The center in mutiny
As a long-time champion of the preeminence of the political center in U.S. presidential elections, I am wondering aloud what is the mood of most voters in the 2016 cycle.
In the recent past, we have had the “radical” center, the “moderate” center, the “silent” center, and even the “populist” center. None of these epithets seems to fit in the current cycle, although there are radical elements, moderate impulses, silent voters and populist trends visible in the campaign so far.
These tendencies might exist, but they do not seem to be the primary quality of the majoritarian center of the American electorate today.
The term “angry” has already been applied to the more leftist and rightist elements of both parties, but I think that the so-called establishments of each major party have missed the essential reality that it is primarily the center of the American electorate, which is most importantly “angry” about politics “as usual.”
What’s so critical about this observation is that it is usually the political center of the electorate, and of both parties, which normally counterbalances the “anger” of the left and the right, and eventually produces candidates with broader appeal than just the party bases—that is, candidates who have some appeal to the growing number of so-called independent voters—the voters who usually decide who wins the presidency.
The crisis for each party is that their major candidates so far do not seem to understand the true nature of voter “anger” in 2016.
