When I speak to people who genuinely call themselves moderate Democrats, independents, or moderate Republicans, I often find that they agree with me on almost every major issue although we will have slight differences in detail as in commonplace even among this community. Speak to five moderates today and you'll find the same thing.
Genuine Moderates want qualitative public schools, their environment protected, fair and just law enforcement, their civil rights protected, access to the courts, a fair progressive tax code, a reality based foreign policy that puts security first, honesty in government, fiscal responsibility, a well funded domestic infrastructure, people based health care, government out of their private domain, a living wage, protection from corporate abuses, and the rule of law upheld. And so too do liberals and progressives.
Yet many moderates will spend more time trying to distance themselves from the liberals and progressives who fight for the same values they share than they will standing up to the conservatives who seek to destroy all that they stand for.
80 to 90% of Moderates are liberals or progressives who, because of behavioral traits, are generally afraid to stand up for what they believe in UNLESS they feel safe and empowered to do so. While a few may be insulted by the implication of cowardness, moderates will eventually join liberals and progressives if they no longer fear the conservative bully.
You irritate many genuine moderates in the short run by pointing out this character flaw but you win over these same moderates in the long run by unapologetically fighting for the progressive and liberal values they hold dear. While "moderates" often claim to be intellectual and discerning (and most are to their credit) they make their decision based on emotional perceptions and images first. (Karl Rove understands this but fortunately so do I.) If you have two candidates and one candidate comes across as strong in his beliefs and the other comes across as weak in his beliefs, the moderate will almost always choose the former because the moderate acts on emotion first.
However, if both candidates project strength in their beliefs, then the intellectual and discerning side of the moderate takes over and given the choice between a strong conservative and a strong liberal, the strong liberal wins every time. But we must pass the first emotional hurdle in order for the intellectual merits to prevail.
The only way to stop the extremist right wing conservative bullies who have been destroying America for many years is to have courageous people there to stand up to them. Most moderates are initially often very afraid to stand up for themselves because they tend to be people who don't want to cause waves or are easily scared by bullies. It's only when people with backbones stand up to the right wing crazies that the moderates eventually build up their own inner strength and join the courageous. It just takes most moderates a little longer because they tend to be fearful people who psychologically favor the path of least resistance. Ironically enough, it's the people who do the grunt work of standing up to the right wing and putting themselves in the line of fire who make it easier for these same moderates to get elected.
The moderate is the guy who sits quietly in the lunchroom while the bully steals the lunch money from the kid next to him. When one person says that the bully is wrong, the moderate gets angry at the person speaking out, initally transferring his inner hate for his cowardness onto the person with courage. The moderate will then say that maybe the bully should only steal the lunch money three times a week and call this bipartisan and make himself feel good for his "compromise." When enough people stand up to the bully and it's clear the majority will not tolerate stealing and bullying, the moderate then joins the majority and then claims that he had a change of heart.
The moderate is the girl who says nothing when the school cafeteria serves food with E Coli in it afraid to upset the administration. When somebody complains that the food is making kids sick, the moderate labels the complainer as too liberal. Eventually, the majority of kids start speaking out against E-Coli and the moderate joins in saying that she was against E-Coli all along.
The moderate is the guy who says nothing when the bully beats up a kid in the classroom for no reason because it would be unpatriotic and controversial to question the bully. The moderate gets upset when someone complains about the abuse and calls the complainer a "do gooder." The moderate feels that this will protect him from future abuse from this bully. When enough fellow students start speaking out against the abuse by the bully and team up on the bully, the moderate joins the do gooders feeling safe to do so.
The moderate is constantly worried about what others think of her. Her self esteem is quite low. She tries to please as many people as possible but ends up pleasing nobody.