There's a myth that the media keeps throwing around incessantly that is really getting on my nerves... the myth of a "polarized America." Lets face the facts:

- Most Americans are either in the center or drift off into the center-left and center-right.

- Most Americans are generally apolitical until election time and have better things to worry about in their lives than Bill Clinton's genitalia.

- If America were so polarized between left and right, politicians wouldn't attempt to tack to the center so often; they would instead focus on those to the left or the right of themselves.

Let me say who is really polarized in America... it's not most Americans; it's the talking heads and politicians that so litter the news. Every one of them pretend to represent mainstream public opinion when they really don't. What you see is both parties attacking their centrists by saying that their opposition to some of their party's policies makes them a threat to enacting an agenda that supposedly represents the mainstream. This is not limited to one party; both are offenders.

Now let me clarify my own position here before I go on pretending that I'm offering a super-objective centrist critique. I'm generally a right-winger, not centrist or center-right, although I regularly break with right-wingers due to my pragmatism and libertarian tendencies (libertarians drift over to the left on a slew of issues). As a result, I voted for George W. Bush... I did not vote for him enthusiastically, rather I voted for him based on the politics of lesser-evilism. If it was Evan Bayh, John Breaux, Joe Lieberman, or Harold Ford who had been the Democratic challengers, I would have voted for one of them in a heartbeat instead of Bush. Since I support having a smaller government (although not necessarily a more-limited one), the best situation would be one where a moderate Democrat was president (like Bill Clinton) with a conservative Congress. It's still not the perfect combination, but it's better than having total control of both by one side or the other, especially from a budgetary perspective.

Part of this myth is the idea that the two parties are highly unified and disciplined entities with little ideological diversity. This is simply untrue and ignorant of realities; the two parties are carefully cobbled together coalitions of various types of politicos that agree on a few select issues. Each have multiple wings, and it is somewhat difficult to split them apart at times, but they are there. Lets start with the Democrats:

- Conservative Democrats, who are either center-right or right-wing and are arrayed around the Blue Dog Coalition and tend to socialize with Republican groups far more often than the left-wing of the party likes. Gene Taylor and Zell Miller are examples of this type of Democrat. Some of these individuals are also New Democrats. They make up very little of the party, but still exert considerable influence in the House.

- New Democrats, who are basically part of the center / center-left arrayed around the Democratic Leadership Council, New Democrat Network, and the Third Way. Evan Bayh, Bill Clinton, and Joe Lieberman are exemplars of this type of Democrat. The New Republic and Blueprint are popular mags with these individuals. Probably are around 1/4 of the party.

- Traditional Liberals, who are basically part of the center-left and left-wing of the party and are arrayed around such groupings as the Economic Policy Institute, Urban Institute, and the Center for American Progress. Dick Gephardt, John Kerry, and Harry Reid (although he is socially conservative on a few social issues) are this type of Democrat. The American Prospect and The Washington Monthly are popular with them. Probably half the party are Traditional Liberals.

- Progressive Democrats, who are on the left-wing of the party and are aligned with groups like the Progressive Democrats of America, Progressive Caucus, MoveOn.org, and their positions are usually fairly similar to such groups as the Democratic Socialists of America and Green Party. Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean (as of recently; before he ran for president he was considered to be either a New Democrat or even a conservative one), and Lynn Woolsey are representative of them. The Nation and The Progressive are popular mags with them. They are about 1/4 of the party and much stronger than the Conservative Democrats.

Now on to the GOP, which is made up of:

- Moderate / Rockefeller Republicans, are of center-left / center / center-right and tend to be aligned around the It's My Party Too PAC, Republican Main Street Partnership, and regularly take positions similar to those espoused by New Democrats. Christine Todd Whitmann, Lincoln Chafee, Rudy Giuliani, and Arnold Schwarzenegger are representative of this wing. About 1/4 of the Republican Party are of this type.

- Neoconservatives, are of the center-right / right-wing and tend to be aligned around groups like the Hudson Institute, Manhattan Institute, Center for the Study of Popular Culture, and especially the American Enterprise Institute. Paul Wolfowitz, David Brooks, and William Kristol are representative of this wing. The Weekly Standard, The Public Interest (now defunct), and The American Enterprise are popular with them. On a side note, while neocons are not as moderate as the above, you can regularly find them attacking right-wing hardliners in and out of the party, especially Paleoconservatives, who now espouse anti-GOP positions. Neocons make up very little of the GOP, but have a massive amount of influence.

- Traditional Conservatives, are center-right / right-wing and tend to be aligned around such groups as the Heritage Foundation, Claremont Institute, Hoover Institution, and American Conservative Union. Examples of these include Bill Frist, George W. Bush, and George Will. You can find them reading The American Spectator and National Review. They make up probably about 1/2 of the Republican Party.

- The Religious Right, are right-wingers and tend to be aligned with such organizations as the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Christian Coalition, Discovery Institute, and Traditional Values Coalition. Examples include Tom Delay and Trent Lott. You can find them reading Human Events and First Things. They make up about 1/4 of the Republican Party.

- Libertarian Conservatives, are anything from center to right-wing and it's difficult to box them in ideologically. They hang around organizations like the Republican Liberty Caucus, Institute for Justice, Annapolis Center, Cato Institute and Independent Institute. Examples include Ron Paul, Neal Boortz, and (dare I say?) had an extremely heavy influence on Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan (who was a member of the hardcore libertarian Foundation for Economic Education). You can find them reading things like Reason and Tech Central Station. A good portion of Traditional Conservatives are fusionists and are libertarians in many respects.

Now that we know how I break down the parties, lets get back on topic.

The New Democrats were dominant in the Democratic Party in the 90s and sought to force the Progressives out of it, believing that it was their fault that they lost the Congress in 1994, which is why the Green Party gradually became stronger. They intended to recreate the Democratic Party as the party of the political center, willing to take ideas from both sides in order to create a unifying agenda that could be agreed upon by both parties, calling their "beyond left-or-right" approach the "Third Way." They were ruthlessly attacked by both sides of the isle as unprincipled political opportunists; they were either thinly veiled left-wingers or thinly veiled right-wingers. Al Gore, once a New Democrat, tacked to the left during the 2000 election and alienated the DLC while failing to win the Progressives who thought he was being an opportunist and was still a New Democrat at heart. In 2004, the Democrats ran a New Democrat who agreed with few of the positions of the DLC and was a Traditional Liberal in all but name: John Kerry. After tacking to the left to quell Dean's Progressive insurgency, he attempted to move to the political center, but his earlier left-tack came back to haunt him. Now the Progressives, who had been silenced since the early 90s and still sure of themselves that both Gore and Kerry were New Democrats, are attempting to take over the Democratic Party and move it to the left under the auspices that the DLC approach has failed and that it is time to try something else. Centrists, or anybody else that dares go near the DLC or, heaven forbid, work with the GOP, are considered by them to be right-wingers in Democratic clothing and think the center should be ignored.

On the other hand, the Republican Party has become so successful as of late that the right-wing of the party, in particular the Religious Right, thinks that they can forget about the center completely because they believe they already have enough support to begin enacting their agenda. They think they can ignore the Moderate Republicans that are elected on the West Coast and in New England (and to a certain extent, Florida). They think the centrists in the party waver too often on the issues they find to be most important, which are mostly social issues (much of the Religious Right are one-issue voters). This single-mindedness presents numerous problems, because it alienates the so-called "Reagan Democrats" and, more recently, "Bush Democrats" that have been so critical to GOP success in the past 25 years. They also underestimate just how critical the Moderate Republicans in the Senate are and constantly attack them if they dare waver from the Religious Right's agenda, especially people like Arlen Specter and George Voinovich. The Religious Right ignores traditional Republican positions on fiscal policy and immigration policy as long as they deliver with socially conservative policies. This not only alienates the centrists, but it also alienates the libertarians. The Republican Party is not nearly as strong as many think, it's still on wobbly ground, and the "coming Republican majority" is far from assured. In order to win the states necessary to bring about a conservative agenda around the Great Lakes and in southern New England, the center of the party must become more influential. Only then can they take advantage of the decline of the New Democrats. However, if the Religious Right continues its pressure, the concept of the "coming Republican majority" is dead-in-the-water.

When the centrists of both parties are ignored, the American people are forced into the politics of lesser-evilism. I did not vote for George W. Bush enthusiastically; I voted for him because I perceived him to be the lesser-evil of two evils. I can't say that I know that many people who voted for either candidate enthusiastically. Of course, there's a slew of enthusiastic partisans in activist circles, but they are not representative of the country. Lesser-evilism alienates voters and creates [more] distrust for the government. Both parties must make an attempt to move back to the center.

The Green Party and the Constitution Party attract the nuts that are outside of the mainstream. Leave them be and reach for the middle.

NOTE: This was basically a rant that I had to get out... I know I didn't post any links, but I thought it should be said regardless.