Finding the Center

When Americans Elect recently folded its tent, the hopes and dreams of many disenchanted pundits and voters found themselves once again on the curb. The collapse of Americans Elect is just the most recent in a long line of sometimes distinguished, sometimes comical, sometimes disturbing, but always failed, third party attempts. Its collapse is especially disillusioning to those who embraced it. Unlike other third party attempts, Americans Elect was not born of bigotry, ideology, or spite. It was born out of disillusionment and hope. It arose from the disillusionment of many with the "partisan gridlock" in Washington and the hope that politics in America could somehow transcend the egos and ambitions of politicians and overcome the dominance of special interest in Washington. It was not just an unrealistic dream. It proved to be a futile one.

Americans Elect was predicated on the notion that the great majority of Americans occupy what is commonly called the political "center" and that that "center" is being trammeled under the influence of special interests and political ideology. It is believed that what is keeping the U.S. government from running smoothly and preventing it from reaching its true potential is the "gridlock" caused by the clash of political extremes. Instead of a march toward prosperity and harmony, we are stuck with a football game where the ball is only moved back and forth between the 30 yard lines and instead of touchdowns we have to settle for field goals. Americans Elect wants to end the game and replace it with a new one in which everyone wins because everyone is on the same team. In such a game, the ball moves endlessly forward .This is as unrealistic an idea as it was when it was first put forward by the Founding Fathers. They too abhorred partisanship and faction. Even in a time when the reach of the federal government was by today's standards unbearably limited, bipartisanship was rare and compromise hard to come by. Some of the greatest political minds and most reasonable men that the U.S. have ever had did the best they knew how to prevent partisanship, and they failed. In a nation many times larger and more diverse, we should not expect better success.

The central premise that underlay Americans Elect and every "middle of the road" movement is that there is a middle ground that the majority can live with. This might be true, but it greatly depends on where the "middle" is and what it is between. You might be able to find an agreeable middle on the budget, but where is the agreeable middle on the abortion issue? Where is it on gay marriage or prayer in schools? That middle has not been found yet. What are the odds that Americans Elect will be able to find it?

What really rankles those with great ambitions and grand designs is the grinding nature of politics. The political process in Washington is designed to remove the sharped edges of policy through a slow and tedious policy of debate and compromise. It is a process that has come to frustrate those who desire swift and grand  results. That is a good thing for as hard as it is to enact policy and pass laws, it is a hundred times more difficult to repeal them.

If you want to reduce partisanship in Washington you have to curb its reach. If you insist that the federal government has a role to play in matters such as marriage, health care, and prayer in schools, if you demand that the federal government ensure that everyone believes and behaves in a manner that suits your sensibilities, you will never find a middle ground.  People compromise over where they are going to eat. They do not compromise over what they believe or how they raise their children.

Government in Washington is no longer a place where policy is deliberated. The stakes are too high for gentlemanly agreement. It has become become a political arena. You do not find compromise in an arena. You find winners and losers. Jim Hightower once famously said that the only thing you find in the middle of the road are yellow stripes and dead armadillos. He didn't like the middle of the road because he was a man of vision. You do not compromise on visions. You might make concessions, but you do not compromise.

If you want to restore comity in Washington you have to lower the stakes. It is that simple. To lower the stakes you have to limit the power of government. It is that difficult.