Politics as usual

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France – No one can pinpoint exactly where it began, but sometime in the last quarter-century, a culture of scorched-earth politics was born that scourged our country. Mudslinging has become more important than policy, and culture wars stole civility from public discourse. As a Democrat, I unsurprisingly blame Republicans for the wrestling match, just as I’m sure they blame Democrats. \nI know, I know. Such as it is; such as it has ever been. It’s just politics as usual.\nPerhaps though, our shrugging tolerance has reached a breaking point. The gridlock in our government has degraded to a point somewhere between laughable and revolting, while pundits seem gleeful at the prospect of more enemies and battles to fight. Displeasure with the fearless leader’s job performance is only rivaled by displeasure with the democratic Congress.\nDon’t think this disgust with politics as usual is limited to the United States. Here in France, people are about as enthusiastic about the two major-party candidates as they are about eating Velveeta.\nYet instead of showing more indifference, a number of agitated citizens have had enough. In America, Barack Obama’s emerging policy directives may not be particularly revolutionary, but he practices a revolution in style that promises a country of reconciliation rather than constant backbiting. His credentials are definitively on the liberal democratic side, but he has no qualms about working with Republicans to achieve the ends of the moderate majority of population. People who knock his meteoric ascendancy don’t realize that his appeal would be nonexistent if not for the forgotten middle, which has been shunned in favor of pandering to special interests and fringe groups.\nSome in the middle have gone even further than Obama, renouncing the de facto two-party system entirely. The Unity08 party, for example, built a coalition of moderate Democrats and Republicans who reject that either party stands for the majority of Americans. Similarly, in France, Francois Bayrou has taken his center-right UDF party and transformed it into an outlet for moderate dissatisfaction with either major candidate. \nI’ll be honest, I am wary of such developments as another excuse for political fence-sitting. In times of moral crisis, the last thing we need is a committee consensus. Nonetheless, I think it has become increasingly clear that unless voters in the moderate-center unseat the existing power structure, we can expect gridlock to continue.\nWe can’t agree on many issues, so let’s stick to the ones we can agree on. How about fixing an inefficient overpriced health care system or seriously considering the ticking time bomb of Social Security? Instead of leading us to turn away from politics, our frustration should turn us back toward it, to make politicians act on the issues we care about.\nFolks derisive of such centrism often cite the line: “the center cannot hold.” They forget that in the Yeats’ “The Second Coming,” the center’s collapse plunges us into apocalyptic terror. I am not wild about mere anarchy loosed upon the world. I’ll take an active, vital center, even if it does mean some politics as unusual.