Will America Ever Have a Moderate President Again? According to Newsweek’s Jesus Mesa, probably not – and he sounds oddly okay with that. This piece chronicles the political migration away from centrism and into the gladiator pits of ideological warfare. Mesa uses New York City’s Zohran Mamdani – a democratic socialist who beat Andrew Cuomo in a mayoral primary – as a lens to examine the left’s revolutionary bent. Meanwhile, on the right, Trump has already won the war for the GOP’s soul. Moderates are now relics, gathering dust like Mitt Romney’s integrity. Mesa’s main thesis? In today’s political climate, moderation isn’t just boring – it’s DOA.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Centrism’s funeral was sparsely attended: Once the banner of stability and bipartisan kumbaya, moderation has been dropkicked by voters demanding gladiators, not guidance counselors. Who needs balance when you can have bloodsport?
- MAGA didn’t start the fire – it just threw gasoline on it: The article pins polarization on Trump’s 2016 rise, conveniently forgetting Barack Obama’s “fundamental transformation” of America that sent Middle America into fight-or-flight mode.
- On the left, Mamdani is Che Guevara with a city council badge: Rent freezes, city-run grocery stores, and enough wealth taxes to make Karl Marx blush. Yet Newsweek treats him like a messiah, despite his own party’s awkward silence.
- The GOP is a Trump cosplay convention now: From Rubio serving as Trump’s Secretary of State to Liz Cheney exiled like a political leper, the message is clear: get in line or get lost.
- The suburban moderate checked out to binge Netflix and DoorDash their dignity: Voter apathy let the edges define the debate. Now we’re stuck in a political WWE match with no refs and way too much spandex.
My Bottom Line
Newsweek wants you to believe the political craziness started in 2016 with MAGA. But blaming Trump for polarization is like blaming the fire extinguisher for the arson. Trump didn’t light the match – he just showed up with a flamethrower after Obama lit the kindling. The real death of moderation happened when average Americans – yes, the Great Suburban Normies of whom I so often and fondly speak (because I want to be one) – decided they’d rather watch the Broncos lose in HD than bother voting in a midterm. Apathy paved the road to extremism. And as the political class got richer, we got angrier.
Here’s the truth: we’ll get moderation again when the system stops rewarding liars and grifters. When politicians stop using the Capitol as a retirement plan. When the justice system stops handing out passes based on party registration. When people stop being afraid to say a man is a man and a woman is a woman. Until then, I’ll take disruption over deception every damn day. Trump didn’t drain the swamp, but at least he called it what it was – and he has the brass (or in Trump’s case, gold-gilded) balls to try. That’s more than most “moderates” have done in a generation.
