An End to Polarization? The left and right's move to the center

[spaniard]

For 10 years American politics has been sharply polarized, with just about equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats arrayed angrily against one another. We have come to think of this as a permanent condition. Yet by the next presidential election that may very well change. The reason: The leading candidates for both parties' 2008 nominations are in significant tension with their parties' bases--and, in some cases, outright opposition.

This is most clearly the case on the Republican side. The consistent leaders in 2008 polls are John McCain and Rudolph Giuliani. Of the two, Giuliani is most sharply out of line with the cultural conservatives who have been the dominant force in Republican primaries and provided a large share of the Republican majorities racked up in 2002 and 2004. Giuliani is pro-choice on abortion, opposes the "partial-birth" abortion ban, and opposes a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. McCain's differences with the Republican right are more subtle. He has consistently opposed abortion rights but doesn't seem comfortable talking about the issue. He has taken the lead on campaign finance regulation and on Kyoto-like responses to climate change, in opposition to most of his Republican colleagues. At a critical point in the 2000 campaign, he made a point of denouncing evangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.

Old Dem, new Dem. As for the Democrats, Hillary Rodham Clinton is in significant ways out of sync with the Bush-hating left. She voted for the Iraq war resolution and for all the appropriations to fight the war, and she has shown no sign of apologizing for these stands. She spoke approvingly of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council at its most recent meeting--and got attacked in the left-wing blog "Daily Kos" for it. From time to time, she has issued sharp partisan attacks on the Bush administration, but she has been careful to distance herself from Michael Moore- or Cindy Sheehan-type rhetoric. You will not catch her calling George W. Bush a maniac or a war criminal.

A McCain or a Giuliani nomination has the potential to change the regional alignments that have mostly prevailed since the election of 1996, in both directions. Either would almost certainly run better than George W. Bush in the vast suburban tracts of once marginal states like New Jersey and Illinois. But they might fail to draw the huge turnout of cultural conservatives that Bush did in the nonmetropolitan reaches of states like Ohio and Missouri. The 2004 election was a battle for turnout, which Republicans won: John Kerry's vote was up 16 percent from Al Gore's, while Bush's vote in 2004 was up 23 percent from 2000. If it's not clear whether McCain or Giuliani could duplicate the right-wing turnout for Bush, it's also not clear whether Clinton could duplicate the left-wing turnout in 2004, which was motivated mostly by hatred of Bush. We have gotten into the habit of complaining about our polarized politics. Well, complain now, because it may change soon.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/050905/5barone.htm

[corkhead]

1. the lines need to be redrawn

the Corporatists (repugs and DLC democrats) vs. the people.

[Maple]

2. That's the best news I've heard all day

[Q]

3. One person's 'polarized politics'...

...is another's TWO-PARTY STATE.

The 'Bush-hating left' is all that remains to prevent the plan for a one-party state.

[stopbush]

4. The SOLUTIONS to this country's problems are on the left.

not in the middle or on the right.

Why settle for a half-assed, feel-good, ecumenical fix when there's major repair work to be done?

[LizMoonstar]

5. this reminds me of a question I have often here:

Why are centrists (true centrists) so terrible? i.e. why is the view of them here that they are terrible.

[Maple]

6. I dunno

Canada and most European countries are centrist. It's called the Third Way.

2 or more parties...but there isn't this old left/right stuff from the Cold War.

[AntiCoup2K4]

9. What is called "centrist" in Europe would consider Kucinich a conservative

Hillary, Biden, and their ilk would be the far right. And Chimp would be in prison.

Seems to me that someone's perspective of the "center" is really off. And it ain't Europe.

[Sushi-Lover]

10. Not that I have any issues with centrists, but

from talking to people from European countries and Canada I don't have the impression that those countries/people are centrist. At least, not compared to the USA. A lot of them are solidly to the left of what we call center here.

[leveymg]

7. Name one. We'll tell you what we think and why.

[LizMoonstar]

16. me. n/t

[Armstead]

11. Because today "centrist" is code for Corporate Conservatism

There is a difference between a moderate liberal and a centrist.

A centrist supports the continued growth of corporate power and the trends that are leading to economic polarization and an elite oligarchy.

If FDR had been a "centrist" we would have no Social Security. If otehr Democrats had been "centrist" there's by no mimimum wage, no Medicare, unioins would have gotten nowhere, and many otehr liberal policies that we take for granted would never have been enacted.

[welshTerrier2]

12. DU will see a new unity between center and left ...

frankly, there is very little difference between DU lefties and the DU centrists where policy is concerned ... our difference are more about political strategy ... DU's lefties are more likely to refuse to support the Party if a bush appeaser wins the nomination ... centrists MAY be more moderate on this issue ...

but on the core issues, the core values, there is very little difference ... i doubt you'll find more than a handful of DU'ers who support the insanity going on in Iraq ... i doubt you'll find many centrists who aren't concerned about the corrupting influence of mega-corporations on our democracy ... these are probably the two most important issues for the left ...

we are of one mind on these critical issues ... are there differences of degree or strategy? sure ... but this is not the "front lines" of the intra-Party rift ...

the real front lines are between the DLC-bush-loving sellouts and the rest of us ... the DLC likes to believe they own the Party's centrists ... they don't ... as the process evolves into 2006 and especially 2008, a new intra-Party alignment will occur ... the DLC is toast ...

the unity of the Party's center and left will be the final healing needed to enable us to restore our Party's majority status ...

[Armstead]

8. Oh gee, a One Party State....How wonderful

Personally, I think we do need less of the extreme polarization in terms of emotionalism and hatred.

However the answer is not to scurry towards some mushy definition of a "center" that is actually nothing more than a kinder and gentler version of status-quo conservatism.

If we end up with a Democratic Party that has abandoned Liberalism in terms of issues of wealth and power, then we'll need a third party just to restore the basis of a two-party system.

[Maple]

13. Your version of 'centrist'

may be farther to the right than it is in most countries, but there are multiple parties.

However this lurching back and forth between 2 such distinct poles every election isn't doing either your country or your economy any good. It's too extreme a change each time.

You can't govern anything with unchanging ideology

[RandomKoolzip]

14. You will not catch her calling George W. Bush a maniac or a war criminal."

But he IS a war criminal. Can we just start calling a spade a spade, please?!

[ClassWarrior]

15. Bullshit. The Radical Right hasn't moved toward the center since before...

...Goldwater.

NGU.

[Maple]

17. This isolates them

If you have a center, a mainstream, a party that most Americans would be in agreement with on most things, even if not on all things....the left and the rightwing then look extremist.

And finally both wings realize they have to gravitate inwards or risk being isolated out of existence

But you can't fight extreme rightwing by becoming extreme left wing.

Both are then seen as dangerous...too far 'out' in either direction

[LittleClarkie]

18. Horsehockey. The primaries will still be the domain of the left and right

not the moderate. McCain, Giuliani, Clinton and Biden et al have to get through the primaries, where the voters are notoriously farther to the left and right than in the general election.

And if Hillary continues to ignore the primaries, almost skipping them, assuming they are hers and heading straight for the middle in preparation for the general election, I predict she will have a rude awakening.