John Harris over at the Politico: [1]
Congressional Democrats certainly know the power of a throw-the-bums-out message. It vaulted them to power a year ago this week. Little wonder anxiety is boiling over inside the new majority as lawmakers ponder a succession of polls and reach an inescapable conclusion: Lots of people think they are bums, too.
The anti-Washington mood in the country — aimed at both a Republican president and a Democrat-controlled Congress — has reached breathtaking levels. One has to reach back almost 30 years, to the low points of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, to find a time when there was such simultaneous disdain for both the executive and the legislative branches, as measured by Gallup approval ratings.
What John doesn’t mention, however, is the idea that those angry with the President are only angry with Congress because they didn’t work hard enough to defeat the President. Do a by-party breakdown and the message is clear; this will be a partisan election, as there has seldom been in the last 100 years.
Predictions of the result of that anger are going to be murky at best, given the current struggle for control within the Democrat party… part of which we’ve blogged here the last few months, and which John alludes to, here:
Mellman said that Democrats in part are confronting disappointment from their own backers, who are hoping for more immediate results from the new majority, particularly on Iraq.
Interestingly, the Democrats at this point are arguing, unwittingly, the same points I was making [2] years [3] ago, about the Republicans. Last June, for example: [4]
What it’s time for, is for the Republicans to start acting like, well, Republicans. The undeniable change that has occurred between the time that Newt Gingrich [5] garnered 46% approval ratings and now is that the Republicans as a party and as individuals have tilted left in dramatic fashion. This has culminated with President Bush, offering us this monstrosity of an immigration bill. Bush himself, is not a rightist, but a centrist , often leaving left of center. (Which is why I so often find the Democrats attempt to label him as the next Adolph Hitler so amusing…)
The extreme disgust being expressed by the American people for the current state of affairs is directly linked to how far left our politicians lean. The disgust for the Democrats, was already there. The disgust for the Republicans, only increased in the last 20 years or so, when the two started leaning toward leftist politics.
Interesting that the left is rasing similar complaints about it’s own.
The problem for both sides, of course is the perception on the part of pols and pundits and elections wonks that to win office one has to reach the theoretical ‘center”. This is a concept that was pushed to it’s limit with the Clintons… and one way to show how disenchanted with the middle the American people have become is the spectacle of Mrs Clinton trying to find that middle just now. She is finding the clothesline balance act an impossible one to pull off.
I would also argue that one major problem Mr. Bush (no conservative, he) has from HIS own party is where he’s been trying for the middle… as I indicated in the quote above.
All this bottom lines here: This next election is not going to be won by a ‘moderate’. There is no ‘center’ anymore… and claiming it is no refuge. The American people, whatever else might be said about them, are not inclined to go with a centrist from either party.
The winner of this next election will be someone who consistently and loudly stands up for the principles of the party they claim.