That’s the case Public Policy Polling is attempting to make with their latest report. You can read it at their site. It’s interesting reading, although the question begged to be asked is what constitutes being a “moderate” these days? Ideological labels get carelessly tossed around all the time and I don’t know that one person’s definition of conservative, liberal, or moderate automatically match the view of another.
For instance, we hear those on the left constantly refer to Bush’s failures as disastrous “conservative” policies and that seems to be the position many lefties put him in, but I would hardly consider George Bush to be a conservative. Sure, on social issues there is little doubt he is staunchly conservative, but there is just as little evidence of that elsewhere. He took 200 years of national debt and more than doubled it in eight, hardly the profile of a fiscal conservative. He did cut taxes, however, which is a conservative position. On the other hand, he orchestrated both the Wall Street and auto bailouts and partially nationalized our banking system which is jumping straight into Socialism with both feet. He supported amnesty for illegal aliens, increased the nation’s long term Medicare committment, strengthened the Federal government’s role in education with No Child Left Behind, created the Department of Homeland Security and was behind the biggest expansion of Federal government in American history. Yet, despite all of this, Bush is labeled a conservative without a second thought. If anything Bush is a left leaning centrist whom Democrats should be fairly happy with and I’m willing to bet that if Bush had been a Democrat we’d have barely heard a peep out of most of the people doing the bitching.
Let’s also look at Bill Clinton, the bane of conservatives and possibly the most hated Democrat President by the right in the 20th century. Republicans just as easily throw a liberal label on Clinton as the Dems do with Bush and conservatism, but just how liberal was Bill Clinton? Think about it. He signed off on NAFTA. He cut the Capital Gains Tax. He signed off on welfare reform. He worked with a Republican Congress to submit a balanced budget. He signed off on the line item veto, even though it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (Nice going, Rudy Giuliani. Yes, I am being sarcastic). Does this sound like the administration of a full fledged liberal?
Neither Bush nor Clinton really fit the profile the public has given them, so how did they earn it? It really comes down to party label. Most people hear Republican they think conservative. Most people hear Democrat they think liberal. Many times that’s not the case. I am an economic conservative, but a left leaning moderate on social issues. What does that make me? In my opinion, I am the true “moderate, ” but could I get elected running for statewide office in North Carolina?
Would North Carolina elect a man who is for cutting spending, eliminating most Federal programs, eliminating foreign aid, doing away with the Dept of Education, the Dept of Transportation, FEMA, massively cutting the income tax, supportive of school choice, scaling back military spending, turning away from the Monroe Doctrine, pro-life but for leaving regulation to the individual states, supportive of legalizing drugs, lowering the drinking age to 18, recognizing flag burning as protected speech, and opposed to a Federal marriage amendment? That seems like a moderate agenda to me, a mixture of issues on both sides of the aisle, but when I think of the demographics of North Carolina, I can’t imagine a lot of that would fly with a voting base that is still conservative leaning.
Furthermore, how do we explain the continued reelection of former Senator Jesse Helms and the election of John Edwards, a far right Senator and a far left Senator? What about Pat McCrory? He is considered in political circles to be a moderate and had it not been for the Obama effect he would most certainly have won the governor’s race, but he ran as a conservative, not a moderate. McCrory’s platform was to get tough on crime, control spending, and appropriately allocate the state’s resources regarding infrastructure, ending the current corrupt processes involved in the DOT.
I don’t think PPP analysis is as cut and dry as they make it sound. I still believe that North Carolina, barring unusual circumstances as seen in this past election, would elect someone with the traditional American values of low taxation, less government, balancing cultural conservatism as to not over do it, and overall just getting out of our way.
