“There are two distinct ways to be politically moderate: on purpose and by accident.“
— Paul Graham, The Two Kinds of Moderate, December 2019
What is the opposite of partisan politics? Where everything isn’t defined by Red vs. Blue, or labeled D, R, or I?
I call it lowercase politics. A mix of small “l” liberal, small “c” conservative, and small “m” moderate ideas. That combination makes us small “i” independents.
In American politics, capital “L” Liberal = Democrat and capital “C” Conservative equals Republican.
If you have a D or R behind your name in Congress, you’ll likely vote 90%+ with your party. Even the two capital “I” Independents in the Senate pick a side for caucuses and committees.
Like Paul Graham said in his Two Types of Moderates post, the goal isn’t to be exactly in the middle on every issue. That’s just a capital “M” Moderate.
One big way to improve our politics is to encourage everyone to drop our capitalized politics and be open to the full complexity of our true opinions.
For example, I’ll admit that I’m small “c” conservative about alcohol and gambling personally and believe society would be better off if both were harder to access. I’m also small “l” liberal about the idea of prohibition, especially knowing its failures in history, and small “m” moderate about my friends doing both as long as they’re chill about it.
You might be conservative about fiscal responsibility, liberal about new startups, and moderate about regulations, all in service of more innovation. All of these positions fit into what used to be called “classical liberalism”. That’s leading with philosophy, not partisanship.
We need more Teddy Roosevelt style politicians now. Roosevelt rose to power as a leader of the Republican party but ended up driving many progressive reforms. He was conservative about nationalism and imperialism, liberal about antitrust and consumer protections, and moderate about conservation and regulations.
The point is to pick your spots from first principles. My ambitious optimism still leads me to mostly small “l” liberal positions. I focus on the future, not the past. It’s the same drive that leads me to creating startups and Positive Politics.
But I’m also open to the limitations of both startups and politics to create vs. solve the world’s biggest problems. And I’m willing to work with anyone who can be flexible with me to get to a shared solution.
Flexibility is a lifelong practice that gets harder with age. But that just makes it more important to stretch yourself every day.
One of my favorite things to do in politics is to talk about issues with a partisan using their language to argue the opposing viewpoint. For example, using strict constructionist language to argue why ICE is unconstitutional. This short-circuits capitalized politics and forces us to confront what we truly believe.
Lowercase politics is especially important now as a counter to the loud negative capitalized politics we see online every day. Social media, cable news, and talk radio encourage taking sides. But longer form media like streaming, videos, and podcasts now reward independent thinking.
A good debater knows all their side’s points. A great debater knows both sides’ points. And a genius can create the answer for any side on demand. That last one requires true first principles thinking. And it also makes you a better politician.
When you unlock your political opinions from any party or ideology, your political range expands greatly. You’re able to work with different politicians from different parties on different issues. Like we say in startups, it’s all about being strict with the vision but flexible on the details.
My capitalized vision is Positive Politics, focused on maximizing our governments’ abilities to provide key services to all. But there are many liberal, conservative, and moderate positive-sum policies that all need to work together to make our communities prosperous, safe, and happy.
One current politician who does this exceptionally well is Zohran Mamdani. He’ll take an issue like food affordability and tackle it through a mixture of conservative ideas like deregulation of restaurants and food trucks, liberal ideas like publicly owned grocery stores, and moderate ideas like increasing the number of food service licenses. All in service of making life better for New Yorkers.
Keep practicing lowercase politics. Before you debate politics again, question yourself. Who do you want to help? What do they need? Be specific. The more you focus on real people and issues instead of elections, the more effective you’ll be in politics.
My political life has forever been shaped by the story of a woman I met in Coldwater, Michigan in 2017. She was asking for the fundamentals — jobs, housing, education, healthcare, and transparency. These are not solely Democratic or Republican issues. But they are all at the core of the American Dream.
Never outsource your beliefs to a political party. Call your representatives. Attend protests yourself. Don’t just believe what you see online or in the news.
Politics can be so much better without party control. You are so much more politically powerful as a small “i” independent. Use your full power now to bring your positive vision into politics!
Three Ways to Take Political Action Now:
- Attend a protest. Activists are currently organizing for January 31st as a nationwide protest demanding ICE Out of Everywhere. This is especially important if you consider yourself more conservative! You don’t have to protest! But meet the protesters, and ask them where they’re from and why they’re protesting. See what’s happening yourself instead of through your phone.
- Start with activism. Join our Positive Politics Accelerator to commit this summer to taking specific direct action towards what you consider your #1 issue in politics now. This is all in service of my goal of creating the Y Combinator for Politics! Our vision for Positive Politics is to recruit a new generation of ambitious optimists into politics!
- Run for something. We get bad leaders in politics because most ambitious optimists are on the sidelines, focused on making more money instead of more impact. You can change the system by changing who’s in it! Don’t just focus on the big elections like President. Get involved at the state and local levels too. Join Run for Something when you’re ready to run!