The Center cannot hold
Outside The Beltway chimes in on a point I made almost two years ago.
Them:
Despite the mythology that the Republicans are “the party of the rich,” they have, since at least Dwight Eisenhower, nominated presidential candidates who understand and have appeal to rural America. While the Democrats’ base includes some of the poorest Americans, they have been nominating mostly big city wonks since, oh, Woodrow Wilson. (The two notable exceptions, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, did quite well with Middle America.) And that reflects in their attitudes on the campaign trail.
Me:
Since WWII , the Democrats are 1-8-1 (Carter) in elections without a candidate who appeals to the moderate or swing voters (I'll call 2000 a tie because it was so close and because no one really knew what Gore was doing. Including his campaign manager.). When they run a candidate who appeals to the center (Clinton, Truman, JFK with his fiscal policies and LBJ with his anti-Communism and because darn near anyone would have been to the left of Goldwater back then), they're 5-0-1 (See my comments above on Gore in 2000). That's a brutal, hard truth, and one that Democratic Underground wing of the party finds (rightfully) hard to swallow. But if the Democrats hope to find their way back into power, they better start listening more to Carville and less to Kos.
And now they're poised to nominate someone who makes Michael Dukakis look like Tim Allen. What's that saying about the definition of insanity is trying something the same way each time... ?
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