KIND Snacks founder: Moderates, this election is up to us

Moderates like me do not conform to the prevailing stereotypes of Republican or Democrat, which makes us a frustrating yet important group to pundits come Election Day. We like to think for ourselves and question what we hear, which means we’re often unswayed by partisan rhetoric. Perhaps most unnerving for politicians is that we choose values over political dogma and reserve the right to change our minds. This makes our actions challenging to control or predict, despite the great consequence of our votes.

While the calibrated approach that many moderates take is generally deemed advantageous in business, it is frequently undervalued and overlooked in civil society. Those who sit at political extremes often control their party’s messaging with provocative and contentious conversations (amplified by social media), while moderates tend to be less zealous and attention grabbing. And while those at the political extremes can be prone to groupthink, moderates typically forge their own paths instead of banding together. According to 2018 data from Pew Research Center, we are less likely to attend political rallies, contact local representatives or share a political viewpoint on social media. But this doesn’t mean moderates don’t have opinions worth paying attention to.

On the contrary, the lesser role of moderates in shaping public civil discourse is a great failure of binary political systems. In 2002, I founded the OneVoice Movement, a nonprofit initiative that seeks to amplify the voices of moderates in the Middle East with the goal of finding a path to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict.

We have seen how moderates, when emboldened to speak and act together, exert a positive influence on societies whose conversations are dominated by extreme political perspectives. More than 650,000 people — including both Israelis and Palestinians — signed the movement’s vision for peace promoting non-violent resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. This large-scale, broad-based moderate mobilization signaled to government and society that compromise was possible and desired by many.

While signatories still disagreed on certain issues, they were united by a common belief that an extreme approach would never lead to progress. Recently, moderates in Hong Kong joined their more “radical” political counterparts and took to the streets to protest a bill allowing criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China, blocking the government from passing legislation that would likely have been damaging to democracy. (China later passed a security law that many fear threatens Hong Kong’s freedoms.)

According to Pew, few Americans like seeing a lot of political content on social media, and moderates are no exception. But, at least based on observation, moderate perspectives are not the ones being widely circulated. We more often share our ideas with our close-knit circles.

Caught in the crossfire of party feuds, many of us are frustrated with the pressure from our more vocal counterparts to take a side and denounce “the opposition.” This us-versus-them paradigm is unreasonable, uncomfortable and unappealing to measured moderates. But our partisan fatigue cannot keep us from the polls — not when our respect for reason, drive for decency and desire for harmony is at stake.

When President Donald Trump came into office, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Like a true moderate, I resisted jumping on the bandwagon of the fervent resisters or die-hard supporters and chose to evaluate the facts as they played out. Because I love my country, I hoped that Trump’s competitive spirit would drive him to do well by the American people.

Yet, I sit here four years later with my worst fears confirmed. Consistently, my sense of reason has been tested and now pushed past its limit. It is difficult to overstate the gravity of Trump’s polarizing behavior and disregard for constitutional norms. And I cannot in good conscience rationalize away my doubt.

What we are facing now is not a battle of the extremes. While Trump makes his appeals to a nativist base, former Vice President Joe Biden has a long history of serving Americans on both sides of the aisle — a record that highly partisan Democrats have even criticized.

He has proven himself to be a balanced centrist, guided by reason and principle — not by advancing his party’s cause at all costs. A critical thinker, he is willing to admit fault and take responsibility for his actions, even when imperfect.

He will listen to facts. He will respect the Constitution, democracy and rule of law on which our country was founded. He will comport himself with composure and decency on the global stage. His policies will support and reward hard work and the entrepreneurial spirit that has long made America the best cradle for businesses. As Moody’s forecasts, he will strengthen our economy so that we can build it back after months of shutdowns.

Moderates let reason and facts be our guide. Instead of answering to a party, we answer to ourselves. We know when it’s time to change our minds and when it’s time to make them up. This election is up to us.