'Seizing the Center" Myth

‘Seizing the Center’ Myth

By Thomas Sowell, Orange County Register, Orange County, Calif., Wed., Nov. 30, 2011

Talk show host Michael Medved, for example, apparently thinks the Republicans need a centrist presidential candidate in 2012. He said, “Most political battles are won by seizing the center.” Moreover, he added: “Anyone who believes otherwise ignores the electoral experience of the last 50 years.”

But when did Ronald Reagan, with this two landslide election victories, “seize the center”? For that matter, when did Franklin D. Roosevelt, with a record four presidential election victories, “seize the center”?

There have been a long string of Republican presidential candidates who seized the center – and lost elections. Thomas E. Dewey, for examples, seized the center against Harry Truman in 1948. Even though Truman was so unpopular at the outset that the “New Republic” magazine urged him not to run, and polls consistently had Dewey ahead. Truman clearly stood for something… That turned out to be enough to beat Dewey, who simply stood in the center…

It is equally doubtful that most people who voted for Ronald Reagan in his two landslide victories agreed with all this positions. But they agreed with enough of them to put him in the White House to replace Jimmy Carter, who stood in the center, even if it was only a center of confusion.

President Gerald Ford, after narrowly beating off Ronald Reagan … seized the center in the general election – and lost to an initially almost totally unknown governor from Georgia…

More recently, we have seen two more Republican candidates who seized the center – Senators Bob Dole in 1996 and John McCain in 2008 – go down to defeat…

Michael Medved, however, reads history differently. To him, Barry Goldwater got clobbered in the 1964 elections because of his strong conservatism. But did his opponent, Lyndon Johnson, seize the center? Johnson was at least as far to the left as Goldwater was to the right…

Senator Goldwater was not crazy enough to start a nuclear war. But the way he talked sometimes made it seem as if he were. Ronald Reagan would later be elected and reelected taking positions essentially the same as those on which Barry Goldwater lost big time. Reagan was simply a lot better at articulating his beliefs.

Michael Medved uses the 2008 defeat of Tea Party candidates for the Senate, in 3 states where Democrats were Democrats were vulnerable, as another argument against those who do not court the center. But these were candidates whose political ineptness was the problem, not conservativism. Candidates should certainly reach out to a broad electorate. But the question is whether they reach out by promoting their own principles to others or by trying to be all things to all people.

George H. Kubeck, www.cinopsbegone.com – Tuesday, December 27, 2011

P.S. The respected writer Thomas Sowell is supporting Newt Gingrich. I may do likewise. I sent monies first to Michelle Bachmann and then to Herman Cain. Ideally, popular conservative & pro-life governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal would beat Romney in most state primaries. He would set the base on fire.