The Middle…Victorious
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in ElectionsIt’s a good day for moderates/centrists/independents everywhere. But that’s not just me talking. The blogosphere and MSM is buzzing with THE theme of this election…the middle ground is where it’s at.
First, E.J. Dionne, Jr. in today’s Wash Post….
…no longer will we pay attention to political strategists who assert that swing voters aren’t important and that independents and moderates don’t matter. If Democrats are to make good use of the power they have been granted, they need to remember that last point. This election was the revenge of the center no less than it was the revenge of the left. The decisive votes cast on Tuesday came from moderates and independents, whom the exit polls showed favoring Democratic House candidates by about 3 to 2. [...]…many of the party’s successful candidates ran as moderates, and Democrats hold power on the basis of a loan of votes from middle-of-the-road Americans who simply could not stomach Bush Republicanism anymore. The loan can be recalled at any moment.
And apparently, the middle is the new majority in this country…
On Tuesday, 47 percent of the voters were self-described moderates, according to exit polls, and they asserted their power by voting for the Democrats in landslide proportions.
Joe Gandelman tells us why you should NEVER ignore the middle…
Look at recent American history and you can see how the pendulum swung. Bill Clinton was elected because he persuaded Americans he was a more centrist kind of Democrat. But when he first got in, he scared some voters by taking positions more to the left. The result: defeat in the mid-terms. Enter Dick Morris and his (in)famous “triangulation” that put Clinton back on track (that plus a bunch of clumsy Republican missteps).In 2000 Bush ran as a “compassionate conservative” but 911 shoved everything off the plate until the Katrina fiasco. Until then, Bush and the GOP were then wrapped in the terrorism-created cocoon of heightened national security concerns, which trumped most political concerns.
Over the past two years, with near total control of the government, the Bush administration and GOP Congress veered increasingly more to the right in trying to please its base � even though on other key issues it alarmed classic conservatives.
And finally, Bull Moose gives the Dems some sage advice…
Republicans were fired and Democrats were hired. But, unless they deliver for the vital center, their tenure could be brief. [...]Ideologues of the right and the left take note – the center is inflamed and will not be denied. The immoderate moderates are not wedded to either party. They reward and punish regardless of party affiliation.
And so it begins…
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 9th, 2006 and is filed under Elections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Interesting parallel between Clinton and Schwarzenegger at the beginning of their terms: They were both elected as centerists (compared to most of the people that their parties had put up recently). Both moved towards their party’s base shortly after getting in . . . and paid for it. Both had the wit to move back to the center, and were rewarded for it.
Rather supports the view that being centerist is political wisdom, doesn’t it?
November 9th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
[...] It’s a free choice, as it should be. This moderate, thoroughly fed-up-with-everybody party-boat may not be for you. In fact, if you’re a hard-core partisan wedded to ideological purity, you’ll find this ship’s ideas a bit strange, because here, you’ll be expected to listen to others — to look for mutual solutions to common problems. Yes, it’s an alien approach… but clearly, this president is working to absorb the message: But he looked forward rather than back. “The message yesterday was clear: The American people want their leaders in Washington to set aside partisan differences, conduct ourselves in an ethical manner and work together to address the challenges facing our nation.” [...]
November 9th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
…and all it took was an election.
November 9th, 2006 at 6:35 pm
As they said last weekend when Miami was upsetting the Bears: “That’s why they play the games.”
November 9th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
If the country’s so danged moderate, why is Bob Casey (PA,who defeated Rick Santorum) anti-abortion? Why is Jim Webb (VA, who defeated George Allen) a former Republican who once said that seeing Clinton salute the troops infuriated him? Where’s the moderation?
And what of the 250 representatives and 65 senators who voted for the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which revokes the *900-year-old* tradition of the right to appear in court for enemy combatants? Where’s the moderation?
The center in America is not centrist; it’s solidly conservative.
November 10th, 2006 at 12:03 am
The center in America is not centrist; it’s solidly conservative.
Well, yes; it might look that way from the left.
Hey Justin, I weighed in on this too! Go visualize the angry red and blue faces with the elusive grail of common sense in between them. Now you see it, now you don’t. (It’ll make sense when you see the post.)