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In his book "Wealth and Democracy", Kevin Phillips talked about the "radical middle" in American politics - politically moderate swing voters who can all of a sudden swing towards an extreme course. That would explain how the country suddenly went conservative in the 80's, and how the GOP took the house in '94.
I saw some of the numbers on the California election last night, and Bustamante did really badly among the moderates - and in addition, there was tremendous anger at the way Gray Davis had handled the state's crises. I think the radical middle bit them on the ass. I saw Jeff Greenfield on CNN last night saying the same thing, though he didn't use the same term.
I've got a feeling these people in the center don't actually pay a lot of attention to policy nuances. They just get real angry at Washington, or Sacramento, and they'll go with anything that looks like a new solution that comes down the pike. And my guess is that they probably get most of their political information off of television, and you know who controls that (for the most part).
We've got some real problems, man.
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