No Middle Ground (In Politics) By Bob Burnett

[Demeter]

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bob_burn_061117_no_middle_ground.htm


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November 17, 2006

No Middle Ground

By Bob Burnett

The 2006 elections are over and the punditocracy has ruled: The Center is the New Place to Be trumpets TIME magazine. The Middle Muscles In writes David Brooks in the NEW YORK TIMES. It's a classic example of the mainstream media totally missing the point: there was no middle ground in the mid-term elections. There was a reality check.

When voters went to the polls on November 7th, they had only two choices: support a candidate who embraced the failed policies of the Bush Administration-the "stupid" vote. Or, vote for someone who wanted to go in a different direction-the "pragmatic" vote. There was no middle-of-the-road position on the important issues. You were either for sanity or against it.

For most voters, the key election issue was Iraq. It's hard to define a "conservative," "moderate," and "liberal" position on Iraq. For most voters, regardless of Party or professed ideology, there was a stark choice: support the Administration-"stay the course"-or admit the obvious, Bush has lost the war in Iraq and we need to do something more intelligent than "keep on keeping on."

Some pundits claim to discern a conservative position on Iraq, "stay the course," and a liberal position, "cut and run." For these observers, the middle position is anything else. This is misleading, as: very few Democrats-you can count them on the fingers of one hand-advocate immediate withdrawal from Iraq, pulling all of our troops out of the Middle East. There were only two positions on Iraq expressed in the mid-term election: One was the irrational position, held by the Administration and most Republicans: The U.S. still has a chance for victory and the President knows what he is doing. Then there was the realist position, held by everyone else: The Administration lost the war in Iraq and the President not only doesn't have a plan, he doesn't know how to prepare one....

Authors Bio: Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer and Quaker actvist. He is particularly interested in progressive morality and writes frequently on the ethical aspects of political and social issues.