NOTE: The Moderate Voice from time to time runs Guest Voice columns from readers who either don’t have their own sites or have a site and would like to raise an issue here. The piece below is by Alex Hammer, a former independent candidate for governor of Maine and the founder and managing editor of Politics 2.0. This is his second Guest Voice column on TMV.
Toolbox For Moderates
By Alex Hammer
As I sat down to do this column for The Moderate Voice I thought to myself, why do I politically identify with such terms as moderate, Independent and bi-partisan? What do they mean to me, and why do I value them?
And then I started to think to myself, what are the tools that I or any moderate would need to makes one’s ideas successful?
Answers Are Individual
To me such terms as moderate, bi-partisan and Independent refer, among other things, to balance. That doesn’t mean that I take a centrist position on every single issue. In a world as complex as our own that would be simple-minded. For example, a belief in the sanctity of life leads me to be both pro life and anti death penalty, the former a conservative position and the latter a liberal one. Most of the time I am in the center or working with diverse, even disparate interests towards building workable, honest and productive solutions.
I like to think of myself as someone focused on solutions that can be well implemented as opposed to being on any specific point within the political spectrum. I try to work with the best ideas out there, wherever they may originate, and use honorable compromise and whatever personal, professional and political skills I might possess to contribute towards meaningful results.
Political Learning
Running as an Independent for Governor in the great state of Maine in 2006, I had the opportunity through the publication of 30 Op-Ed articles across Maine’s major newspapers to examine and explain in detail what I mean by a solution-oriented, integrated and balanced policy and political approach.
Specifically, I focus on reconciling components generally seen to be competing, such as economic development and business health versus quality and traditional ways of life and the environment.
In the Lewiston Sun Journal (November 6, 2005), I wrote in part:
“Maine’s future rests in all of our hands. At times, what separates us is easier to identify than what brings us together. For the state to prosper, we have to move beyond our differences and build bridges across that which would divide us.
Maine should maintain, recruit and build the world’s most responsible, prosperous and environmentally friendly businesses worldwide from all fields, encouraging them to grow, locate and remain in Maine. Economic development and well-being and maintaining of Maine’s natural resources and values are critical. It is a mistake to trade one for the other or give up half of each.
We must instead build bridges so that the two work better together to bolster each other and make each stronger rather than working at cross-purposes. We must provide, in ways that reflect the support and values of Mainers, conditions and fiscally responsible incentives for companies to be both environmentally sensitive and overall good corporate citizens.
I envision a Maine in which these bridges, built together, become solid, enabling us to walk across them for our mutual good.”
Part II
In the Bangor Daily News (Sept. 15, 2005) I wrote in part:
“Through a Maine Environmental Science Network, Maine would more tightly and expansively coordinate and integrate its leading environmental knowledge statewide (forestry, maritime and agricultural science, renewable energy, etc.) and then do a better marketing job toward promoting this valuable informational resource toward where it is sought and needed.
Increasing Maine dependence upon revenue sources that may be ‘quick-fix’ (e.g. borrowing), painful (e.g. cutting of social programs), socially debatable (e.g. gambling), that threaten the long term natural resources of the state (e.g. over-development) or that are noxious both politically and in regard to general business health (e.g. raising taxes) in my view necessitates greater development of economic growth strategies consistent with global economic realities and trends.”
Interestingly, in California a “second Silicon Valley”, is spawning significant economic development as alternative energy (in this case solar energy) has become the hottest and well financed realm of venture capital investment.
Halfway Home
In the Ellsworth American (Feb. 2, 2006) I wrote in part:
“A Governor should possess strong managerial skills and policy expertise. In addition, one must possess leadership skills to bring others together so that they wish and are motivated to participate in solutions for the common good as a whole, so that each may also benefit in part. This requires the strength to set direction, when needed, based in collaboration, so that others wish to follow. Leadership, however, while incorporating strength should not be confused with coercion. Leadership, while persistent, principled and disciplined, speaks to hearts and minds and weaves together a path towards shared desired outcomes.
A Governor works with others toward a shared language and envisioning of how hard work, productive and intelligent strategies and collaborative positive sacrifices (when required) contribute to the achievement of desired tangible and beneficial ends. These gains must be mapped in plain yet thorough stepwise fashion so that they can be clearly seen outcomes to be attained. I like to say, ‘It is difficult to get lost on a straight road.’ But straightening that road, and making sure that it is in fact aligned with where one wishes to go, is not simple by any means.”
Even today, one may be able to contrast such a vision versus an overly partisan, “winner take all, death to the finish, ‘politics of destruction’ mentality” that still too often seems to exist.
Finally
If you happen to agree, I humbly submit that it seems to me that what I believed to be good for Maine, the same basic type of approaches, could also be beneficial in our country as a whole.
In the Magic City Morning Star (Feb. 27, 2006) I wrote about how successful policy must be closely tied to solutions in the world as it exists. I said in part:
“Someone who is most qualified to lead this state will recognize the importance of BOTH cost containment and ROI-sensitive but critical investments to foster economic growth. To successfully compete against other states and countries in the hyper-competitive information-rich global economy of the 21st century that the world has become, Maine needs to lighten the burden on businesses so that they can grow and leverage strategic business resources and expertise statewide that can most powerfully be coordinated and marketed to meet the highly sophisticated and developed needs of this global marketplace.”
In these United States we have a plethora of points of view, and a stable of talented and leading political figures to articulate them. But the above still sounds pretty good to me today.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.