David A. Windham thumbnail

The Purple Party

I normally like to brag about how little spam and unsolicited text messages I receive, but unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case in the last couple of weeks. Almost all of them are text messages soliciting participation in the primary elections so evidently, my number has made it into the database coffers of the aggressive political marketing folks. The Republican primary is this Saturday and for whatever reason, both the Haley and Trump crew seem to think that I’m all in.  The thing is… I’m pretty bored of politics on both sides of the aisle and the problem seems to be sides of the aisle.

I’m pretty sure I’m the only one thinking this and I’ve had some lively conversations about it in the last couple of years so I’ve meant to write about it for some time. I can go ahead and get it out of the way before our upcoming elections. I like to poke at people’s perceptions and prejudices. After the Super Bowl recently I joked with an acquaintance that I didn’t know what Taylor Swift had to do with Football or why she ‘hated’ her so much now. I let it be after a couple of days of poking and I mostly just try to stay out of it. I’ve got friends on either side of the aisle. Even though I try to poke at them equally, it’s easier being a sideline coach than putting your opinion out there.

So here goes… I’m a member of The Purple Party ~ a moderate who thinks that bi-partisanship is the answer. I lean a bit progressive in the middle but I can tolerate and empathize with a variety of viewpoints. If I were a politician, I’d target the middle and I’d likely lose mainly because the wedge issues seem to drive voters. I think the backbone of this country is teachers, nurses, and light blue-collar workers… not necessarily the blue-collar plumber Joe who quit the Republican Party1, and not necessarily the so-called college-educated white-collar elites. I don’t mind fiscal conservatism, but I also don’t mind social progressivism. I have a social theory about us all being on the same human team and raising the bottom quartile for the sake of the team’s performance. It’s just a hunch since I have almost zero experience or background in history, social, or political science. 

Self-identified moderates currently make up about a third of the American voting public.  They also make up about one-third of the Democratic Party, one-fifth of the Republican Party, and about half of independent voters.  The only thing lacking is some ideology and a name. Although Truman and Eisenhower were both centrist, there was never an official group. A decent poll from 2022 found that a little over 42% of respondents would vote for a candidate from a new political party that’s “in the middle between Democrats and Republicans.”2  The Purple Party would cater to the middle with some decent regulations on the finance industry, monopolies, the environment, and the cost of education and healthcare. The Purple Party would not regulate morality unless it had pragmatic effects on society. The Purple Party would focus on a budget that did not revolve around a tax-and-spend approach. The centrist Democrats can have the blue dog3 because I think the Purple Party’s mascot should be an owl. 

Given my lack of decent moderate candidates, I vote Democrat these days mainly because the Republican party seems to be squarely under the control of ole’ dumpy and I just can’t see a very healthy outcome with more divisiveness4,5. Although your information may be telling you otherwise, Biden is largely considered a centrist. I’d vote for either party who’s got a decent moderate candidate with some experience. Although I might stand out as a bit left of center in my deep red territory, that’s not the case6. Centrist viewpoints just don’t make for good headlines in our attention economy. In my conversations with others, I generally like to blame the information age, globalization, competition for resources, and economic pressures for the polarization and ‘us’ and them’ attitudes. I can’t point fingers because I think we’re all to blame7. Now I have something tangible to forward along and I’m just going to give it my best to fast forward right through all of the rhetoric surrounding the upcoming November election.

  1. Joe the Plumber – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_the_Plumber
  2. More Than 40% Of Americans Would Vote For A New Centrist Party, Poll Finds – Forbes – https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/10/27/more-than-40-of-americans-would-vote-for-a-new-centrist-party-poll-finds/?sh=3e0b55956286
  3. Blue Dog Coalition – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dog_Coalition
  4. Make America Great Again – https://davidawindham.com/make-america-great-again/
  5. People of Trump – https://davidawindham.com/people-of-trump/
  6. Illiberalism – https://davidawindham.com/illiberalism/
  7. We’re All Guilty – https://davidawindham.com/were-all-guilty/