Juan Williams does a nice piece today at The Hill on the diminishing number of moderates in Congress. Moderates like Olympia Snowe are retiring from elective office out of frustration while others are being driven out of office in primaries and party purification rituals. The result is that voices of moderation, reason and civility continue to ebb. Williams reasons that Congress will become increasingly partisan and shrill despite growing numbers of citizens indentifying as independent and moderate.
Here are some bullet points from the piece:
• “The death of the political middle is the defining shift taking place in American politics today.”
• Party and philosophical affiliation, according to Pew, run roughly 26% R, 32% D, 36% I…40% conservative, 35% moderate, 21 % liberal.
• Republican caucuses have moved dramatically to the right in the past 50 years while Democratic caucuses remain left of center.
• In the Senate, the single most consistently moderate members of both parties are leaving, resulting in a shift to the extremes. Ben Nelson is the D if you’re curious.
• Democrats are likely, because of Snowe’s retirement, to retain control of the Senate according to Williams.
• The wholesale defeat of moderate Republicans in the primaries of 2010 produced a chilling effect on moderate voices in D. C.
• Williams believes that the far right has been more effective in forcing Republicans to the fringe than the far left has been in forcing Democrats to the fringe. He attributes this to organizational effectiveness found on the right, but not on the left, i.e. the left would do it if they could.
If you’d like to read the piece for yourself, you’ll find it at The Hill .
Contributor, aka tidbits. Retired attorney in complex litigation, death penalty defense and constitutional law. Former Nat’l Board Chair: Alzheimer’s Association. Served on multiple political campaigns, including two for U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR). Contributing author to three legal books and multiple legal publications.