Centrist writer John Avlon — who has written one of the best books on centrist and independent voters and politics and who has worked for both Rudy Giuliani and Bill Clinton — will now be featured in a new CNN weekly “American Morning” segment called “Wingnuts of the Week. He writes:
We’re trying out a new segment on “American Morning” called “Wingnuts of the Week.” It builds on a simple premise – the far-right and the far-left are equally insane.
What’s a Wingnut? It’s someone on the far-right wing or far-left wing of American politics – the professional partisans and the unhinged activists – the folks who always try to divide rather than unite. In our polarized two party system, they have disproportionate influence and too often define the terms of debate. With this segment, we’re going to try and take that power back.
In this first week, we’re naming two charter members of the Wingnut Hall of Fame who recently reared their heads in the news once again. We want to be equal opportunity offenders, punching both left and right, so both are members of Congress – one current and one former – and both are defended in their respective echo chambers on the far-right and far-left.
So drum roll, please: The Wingnuts of the Week for our inaugural edition are Michele Bachmann and Cynthia McKinney.
Go to the link to read why. Avlon futher explains:
If you’re a political Independent or a centrist – and frustrated by the way that the extremes of left and right dominate our debates, hijack our parties, and artificially polarize our nation – then we want this segment to act as your advocate. We want you to join the conversation – give us your suggestions to who should be named the next Wingnuts of the Week.
We look foward to embedding the videos of this segment (if they are available) here on TMV.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.