The voters are now driving the candidates toward the Moderate
Middle. It is one of the perennial magic magnetic movements of
American politics. The candidates will henceforth spurn the extreme
blocs and appeal to the vast majority of citizens who dwell in the
great hump of the fabled "bell curve."
Listen to two Democratic Party professionals who worked for the
Clinton White House, one now in the Obama camp and one in
Hillary's. In separate conversations before Super Tuesday they
confided privately to a physician-fundraiser, a member of the
original "Friends of Bill" when they were students at Georgetown
University, that if the GOP nominates John McCain, neither Obama
nor Hillary-Bill can prevail. That is because they see McCain
sweeping in the independents and the Moderate Middle whose wings
take in both parties' less partisan voters.
It is a movement as old as human history, dating as far back as
the time of Moses in the Old Testament, and possibly much further,
into the evolutionary roots of our primate ancestors.
In Numbers, the fourth "Book of Moses," the boss's top assistant
Joshua was disturbed that Eldad and Medad were doing a little
free-lance preaching in the camp. So Joshua ran and complained:
"Moses my Lord, forbid them!" But Moses told Joshua to cool it:
"Don't be so zealous for my sake," said Moses. They ain't
hurtin' nobody. Let a thousand flowers bloom. Moses was a Moderate,
obviously, and Joshua was a Rigid Rightist, a Taliban-type
rule-or-ruin fellow, just like Rush Limbaugh. Joshua just could not
stand dissent.
Nevertheless, Joshua became boss when Moses died, and his book
is one of the bloodiest in the Bible. It details Joshua's campaign
of genocide, in which he annihilated not only the men but also the
women and children that occupied the Land of Canaan. Mention the
book of Joshua to a modern liberal Jew and it still brings a wince
of disapproval.
Vladimir Putin uttered a great truth about the human species
after ten or a dozen terrorists in1974 seized Beslan school on
opening day and blew it up, killing themselves and 334 civilians,
including 186 children, and wounding hundreds more. Putin recoiled
in horror, and blurted: "Who could want to live under a government
run by such people?"
The Iraqi war turned around, reviving John McCain's candidacy,
because the moderate Islamic-Sunni tribal leaders fighting American
occupiers saw the Al Qaeda-in-Iraq terrorists send even
mentally-ill women and 13-year-olds as suicide bombers to blow
themselves up in their public marketplaces. They decided to join
the Americans as allies against the extremists.
In 1994 Virginia's Republicans opted for the rigid rightist
Ollie North instead of moderate Marshall Coleman, who ran as an
independent and won endorsement of the state's senior Republican,
Sen. John Warner. Result: North lost to Democratic Sen. Charles
Robb, wounded by a sex scandal, and today Virginia has a Democratic
governor and legislature; and Baby, it's cold outside!
Now Limbaugh says he'd rather see the Democrats in the White
House, President Hillary or Obama, than moderate Republican McCain.
And he has plenty of company among conservatives. But a Democrat in
the White House, with a Democratic Congress, would mean a liberal
Supreme Court majority for another generation, higher taxes, an
extension of the "death tax," and throwing Iraqi moderates to the
Islamist gorillas.
Speaking of animals, we should take a lesson from the way other
primates behave toward their leaders. Since 1960, Jane Goodall and
other scientists have observed chimpanzees, gorillas, and other
groups and shattered our view of "the noble savage." When the
chimpanzee troop retires a benevolent leader, it does so peacefully
and allows him to occupy a place of honor, like former Presidents
Eisenhower, Ford, Carter, and Bush I.
But when a rigid totalitarian dictator who rules with an iron
hand, like Joshua, is overthrown, "it is never pretty," says Emory
University primatologist Franz de Waal, author of Our Inner
Ape. Think of Mussolini hanging by his heels and Tojo by his
neck; Hitler with the burning Berlin falling around his ears;
Ceausescu executed by a firing squad along with his wife Helena;
the Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic's genocides in Croatia and
Kosovo and death in prison while on trial in The Hague.
So will the Republican right follow Rigid Rush into the cold
outside, or swallow Moderate McCain, who promises conservative
nominees like Justice Antonin Scalia for the Supreme Court and has
offered a pledge to veto a tax increase? I believe so few
conservatives will join Limbaugh and sit on their hands come
Election Day that voters will make McCain the next president. Mitt
Romney obviously agreed when he withdrew. Remember Truman and the
Dixiecrats in 1948. But beware. Nobody could tell you last week who
would prevail on Super Tuesday, but all pundits can now explain its
results. Foresight is wobbly, but hindsight is perfect.
topics:
Taxes, John McCain, Vladimir Putin, Islam, Supreme Court, Iraq, Oil
