Q&A. Including Commentary on Big Beautiful Bill, Immigration, Tariffs, and What the Democrats could/should be doing to capture the Purple Ground

Article #16 Purple Wayz: Navigating to the Center

In PW, we try to stay somewhat A-ttached to, but also DE-tached from, the news cycle. One of the many Centrist beliefs is that the Two Party Duopoly has become a lot more powerful since narrow-casting took over, first cable and now the ‘net and apps. Our media serves up an endless barrage of clickbait tailored to our likes, and our brains’ dopamine reward systems can’t resist the hit. This activity serves to further divide and depress us. And trains us to make decisions based on emotion. Meta and its competitors have a lot to answer for.

I’ve received a lot of responses from people saying they like and agree with what PW is saying, but they comment that PW doesn’t show proper ANGER about what Trump is doing. Or what the Dems did under Biden or Obama. And all kinds of variants on those themes. Well, that’s part of the PW mantra. Calm, composed, civil, collaborative, compromising. The 5 C’s! This is what centrists want from the government. Less drama and partisanship.

But hey, PW wants your eyeballs too! So here’s some news cycle clickbait for y’all…

Do you support the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB)? Hell no! (angry enough?) Ever since the Republicans won ‘The Trifecta’ last November, Centrists knew the fiscal situation was going to get worse. The BBB keeps the US on the road to higher and higher deficits. We’re looking at $2 Trillion plus per year as far as the eye can see (sad trombone). Below is a chart from a helpful entity called The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Following the OBBBA Permanent line and using 2% GDP growth, the deficit would be $2.5 Trillion in 2030. A higher and higher percentage of spending goes to interest expense as we continue to boil the frog. The mid-to-late 2030s becomes our ‘Parade of Lousiness’ (see PW Article 6). As that becomes more clear, the policy options narrow for future Houses, Senates, and Presidents. It’ll be a painful situation. The Two Party Duopoly will crack further as most people realize both of them contributed to this travesty, and neither of them have the political will to lead us out of it.

How is Purple Wayz thinking about tariffs now? Still not a fan of how this has gone, but it could end up in a semi-palatable place. Trump’s initial announcements were too tough and blustery, reflecting his typical negotiating style. Once ‘Team Negotiate’ (Bessent and Musk) outmaneuvered ‘Team Reshore’ (Navarro and Lutnick), however, we started to have a chance of a reasonable outcome. The myriad deals under negotiation now may end up fine–but it’s still too early to tell. What’s clear is that Trump/Navarro/Lutnick pissed off a lot of our allies with ‘Liberation Day’. This inflicted unnecessary damage on relationships with key partners like Canada. Perhaps we can repair most of this damage if negotiations become more conciliatory. Similar to DOGE, there was a much more surgical way to approach this. Centrists dislike drama and positional bargaining when it comes to our economy and international relations.

What’s your take on the immigration crackdown? Neither party has performed well on this issue, per usual. Most Centrists I’ve talked to sing the same rough tune here:

• Have a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who have been here for over ___ years AND don’t have a criminal record.

• Focus deportation efforts on those with criminal records.

• Acknowledge that we NEED new immigrants to grow our economy. We have, and will have, job openings across the spectrum of low skill/low wage to high skill/high wage. We also have an incredibly aging population and need more young people to support our elderly. So INCREASE the number of legal immigration opportunities DRAMATICALLY, and don’t let people skip the line.

• Reform the border policy, including Asylum. Asylum policy is necessary, but it’s been gamed. This is not easy, because we are a compassionate nation. There are plenty of good ideas to reform Asylum, but ultimately, the one chosen needs to generate a MUCH FASTER process. We’re doing nobody any favors by taking years to adjudicate cases.

The chart below shows that we need to do better. 2025 encounter numbers are running at a MUCH lower rate, as we continue to jump from one extreme to the other. We need comprehensive reform so badly.

What could/should the Democrats be doing to grab the Purple ground? Centrists watch each party closely to see what its leaders are saying, and which leaders are differentiating themselves. Currently, the Republican Party is easy to assess: it’s controlled by Populists, led by Trump. This isn’t where Centrists want to be. So the Democratic Party has a historic opportunity to grab a lot of Purple Ground.

It’s a mixed picture, but in the Northeast and California, Democratic voters continue to pick leaders who are taking the party further left. The most recent example is the Democratic nomination of the Socialist candidate for NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. (Ironically, NYC uses ranked choice voting in its primaries, showing that RCV doesn’t always yield a moderate result–it just tends that direction). Simultaneously, Democrats are nominating moderates in key locations like Virginia, in which Democrat Abigail Spanberger is the nominee for Governor.

PW is incredibly interested to see who takes control of this party. If it’s the party of AOC, Bernie, and Gavin (Northeast and CA Democrats), they’re cooked. If it’s the party of Josh Stein and Josh Shapiro (swing state Governors), then they have a great chance for a long time. But I’m guessing you know something about the extremists, and don’t know as much about the moderates. Extremists seem to be MUCH better at social media!

Ultimately, per usual, the voters get to decide. PW feels strongly that Democrats’ best hope for regaining the Presidency in 2028 is to nominate a moderate Governor from a swing state. Someone like the two listed above. Let’s go Democrats–we’re rooting for you to grab the Purple Ground! But we’re from Missouri on this. You haven’t shown us anything yet that convinces us you intend to govern from the center.

In the meantime, let’s work to get some more Ranked Choice Voting and Open Primaries on ballots in your states!