The news is now dominated by stories, opinion pieces, and blog posts about turmoil in the Republican party — a party that has seemingly morphed into the Rushublican party with its most visible mass media symbol repeatedly leading what now seems to be a virtual litmus test mantra of hoping President Barack Obama will fail (a mantra now cushioned with word-splitting qualifiers to allow plausible deniability that will mean little to many voters who have lost their homes and jobs).
It’s a party where another big media symbol and perceived 2012 Presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has been stubbing her toe more than often than New Yorkers during a power black out. Or having John McCain or other Republican elites stub it for her. It’s a party that promises to finally unveil it’s own budget, but initial reports suggest that when it does it’ll likely come under fire for essentially tilting to help wealthier Americans and cut funding for kids or lower income Americans. True or not — that’s the perception.
But mostly, the new and old media blitzes focus on a struggle for the GOP’s political soul. Will moderates be driven completely out? (A silly question since Arlen Specter doesn’t exactly appear to be the wave of the future). Will Rush and Sean provide its spiritual impetus? And will the party shed itself of the Bush-Cheney elite and allow younger GOPers to take full spotlight, and let the baby boomers retire to nurse or display their (Good)Us-Versus-(Bad)Them Vietnam War era-derived hubris off the early 21st century main political stage?
Yet, in our Quote of the Day, centrist writer John Avlon notes that there is another political storm brewing — or, rather, one he likens to a civil war: the battle between liberal Democrats more in tune with the Internet “netroots” and more centrist Democrats descended from older school liberalism. Avlon raises the question whether this impending war could short circuit Democratic hopes for 2010 — and perhaps beyond:
The most important debate in Washington today isn’t happening between Democrats and Republicans—it’s happening between centrist Democrats and liberal Democrats. Not just the budget, but control of congress in the 2010 elections could hang in the balance.
Late last week, 16 Democratic senators declared independence by forming a new centrist caucus. Led by Indiana’s Evan Bayh, Arkansas’ Blanche Lincoln and Delaware’s Tom Carper, the group includes senators from every region and some of the party’s rising stars, including Virginia’s Mark Warner and Missouri’s Claire McCaskill. Together, their numbers are more than sufficient to deny liberals a rubber-stamp majority in the Senate. The center is flexing its muscle and now holds the balance of power.
This development now means that Republicans are going to have to contend with some members of their party (more moderate Republicans) who aren’t buying into Talk Radio Political Culture typified by Limbaugh and Hannity….while Democrats will have to contend with some members of their party (more moderate Democrats) who aren’t buying into some of the demands and policies advocated by the Demmies’ lively and powerful “netroots” and emerging liberal talk show host stars.
Avlon contends this centrist Democratic opposition could benefit Obama:
The group quickly came under fire from both the netroots and old-line liberals as a traitorous “over-class” challenge to the Obama agenda because of its focus on fiscal responsibility…[T]hey may actually prove to be the president’s best allies in the long run. Because the Obama administration cannot allow itself be defined by the liberal House leadership’s agenda if they want to unite the nation and usher in a post-partisan era. And right now this centrist coalition is the only constructive force that can check liberal excesses and prevent a broad-based backlash.
We’ve seen this movie before. A charismatic new Democrat president blessed with unified control of Congress gets his legs cut out from under him when the electorate decides that the combined package is more liberal than they’d like.
Indeed: many writers (including yours truly) raised the issue during the campaign of whether once Obama got in his biggest problem could be in possible overreaching by his own party’s left since unless there was a)massive success b)overwhelming support what Avlon calls “liberal excesses” can be adeptly exploited by the GOP to discredit all Democrats. He further notes that Americans like checks and balances and Obama won a mandate to govern center and adds:
So what do voters in the center believe? A post-election survey by TargetPoint Consulting shows that 96 percent of centrist voters consider themselves conservative to moderate on fiscal issues, while 86 percent of centrist voters see themselves as liberal to moderate on social issues. To put it another way, only 4 percent of centrists describe themselves as fiscal liberals while just 14 percent describe themselves as social conservatives.
He issues this warning:
This fight is far from over. MoveOn.org has taken out advocacy ads against the centrist coalition, borrowing a page from the playbook of conservative Republicans who make it their hobby to hunt down party heretics. But tearing down the big tent is precisely what has led Republicans to be irrelevant in the current debate—they are too busy playing to the base to be concerned with constructive outreach to the center. At a time when the American people want solutions, not hyper-partisan bickering, it’s a recipe for self-defeat.
The new centrist coalition exists not to block the president’s agenda but to provide ballast behind his rhetoric of fiscal responsibility in the face of liberal congressional leaders who want to listen only to the stimulus spending side of the Obama equation. They are trying to help President Obama realize the still ill-defined post-partisan vision he promised the American people. That’s why now is the right time to assert the strength of the center.
There’s a lot more — so read it all.
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.