The problem with appealing to centrists is that you have to govern like one or they will abandon you, whilst proudly announcing their moderation vis-a-vis your reckless extremism.
Look at the conservative agenda: privatize Social Security, re-vamp the tax code, reform tort systems, all the while investing billions to insure that jihadis from the Kyber Pass to Cape Horn continue to explode.
Look at the progressive agenda: ramp up taxes, socialize health-care, go full-Keynes on a new Stimulus, all the while investing billions to insure that public unions from Sea to Shining Sea continue to feather their nests.
Either approach identifies problems and proffers radical solutions. Regardless of what one thinks of them, they have the virtue of ambition.
Centrists, on the other hand, pretend to want someone who will do bold and exciting things, but really want someone who will "get things done," i.e. let things get back to normal, so they can get back to their lives. Whatever is going on right now is what they want to continue, with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of important-sounding bromides. As with the governance of the EuroZone, nothing will be done but a great show will be made of doing it.
Occasionally, they will get furious with the general state of affairs and Demand Change. This demand will be stuffed like the skin of a sausage with thunderous denunciations of the current government and the awful mess they have made. Once that pack of fools are gone, however, so is most of the substance of their fury, leaving only a thin film of actual policy.
Centrists are easily panicked, easily browbeaten, and easily led astray, because the only thing they believe in with any regularity is that anyone who wants any real thing is dangerous. So anyone who more successfully pretends to want everything in general and nothing in particular wins.
No comments:
Post a Comment