The above is a fantasy, not a reality. Sorry.
Just anecdotally, on a personal level, I know only at most 3-4 people who AREN'T in the broad middle, politically, and many dozens who are in the middle.
The number of those who are fiscal conservatives but social liberals, especially, in the country ALONE is vast - and there are plenty of other types of people in the "Mushy Middle."
The only way someone could convince themselves of the falsehood that there are no moderates is someone who only sits at their computer and reads FR and DU, and think that the posters represent the country.
You run on your general agreement with your base of voters who have coalesced into one of the two major parties. You then peel off a faction from the other side with an appeal that DOES NOT RENOUNCE YOUR BASE IN ANY WAY.
There is NO MIDDLE. American politics is ruled by the mathematics of the single member district.
Didn't you ever notice that Europeans use party list voting ~ and in general don't require a candidate from XYZ to actually reside in XYZ. They end up with multiple parties!
It's not because they are not human beings ~ it's because the mathematics to win with party list voting is vastly different than the math of the single-member district.
The most noticeable manifestation of the single-member district is having TWO PARTIES, each of which is organized differently. The Democrats are organized around special interests. You can advance through the party chairs by first advancing through your special interest's chairs ~ or vice versa.
Republicans are organized around classes ~ e.g. businessmen, doctors, and even classes that are related more to religion than anything else. Plus, we also have the anti-slavery core. They founded the party.
The people you perceive to be "moderates" are simply being polite to you. They'll go off and vote for their coalition, and you yours. They are not trying to convince you to vote for their candidates because they know you are too set in your mind.
You might ask them some day if they think of you as a moderate.
64 posted on Friday, December 16, 2011 10:27:49 AM by Strategerist: “The above is a fantasy, not a reality. Sorry. Just anecdotally, on a personal level, I know only at most 3-4 people who AREN'T in the broad middle, politically, and many dozens who are in the middle. The number of those who are fiscal conservatives but social liberals, especially, in the country ALONE is vast - and there are plenty of other types of people in the “Mushy Middle.” The only way someone could convince themselves of the falsehood that there are no moderates is someone who only sits at their computer and reads FR and DU, and think that the posters represent the country.”
A caution here: in the United States, unlike some other countries which have a high turnout rate, election winners are determined by which side gets their supporters to the polls, not necessarily who has the most public support.
Many moderates don't vote, at least not on a consistent basis. Many other moderates don't vote except in presidential elections.
The result is that the winners of the primary races, the off-year national elections, and most state and local races other than those which happen to be on a November election ballot tend to be determined by the ability of the candidate to aggressively appeal to a constituency of highly committed voters, usually but not always with commitments due to ideology.
With some important exceptions, that leads to a bipolar model of the electorate rather than a bell curve. The most common exceptions to ideologically motivated turnout happen when a sports star, a movie star, or someone else with broad public appeal motivates lots of people into voting who don't typically vote. It's less common, but massive dissatisfaction with the status quo can lead to a “throw them all out” anti-incumbent mentality that harms everyone who has been in office for long periods regardless of party, though the people who get hurt the worst in such anti-incumbent periods are from the party in power.