What's A Moderate To Do?

Bill

Charlie Cook, the long term political observer and election handicapper, produced an insightful commentary in today's National Journal, the kind of left-of center publication that folks like me are fond of (in contrast say, to screeching screeds like Mother Jones or self-serving whiner fests like The Nation). Cook writes that gatherings like CPAC might make media headlines, but don't represent where large numbers of Republicans are at:

"But as the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference became increasingly exotic, and began to represent an increasingly rarefied species of the conservative breed, the rhetoric correspondingly took on a flavor that would no longer be used in front of a “normal” Republican audience. And its value has diminished."

The problem is hardly confined to the Republicans. As Cook observes:

"Of course, all of this is true to a certain extent for Democrats as well. I don’t believe the Democratic Leadership Council is active any longer, either. This council was a highly constructive group of moderate and pro-business Democrats, headed by the irrepressible Al From, and it used to be a major political force."

The absence of a forum for moderates on either side to gather means that true believers control the argument:

"... the extremes in both parties inevitably have more energy and passion than the more moderate factions. At various times, strong personalities (such as From’s within the DLC) and highly organized and well-funded entities have tried to advance the ball closer to the ideological area inhabited by swing voters. Yet each party is still stuck in their red zones, between the goal line of extremism and the 20-yard line of hard-core ideology."

And this state of affairs turns off voters in the middle:

"It seems increasingly clear that many moderate voters simply don’t view issues and candidates through an ideological lens. They stand behind the plate like a baseball umpire, deciding whether each proposal or candidate makes sense to them, whether they believe that proposal or candidate would be good for them. These voters—remember they constitute about 41 percent of the electorate—react negatively, and may actually recoil, when they hear overheated rhetoric from either side."

So if you like this state of affairs, rejoice. It's likely to continue for a while. It's pretty clear however, that most Americans don't.

Eli