I've never considered myself to be the least bit moderate.
Some of the people who have influenced me over the years include the likes of Milton Friedman, Wm. F Buckley, Thomas Sowell, Antonin Scalia, Charles Murray, Roger Scruton, Allan Bloom, FA Hayek, Barry Goldwater.
I was a proud fan of Rush Limbaugh's -- thought he was (for the most part) insightful and entertaining and will defend him to this day. My newer mancrushes are guys like Mitch Daniels and Javier Milei.
I mean...this is not a list of Rockefeller Republicans.
I had plenty of admiration for Richard Lugar as a man and statesman. But he was never somebody I looked to for philosophical inspiration. I kind of put him in the same category as Lee Hamilton for the Dems -- really competent guy, not terribly ideological, all about good steady governance. Admired them both.
So, nowadays, to be seen as a moderate, you just have to be critical of Trump, his worldview, his temperament, his cultish movement? I'm not moderate -- I'm just not there. Yes, I voted for him -- but only because he pledged to nominate good justices....who (importantly) were not in his general mold.
Hopefully, some day, I'll have a party again that will reflect my general worldview on critical matters. The Republicans do still have plenty of pols who do. And I have no issue voting for those. But Donald Trump himself is not one of them.
