What is a 'moderate', and which party does it best describe?
People can self-identify as moderate in two ways. One way is that they don't like to take extreme positions on any particular issue. So for instance, a moderate on abortion would be somebody who doesn't want to like say, no abortions, all abortions are illegal, or doesn't want to say abortion at any time, any time during the trimester for whatever reason. What they want is, they consider themselves taking a moderate position by taking a middle stance which is, yes abortion legal, but it's restricted. That would be maybe a moderate position in that sense. Another way to look at a moderate, if somebody considers themself a moderate is if they take conservative positions on certain issues and liberal positions on other issues. So that they can't really lump themselves into either party or either ideological camp very easily. So they consider themselves a moderate, but that's more because they're taking different ideological positions on different issues, which is different than a moderate who takes kind of the middle ground on any particular issue. And moderates, in terms of the party that they're more affiliated with, really by definition, they're - it's a toss up. Right? They can go, moderates can go more for the Democratic party, they can go more for the Republican party. Depending on which issues are prioritized, or who the candidates are. And a lot of times moderates focus on aspects of the candidates, like likability, like speaking, mannerisms, those sorts of things, to decide between them. Because they can be less ideological or because they can't fall into an ideological camp that predisposes them to vote for the conservative candidate or the liberal candidate.
