The Moderate Majority

It is only common sense to recognize that the great bulk of Americans, whether Republican or Democrat, face many common problems and agree on a number of basic objectives.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower

The majority of the American people believes broadly in the same political principles, but what Colin Powell has called "the sensible center" is still divided down the middle between the two parties. Former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura was not incorrect when he estimated that "you have the far left at 15 percent, you have the far right at 15 percent, and there's 70 percent of us in the center."

People who define themselves as liberal Republicans or conservative Democrats essentially support the same policy positions on major issues. But the will of the majority of the American public is divided, and thus diluted, as more partisan voices devote themselves to the maintenance of their party's apparatus. As a result, partisan political professionals have more than their share of influence over the selection of their party's candidates and platform despite the fact that they are out of touch with mainstream American opinion.

Centrism is not an abstract or academic concept. It is a commonsense balance between idealism and realism intuitively understood by most Americans. With 50 percent of the electorate defining itself as moderate, chances are you are a Centrist.

If, for example, you describe yourself as fiscally conservative but liberal on social issues, you are a Centrist. You are uncomfortable associating yourself with the extreme wings of either political party. You may consider the liberal left wing of the Democratic Party naive and irresponsible, supporting out-of-control entitlement programs, and diminishing personal responsibility by encouraging politically correct bureaucracies. On the other hand, the exclusionary attitudes, big-business bias, and rigid-right-wing social agenda advocated by some conservatives may make you reluctant to call yourself a Republican.

You are too liberal to be a conservative, but too conservative to be a liberal. You are a Centrist.

Centrists reject the "two-party, two-policy" straitjacket that is too frequently applied to every foreign and domestic problem. The third way between the two extremes is usually the most reasonable and practical course of action. It is certainly the most popular—66 percent of American voters "favor solutions that come from the political center," rather than the political right (13%) or left (8%). Examples of the Centrist position versus the political positions of the left and the right are given below.

The traditional choice between "Brand A" and "Brand B" of partisan political positions in a two-party system is false. There is an alternative to rigid adherence to the scriptures of the left and right. Centrism is rooted in the individual conscience and bridged by common sense; it is free to borrow the best ideas from the two parties without being weighted down by obligations to the special interests that inevitably form the base of any partisan political organization.

There is in fact a growing consensus on supposedly controversial issues that frequently are used by extremists on either side of the political aisle to divide political parties and the American public.

Pro-Choice: Sixty-four percent of Americans agree that the decision to have an abortion should be between "a woman, her doctor, her family, her conscience and her God" (Luntz Research Companies, August 2003). As the Gallup Organization explains on their website, reflecting on decades of data: "In part because Americans support the idea of individual choice, they do not want to ban abortion." A CBS News/New York Times question asked in 1982 and again in 1998 shows even larger majorities (68 and 76 percent, respectively) opposed to an amendment to the Constitution that would make all abortions illegal. Moreover, only 19 percent of Americans think that abortions should be illegal in all circumstances, a number that has held steady since the passage of Roe v. Wade (Gallup/Newsweek Historical Poll available at gallup.com). This is an overwhelming popular rejection of the Republican Party platform's perpetual call for a constitutional ban on abortion.

Pro-Environment: Seventy-five percent of Americans favor stronger enforcement of environmental regulations, including higher emission and pollution standards for business and industry (Gallup Poll, March 2003), while only 10 percent believe that government is doing "too much" in terms of protecting the environment (Gallup Poll, April 2000). The vast majority of the American people believe that environmental protection is an important basic responsibility of government that should be reasonably built upon, not cut back.

Balanced Budget: Sixty-seven percent of Americans believe that the fact that the United States will have federal budget deficits for the foreseeable future is either "a crisis" or "a major problem" (Gallup/CNN/USA Today Poll, January 2003). Seventy percent of Americans prefer a balanced budget to more tax cuts (CBS News Poll, February 2002), and 53 percent would give up their tax cuts to balance the budget (CBS News Poll, February 2002). Sixty-three percent of Americans believe that we "should work to maintain a balanced budget consistent with our values" (Penn & Schoen, July 1998).

Reasonable Gun Control: Sixty-nine percent of Americans agreed with the statement "I believe in the right to bear arms, but I am willing to put up with a registration or waiting period" (Newsweek Poll/Princeton Survey Research, September 1995). In 2003, this same question was polled again with precisely the same results, showing that 69 percent of Americans continue to agree with this sensibly Centrist position (Luntz Research Companies, August 2003). In a Gallup Poll conducted in October 2000, 59 percent of respondents favored a law making it illegal to own semiautomatic weapons.

School Prayer: Sixty-nine percent of Americans agree with the statement "I have no problem with a quiet moment, but I'm against any stricture that says 'You will pray.'" (Newsweek Poll/Princeton Survey Research, September 1995). This poll was updated eight years later by the Luntz Research Companies (August 2003), again showing similar results: Sixty-three percent of Americans continue to agree that a quiet moment should be permissible, but reject the idea of mandatory prayer in public. In addition, an overwhelming 84 percent of Americans opposed the contested federal court ruling that the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional (Gallup Poll, June 2002). Americans don't want religion imposed upon them or unreasonably forced out of the public realm by activist lawsuits.

Campaign Finance Reform: Seventy-three percent of Americans support stricter laws controlling the way political campaigns can raise and spend money (ABC News/Washington Post Poll, March 2001). Seventy-two percent favor a ban on "soft money" (CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, October 2000). Most significant, even after the long-blocked passage of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation, 72 percent favor passing additional campaign finance laws (Gallup/CNN/USA Today Poll, February 2002). The vast majority of Americans continue to want to limit the influence of big money on our democracy.

Tax Simplification: Sixty-six percent of Americans believe the federal tax system is too complicated (Associated Press Poll, March 1999). Seventy-eight percent of Americans believe that a maximum of 30 percent of a person's annual income should go to taxes (Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll, January 2003), while 60 percent of all Americans across party lines believe that everybody should pay income taxes on the same percentage of their income over a minimum level (Harris Poll, March, 1999).

Bilingual Education Reform: Sixty-three percent of Americans support English-intensive immersion programs over bilingual education programs that teach students in their native language (Gallup Poll, May 1998). A Zogby poll conducted in October-November 2000 shows an overwhelming 77 percent support for immersion nationwide. Most significant, 76 percent of all Latinos and 79 percent of Spanish-speaking immigrants support immersion (Zogby International, May 2001). Immigrants and all Americans recognize the basic need for a common currency of communication.

Tort Reform: Seventy-four percent of Americans think that the issue of medical malpractice insurance in health care today is a major problem or crisis (Gallup Poll, January 2003). Fifty-seven percent believe patients initiate too many lawsuits (Gallup Poll, January 2003). Spiraling insurance costs combined with a cumulative impact of decades of news stories about frivolous lawsuits and multimillion-dollar damage decisions and settlements make it likely that some reasonable cap on damages will become increasingly identified with the common good.

These are positions supported by a clear majority of the American public, but neither political party even attempts to bring this balance of policy positions together. As Harvard political scientist David C. King explains, "Both political parties have been growing more extreme . . . they are increasingly distant in their policies from what the average voter would like." Neither party entirely represents the interests of these voters, in part because they still are influenced by the ideological relics of the Industrial Age. In contrast, Centrism is attuned to the realities of voters in the Information Age.

Centrism is not merely about finding a middle ground between any two opposing ideas or issues. Centrism is about cutting a decisive and consistent path through the partisan politics that artificially divide policies and the American public.

For example, it is far more philosophically consistent to support school choice and be pro-choice on the issue of abortion if you believe in maximizing individual freedom of choice. But neither political party attempts to bridge these policies; it is considered political heresy. What's stopping them is the influence of special interests that drives the parties off center. As the founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, Al From, once despairingly said, reflecting on the Democrats' inability to embrace education reform, "We had become the party of teachers, when we should have been the party of education."

The center of the American electorate is fiscally responsible and socially inclusive. The center is pro-choice and pro-environment, and believes in being tough on crime and pursuing balanced budgets while reducing the influence of big money on politics. It opposes absolutist stands on school prayer and gun control, instead seeking a reasonable middle ground that addresses realistic concerns without unduly sacrificing individual freedom. This distrust of extremes is a codification of what George Will called "the most important four words in politics . . . 'up to a point.'"

"Moderation and tolerance—an appreciation of the modest virtues—are the bedrock moral principles of the American middle class," wrote sociologist Alan Wolfe in his study One Nation, After All. "On most controversial issues, Americans instinctively try to find the centrist position between two extremes and attempt to carve out private spaces in which people can do what they want so long as others do what they want."

When we look for the original principles that support these positions, we find the faces of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln staring back at us. The common ground of the Centrist consensus appears to be based on the oldest of American formulations: Thomas Jefferson's motto of "equal opportunity for all; special privilege for none." When considering what consensus can be formulated for the proper role of government, few articulations do better than Lincoln's famous dictum: "The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves—in their separate, and individual capacities. In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere."

In typical Centrist fashion, the American public wants to believe in a party of both Jefferson and Lincoln, one that is motivated above all by a sense of generational responsibility. Unless the two major parties are irretrievably hijacked by their most extreme elements and a stable Centrist third party emerges, we will have to depend on Centrist political leaders, who combine the best elements of both parties and, through their willingness to move free of special interests and apart from partisan politics, remind us that America is an independent nation.

*End notes have been omitted

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Excerpted from Independent Nation by John P. Avlon Copyright© 2004 by John P. Avlon. Excerpted by permission of Harmony, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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