<p>Are there any clubs on campus that still cater to political moderates? my brother (when he was at cal told me a few years ago) said there was a club called “Berkeley’s Radical Middle” that struck out against both parties and was moderately active around campus.</p>
<p>I am a registered Democrat, but ideologically I’m moderate (the flawed/stupid leadership of the republican party turns me off). But I was pretty disappointed with the Berkeley Democrats and the Berkeley College Republicans. The Democrats seem so polarized and left-leaning that someone like me would probably feel alienated. the republicans (no offense to them), don’t seem that active, seem to have week leadership, suck at debates, and their meetings don’t seem all that political -_-</p>
<p>Are there any other clubs that cater to moderates? Several people I have talked to at Cal seem to be socially liberal and fiscally conservative (though not to the extremism of libertarianism, so they wouldn’t fit with the libertarian club), and also would be interested in joining a nonpartisan, rational, moderate political club (a club that discusses modern politics as they are and debate in a nonbiased way)</p>
<p>I’m kind of tired of the overarching activism of the berkeley democrats and the apathy of the republicans…I want to show all of those people who held up no 23 signs that they don’t represent all of berkeley’s political views</p>
<p>^not necessarily. how exactly is a 5.5% unemployment rate unreasonable when the unemployment rate was below 5% when AB 32 was passed in 2006? you are false in stating that it was an “extreme right wing” initiative- it only suspended the bill, not canceled it all together. when the economic/GDP growth brings down the unemployment rate, then the bill will be reinstated…</p>
<p>plus, it’s been four years since AB32 was passed and no other states, not even several liberal east coast states have copied California in implementing such a bill. Therefore, it is fallacy to argue that AB32 was a moderate will; it was a very “progressive” and left-leaning bill. </p>
<p>I know plenty of people who are 100 % adamant supporters of gay marriage, marijuana legalization, non-interventionism, and abortion rights who voted for prop 23</p>
<p>@jojomonkey, yeah they are a cool group. but their views are just too extreme…they want to privatize berkeley, privatize gay marriage, cut all social welfare, create a minarchist government…</p>
<p>i guess i’m a libertarian to the smallest degree but not really</p>
<p>Yep! You only need three members and a faculty sign-off! I wanted to start a dog lovers/owners club but after looking through the list of organizations I realized that might be a little too ummm…“low brow” (not sure if that the right word but I’m sure you understand) for this school lol :P</p>
<p>lol you should definitely do it. My friend is obsessed with them. I bet she would join. And I would too probably. I think when you go to a school like Berkeley, well I don’t say this often, but anything is possible. I feel so much more motivated to do what I ACTUALLY want to do here.</p>
<p>You’ve convinced me. I’m going to propose the club now (we can all go on dog walks together! haha). Also, you should start a moderates club and I’d join yours, now you only need 2 more people! :D</p>
<p>Leftist got it right- the OP is completely off in saying AB 32 is a liberal bill. It is in all sense a moderate one. </p>
<p>First of all, AB 32 wasn’t that much of a progressive measure. It mostly conglomerated the existing climate change/air pollution laws into one package. Estimates say that the new measures added in the bill would lower the global warming contribution from CA from 1.4 % to 1.1%. Therefore, when the public voted against Prop 23, they didn’t do so because they were liberal and thought this was a conservative attack.</p>
<p>They did so because they didn’t see the AB 32 bill as radical or anything that is significant enough to be discarded. It was a largely bipartisan effort in the first place, but the bill itself doesn’t have much radical provisions or measures that set it apart as “progressive” as some of the liberals at berkeley would like to call it.</p>
<p>As to the original question, I myself was really sick at the vast majority of liberals at berkeley. Many just jumped onto a cause without studying political science and economics, without coming up with sound and empirical justifications for their various positions (except for the poli sci majors who debated for the clubs). The Reps are even worse. not only are their members as a whole politically ignorant, but their meetings are mostly social gatherings.</p>
<p>As an independent myself (somewhat of a libertarian), i’d say your best bet is the undergraduate political science association. just one day, maybe you could bring up a news topic in discussion? members of the club have a diverse ideology and tend to look at politics will a less of a bias and can actually have an underlying justification for their arguments.</p>
<p>I would love to help start/restart the radical middle club. If you are interested hit up the PM. Would be an interesting endeavor and a killer EC for grad/law school</p>