Posted on 09/22/2004 4:23:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
(KRT) - Maybe it happens this way in most elections. But it really seems the middle's getting squeezed in this presidential election. The angry idealists are going at it from the left and right, leaving the practical middle wondering which way it should go.
I found myself in this predicament recently in New York, where I moderated a 45-minute exchange between Gary Bauer of the evangelical right and Joseph Hough of the Protestant left. The two went after it over matters like how you treat the poor. Even though it was barely 9 in the morning, the interview grew so heated that I found myself watching a verbal boxing match. As I walked back to my hotel, I kept wondering where are the middle grounders in this election, the people who can draw from left and right and form some new path?
They aren't to be found. We have anger on the left and anger on the right. Everywhere you turn, people are mad. John Kerry's riding his angrycrats for all their worth, while George W. Bush's doing the same with the perpetually mad within the GOP.
The left's anger is pretty clear. It stems from the president's Iraq move. Angry lefties also don't like his stem cell decision and his gay marriage ban. Cause after cause lined up to protest the president's policies during the GOP convention.
To be sure, some angry lefties simply don't like George W. Bush. That's the grumpy, resentful Michael Moore crowd, which seethes with rage against the president. Only comedian Al Franken gives liberalism a cheeriness. Even he's angry, and says as much.
The right is mad for different reasons. There's the Zell Miller angry right. They think John Kerry is a weakling who'll not make the tough calls around the world.
Maybe he will, maybe he won't. But Sen. Miller came across at the GOP convention as an old-fashioned crank. Bush pollster Matthew Dowd said before Miller spoke that the Democrat was appealing to voters in Green Bay, where conservative Catholic Democrats are trying to decide where to go in November. OK, but whatever happened to that sunny conservatism Reaganites were recalling so fondly just three months ago at Ronald Reagan's funeral?
It's hard to find because some true-believing conservatives like being resentful, as does Michael Moore on the left. It's their natural state. They like having a target to attack.
This is going to get me in trouble, but the rise of radical Islam benefits their cause at just the right moment. Not one single conservative would want a 9/11, but some may find radical Islamists a convenient target to chew up, particularly since communists no longer matter. It helps their fundraising drives, and gives them a new force to attack.
Anger doesn't drive voters in the middle. They tend toward the practical, looking for the candidate who can best resolve Iraq, best improve the deficit and best give the economy enough juice. They care mostly about getting their problems solved.
The downside to this crowd is they lack the ideals that propel the angrycrats. The belligerent left and angry right have strong beliefs. The practical middle looks at the world on a case-by-case basis. Organizing principles don't necessarily drive the practical ones.
Still, the middle matters greatly in this campaign's closing weeks. With such a close election, the nominees and their strategists need them to close the deal. And one thing's for sure: Screamers like Michael Moore and Zell Miller won't reach the practical middlers. Carroll Doughtery of the Pew Center for the People and the Press says their recent polls show that "negativity" from both camps really bothers the middle.
It seems to me the candidate who understands this point reaches the practical middle and wins the White House. Before George W. Bush and John Kerry can do that, they're going to have tone down their Zell Millers and Michael Moores.
What IS the practical middle??
I don't think I know one.
Are they the people who don't have an opinion?
It's very much the fault of the media, by taking sides, and setting the stage for a political war.
Any suggestion that the right is filled with anger and vitriol is a big fat lie.
The "practical middle" appear to be those like the author who write a back-handed, left-slanted article like this.
The "practical middle" is for folks who don't know their values and therefore have few principles.
I for one am glad to see we have an election that is FORCING the Left to reveal their values, 'principles' and positions. Expose them for what they are!!
Reasonable and reasoned minds ought to oppose the Left and NOT be in the middle.
All your anger are belong to you?????
Oh no. Some of us *are* angry.
The insidious nature of radical Islam and the lack of a particular geographic dividing line certainly clouds the issue of national security for a people who have become lazy and uninformed. Thank God it is not the case for our Commander in Chief, who stands with clarity and vision for what is right, in the middle of a very complicated situation.
Mr. McKenzie seems to be one of those (as Rush might describe him) 'weenies' in the middle who doesn't really want to choose one side or the other, waiting to see what the others do.
Unfortunately, post-9/11 we are way past middle of the road milque-toast attitudes. It's time to stand up and be counted, Mr. McKenzie.
Word. I laugh every day! It's GOOD to be on the right. Every time I sit down with popcorn, a Barq's and rather updates, I'm convinced it's just going to get better and better.
He's an ex-wrestler, you know? Not that he could climb in the ring with real wrestlers, but he is - you know? He likes intimidating his critics. And Al isn't cheerful. He's a dreary, gray bitter old man, who one day in that meanness and pettiness is going to cross the wrong guy. And if that's 'cheerful', then the author of the article must be even moreso, to his own shame.
That the "middle" decides elections is a myth.
The "undecided" are practically non-existent.
Most that claim to be, do so to deceive themselves, or others.
It has been this way for at least 30 years that I know of.
Elections are NOT about converting the middle.
Elections are about motivating your base to actually go to the polls and vote.
Its all about turnout.
The "practical middle" to this columnist and other libs is the same bunch that Rush calls "skulls full of mush". They have no pole stars to guide them, so the media can manipulate them with leftist propaganda.
LIBERAL writers are trying their best to ignore the fact that a large majority of Americans BELIEVE what Bush is doing it right for the country and the world.
The Left has no humor. Actually, they're quite a hateful, nasty bunch.
I guess if I were them (perish the thought) I'd wouldn't be laughing either.
That's my take.
To me there's .....
The Right=those who are for the principles of conservatism, strong military, economy, non activist judges, etc
The Left=those that are for the principles of ?? (against everything the right stands for I guess)
The Middle=those that have no principles or opinions at all and just kinda live in their own little world. How any concerned individual can possibly not have their minds made up about this election at this point is beyond me.
He's trying to drag Zell Miller down by putting him on the same plain as Moore.
It won't work.
".... waiting to see what the others do. "
This group (the middlemen) just want to be on the winning side without the pressures of doing some thoughtful investigation of the issues. They form their opinions based on polls.
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