similar searches for "politically conservative" and "politically liberal" turned up 186,000,000 and 22,000,000 results, respectively, showing that both of the extremes are more represented than the moderate view.

A simpler resolution to the current deficit issue would be a mixture of tax increases and cutting unnecessary spending. 

If our country is going to have any hope for a brighter future, both sides need to stop this playground pissing contest that our politics have become.