Longing for the Middle

Bill Clinton understands the middle maybe more than any one person in American politics. Lincoln, too, was a man of the middle. Reagan, and the first George Bush, knew the importance of middle ground.

Today, the middle is a political cage match. The right wing administration of the second George Bush has made the middle a desolate place. When someone wants to work some middle ground in today’s politics it has to be argued, defended and way too many times the middle is ridiculed. Anything remotely centrist is commonly referred to as “anti-Bush,” and the most disheartening label of “anti-American.”

When did the middle become so non-mainstream?

The importance of middle ground in American politics is paramount. The Constitution itself is but a compromise of spectrums from the Founding Fathers. When the states disagreed with the Constitution and refused to ratify, the Founding Fathers went back and compromised a Bill of Rights in order to guarantee certain rights the states felt were most significant for their citizens. The states didn’t get everything they wanted, but they did get 10 historic Amendments that would make any middle ground politician ecstatic.

Today it’s either with us or against us. It’s either liberal or conservative. It’s either Michael Moore or George W. Bush. Unless one completely agrees with the right or left, then you are considered hostile to either spectrum.

I’m not foolish enough to think that only neocons have embarked this new era of politics. The same is very true for liberals as well. Unless you are in favor of the choice to terminate a pregnancy or against the 2nd Amendment, or are not tickled to death for gay marriage, then you are considered one of those Bush types.

Or wait, does that last paragraph sound too middle ground for ya?

The middle ground has saved the United States of America more times than any liberal or conservative movement. If the middle ground is squashed and labeled as “anti” then the future of this country is in grave danger.

Ask any German what happens when the middle is ignored. What allowed Fascism to thrive was the lack of centrist voices. Ask any Russian what happens when the middle is viewed as hostile “enemies of the state.” For Lenin and Stalin to marshal in their authoritarian regimes the middle had to be silenced.

Right wing or left wing movements almost always want to censor the middle. In fact, the middle is viewed as more dangerous than the opposing side. The middle contains the eye of the storm, the calm of it all. The middle allows room for compromise. It tempers down both sides when they get out of hand. Many say it’s the rise of the middle class that allows America to vie. But it’s really the middle ground that keeps America moving forward.

So many times I hear people complaining about politicians moving to the center. John McCain is hammered all the time for taking centrist approaches. Fox News, and many other right wing nut jobs, label him as a Democratic or liberal sympathizer, as someone who is obstructing the “people’s work.” John McCain is anything but any of that stuff. The same is true for Hillary Clinton. Now all of a sudden she’s only trying to make herself electable by moving towards the center, as if trying to be more mainstream is something new for politicians (Lincoln did it). Apparently it’s perfectly all right to move as far right as almost Americanly possible (like Bush) and still win, but it’s not okay to move one step towards the center.

The middle must be heard. We cannot afford to lose the middle. This polarization of Party politics can prove to be very costly if we don’t begin to question many things right now. It all can be saved by questions.