Political Middle ground – if it is your goal you can’t have it, ever.
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009There is a difference between seeking a middle ground between your ideas and the ideas of your opponents and seeking to move your ideas to that middle ground. If you stand firm on your ideas you balance against the ideas of your opposition. However for whatever reason, should you move your ideas to what appears to be the middle – the point of balance, you shift the point of balance further away. Certainly you will eventually meet that middle ground, but only when your ideas are exactly the same as your oppositions.
This is the problem with those who say the Republican Party should move their ideas to the middle. It is a middle that is mere illusion and transitory. It can never be met until the Republican Party resembles the Democrat Party in all but name.
The Republican Parties best chance of success is not in moving towards that middle, but in making their ideas clear and moving their ideas back to the ones that won them elections: conservatism.