The Bull Moose celebrates the rise of the “radical center” in 2006:
The political story of the week is that independent voters are heavily swinging to the Democrats this year. … Yesterday, E.J. Dionne noted the likely influence of these rad centrists on a Democratic Congress,
“The Democrats’ dependence on moderate voters and moderate candidates belies Republican claims that a Democratic victory would bring radically liberal politics to Washington. In fact, the first imperative of Democratic congressional leaders, if their party is successful, will be finding policies, ideas and rhetoric to allow the party’s progressives and moderates to get along and govern effectively together.” …
If Democrats gain control over the House and/or the Senate, they should not be deluded that they can’t go into the minority in [2008]. The independent voters who will give them the majority will be watching carefully to see if the Democrats govern from the center or engage in the old polarizing politics that the voters rejected.
The independent center is not tied to either party. The indies are firing the Republicans. Can the Democrats win the allegiance of the radical center with a governing agenda that claims the middle of American politics?
If Democrats and Republicans merely bicker like Sunnis and Shiites over the next two years, independents could look outside the two party system for an answer. There is a severe lack of confidence in our entire leadership class, and donkeys and elephants will be making a major error if they ignore that fact.
I hope the Moose is right.
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Categories: Election 2006
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October 25th, 2006 at 1:51:09 pm
The giddiness about the Dems winning needs to end now. There is no guarantee the Dems will take either House. And this is coming from a Dem. The November surprise may be a status-quo result. I would rather wait until Nov. 8th before the celebrations begin.
October 26th, 2006 at 9:46:26 am
The only good thing about the Dems taking over Congress would be that it would take about a half an hour for them to expose themselves as the criminals, traitors and lunatics that they are.
October 26th, 2006 at 9:50:54 am
Bickering???
Listen, Republicans are managing our government and insuring our protection while growing our economy.
Democrats have a “scourched earth policy” on our government.
They are not bickering. Republicans are trying to lead our country and Democrats are fighting them every bit of the way.
Just because you have been so wrong for so many years Brendan does not mean a third party is the answer.
Republicans have done an excellent job of leading and growing our country. It is a shame that you continue to reward the Democrat’s destruction of our nation.
October 26th, 2006 at 10:02:03 am
Here is a better idea than Moose’s:
How about we just assign a bunch of bureaucrats to do the job of leading the country. A centrist is a know nothing do nothing moderate bureaucrat.
I don’t want a sorry ass government. I want to be a citizen of the greatest country the world has ever experienced. Centrists don’t feel the same way, they look forward being mediocre and are scared to offend. It’s tough doing that when you have an entire party of Liberals waiting to be offended so that they can speak out about it.
Keep your centrist because centrists never aspire to greatness. I want to be part of something great.
October 26th, 2006 at 10:23:08 am
The sorry centrists are the ones who keep those who “aspire to greatness” in check. If it weren’t for the sorry centrists, FDR would have packed the Supreme Court, Joseph McCarthy would have been President and Tricky Dick Nixon would have gotten away with Watergate.
October 26th, 2006 at 10:24:53 am
Bandit-
The problem for the GOP is that the American people already know for sure that the Republican leadership is composed of criminals, traitors and lunatics. I think Americans are willing to take their chances on the Dems.
October 26th, 2006 at 4:24:51 pm
A&A,
You are getting Moonbattier & Moonbattier.
If you think all Republicans are crooks then you live in sad, smelly, dark place; therefore you are a moonbat.
So Moonbat & Moonbat it is.
Have fun talking to yourself the rest of your time here in the blogasphere. There may even be a job at NBC, CBS or ABC in your future.
October 27th, 2006 at 3:46:51 pm
You’re not the only one who thinks there’s no guarantee the Dems will prevail soon, A&A:
From Powerlineblog:
October 27, 2006
Cracks Are Beginning to Appear…
…in the Democrats’ confidence about the election. Cases in point: two stories from the front page of today’s New York Times. The first headline reads, G.O.P. Moves Fast to Reignite Issue of Gay Marriage. The article is written from the typical liberal perspective, which assumes that social issues like gay marriage are, for some reason, illegitimate, but are trotted out every two years for political gain by the Republicans:
“The divisive debate over gay marriage [Ed.: “Divisive” means the issue favors Republicans.], which played a prominent role in 2004 campaigns but this year largely faded from view, erupted anew on Thursday as President Bush and Republicans across the country tried to use a court ruling in New Jersey to rally dispirited conservatives [Ed.: Evidence? None needed.] to the polls.”
Note how the Times reporter, Sheryl Stolberg, misrepresents the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision:
“The ruling in New Jersey left it to the Legislature to decide whether to legalize gay marriage. Even so, the threat that gay marriage could become legal energized conservatives at a time when Republican strategists say that turning out the base could make the difference between winning and losing on Nov. 7.”
As we noted here, the New Jersey court held that homosexuals must be provided with a legal framework for marriage that is equal in all respects to heterosexual marriage. The court held that the state’s Domestic Partnership Act did not go far enough in that regard, and the legislature was ordered to write a new statute within the next six months. The only discretion left to the legislature was whether to call homosexual marriage “marriage” or something else. So the Times’s account of the court’s decision is deeply misleading.
A second story on today’s front page is titled Democrats Fear Disillusionment of Black Voters. Here, the Times worries that African-Americans may not turn out in sufficient numbers for the Democrats to retake Congress:
“For Democrats like these in tight races, black voter turnout will be crucial on Election Day. But despite a generally buoyant Democratic Party nationally, there are worries among Democratic strategists in some states that blacks may not turn up at the polls in big enough numbers because of disillusionment over past shenanigans.
“This notion that elections are stolen and that elections are rigged is so common in the public sphere that we’re having to go out of our way to counter them this year,” said Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist.
The theme of the article is that dastardly dirty tricks by Republicans in past elections, like circulating flyers telling Democrats to vote on the day after the election, have so dispirited and disheartened African-Americans that they may fail to turn out on November 7.
Where to begin? I am no fan of Democratic voters, but the idea that they are too stupid to know which day is Election Day is beyond the pale. (That line is a joke, for those too dour to notice.) If black Americans don’t feel especially motivated to vote for Democrats, as the Times fears, maybe it’s because they’ve noticed that several decades of voting for Democrats has done them no perceptible good. Or maybe it’s because the black candidates with whom voters want to identify are Republicans like Michael Steele.
I take away two points: first, anxiety about November’s results is eating away at the confidence Democrats showed just a few weeks ago. Second, no matter whether it’s writing about Republicans turning out or Democrats not turning out, the Times’s explanation is the same: it’s all due to dirty tricks by those blasted Republicans. If the Republicans do manage to avert disaster next month, we’ll all know why.
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/015668.php