The abandoned middle ground

Published: Thursday | October 29, 2009



"Thank God for Sarah Palin." I reckon that's how Barack Obama starts his morning prayers.

The Republican Party's latest foray into self-destruction involves a Congressional district in upstate New York. There, a race is on to fill the seat, vacated when the (Republican) incumbent left to become President Obama's secretary of the army. As their candidate, the local Republican Party selected a moderate candidate who, among other things, supports gay marriage and abortion rights.

On the right wing of the party, a rebellion brews. Republicans are now flying in from all across the country to campaign against the nomination. They are supporting a third candidate, whom they consider more reliably conservative. Needless to say, this infighting has improved the prospects of the Democrats.

Just one guess which side of this debate Sarah Palin decided to take (I usually just ask, "Now what would Genghis Khan have done?") Having joined the campaign against the Republican candidate, Mrs Palin will no doubt only further burnish her credentials among the substantial portion of the Republican Party which still adores her.

Road map to oblivion

The sort of people who weren't bothered that a prospective vice-president couldn't name a single newspaper or magazine when asked what she read to brief herself on world affairs. The sort of people who, unfortunately for the Republican Party, can fill a hockey arena on a good day, but not much more. Mrs Palin offers a road map to oblivion.

You would think that in these circumstances, the administration would sit back and let their foes do their dirty work. Instead, the Obama White House has decided to go on the attack against its critics, including trying to marginalise Fox News.

The betting appears to be that with the Republicans shifting right at the grass roots, the White House can portray them as out of touch. But it's a gamble with high stakes. The risk is that the Democrats will themselves come to be seen as intransigent. And taking on Fox News because it's not actually "fair and balanced"? Come on, who actually takes that motto seriously?

The Obama camp seemed more astute earlier this year with the subtler approach of hinting that Rush Limbaugh was the actual spokesman of the Republican Party. No condemnation necessary: Limbaugh sucked it up, and most Americans quaked at the thought. So why the president's advisers decided to shift to hardball is beyond me.

However, it seems to confirm a tectonic shift that has been under way in the US for decades: the gradual abandonment of the middle ground by both political parties. Briefly after last year's election, Barack Obama seemed to be reaching out to both sides of the political aisle, even courting right-wing journalists.

Regional concentrations

Yet pretty quickly, his administration reverted to form. Partially, this is a consequence of the fact that both parties are becoming regionally concentrated. The Republicans have been disappearing in the Northwest, the Democrats in the South. As a result, Republicans are becoming more southern and conservative, Democrats more northern and liberal - or, as liberal as one can get in an otherwise conservative land.

This process becomes self-reinforcing when 'purists' from one region start to marginalise their peers from others. The Republican campaign to produce a conservative candidate in upstate New York - not quite conservative territory - will likely cause the Democrats to take the seat. There will thus be one less liberal Republican voice in Congress.

It is puzzling, therefore, that with the Republicans marginalising themselves, the Obama administration would not opt to rise above the fray and present itself as the voice for all Americans. That approach may yet backfire on the Democrats.

John Rapley is president of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), an independent research think tank affiliated with the University of the West Indies, Mona. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.

 
 
 
The opinions on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. The Gleaner reserves the right not to publish comments that may be deemed libelous, derogatory or indecent. To respond to The Gleaner please use the feedback form.