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February 02, 2006

St Jack and the Bullies in the Pulpit--or why centrism doesn't exist, part 1247

I've maintained for a while now that centrism doesn't really exist. It can't. The bullseye for the center isn't really a center. Its a constantly moving target that in the last two decades has been on a downhill slide to the right.

Today's Washington Post provides a stellar example of my point.

Former Missouri Senator John Danforth has a bone to pick with the Republican Party:

A man of God and the GOP, he is speaking out for moderation -- in religion, politics, science and government. The lanky figure once dubbed "St. Jack," not always warmly, for the perch he seemed to occupy on Washington's moral high ground, expects people will sour on the assertive brand of Christianity so closely branded Republican.

"I'm counting on nausea," he says.

In a political year that promises a fresh battle for the national soul, religion is emerging as a tool and a test, with Danforth's words marking a fissure within the GOP. The conservative evangelical Christian movement that helped propel President Bush and congressional Republicans into power has become a big, fat target, even as Democrats and GOP moderates agonize about how to capture more votes from the faithful.

"The Republican Party has been taken over by something that it's not," Danforth says over a suitably austere lunch of steamed vegetables in a well-appointed 40th-floor St. Louis club overlooking the Mississippi. "How do traditional Republicans put up with this? They put up with this because it's a winning combination, for now. It won't last."

Why won't it last?

"It won't stand the light of day," Danforth says in one of several conversations. "The more people think about it, the more people will resist it. People do not want a sectarian political party, including a lot of people who are traditional Republicans."

Danforth..an antichoice, anti-gay marriage, anti-tax conservative is now what passes for "centrism" in the Republican Party.

Make no mistake, I'm not trying to run Danforth down. Its not about him per se. Its about this notion that somehow we have to work toward the middle..because the middle is where moderation lies.

Danforth isn't the middle. Danforth is a hard right conservative. But you'd never know that by looking at the Republican Party. The GOP is completely off the cliff of ideology. Danforth is struggling to pull them back to the precipice.

An admirable goal..but hardly something to place up as the moderate middle.

There is not a "middle" or a "center". Not now. Not that we'd be able to recognize. What passes for centrism nowadays is what used to be considered the conservative wing of the Republican Party.

In an age when an emphasis on civil rights is considered analagous to communism and satan worship among the throngs of the Bush faithful, the "center" has become a casualty of the hard right coup on the GOP.

Posted by Carla at February 2, 2006 09:27 AM