Who Started The Extremist Policies In Our Political Parties

March 19, 2008

The Facts

As I have said before in many of my post, we now have four political parties instead of two, not counting the Independent Party and others. There are the moderate Republicans & moderate Democrats, and then there are the extremist Republicans & extremist Democrats. Unfortunately for our country, the extremist are in control, and the moderates are being forced to go along. The question is who started these extremist moves to the far right and far left.

My View

If asked by way of a poll, I am sure that both of these extremist groups would deny being extremist. But just take a look at what happened to moderate Republican John McCain. The extremist Republicans started attacking him even before he had officially won the nomination for Republican President. McCain had to change his position on the Iraq war, immigration, and several other points where he had disagreed with the Bush administration. Can you imagine what they would have done to Mike Huckabee had he won the nomination? Then there are the Democrats. Although the extremist in this party doesn’t seem to be as vocal and outspoken about their moderate allies as their counterparts are, the same situation still exists. We have the Clintons who are the bell ringers on the far left, Obama somewhat just out of arms reach of the bell, then those like John Edwards that are truly moderate Democrats. These two extremes, maybe even radical, do exist in both parties whether they admit it or not. Those that would admit it most likely would point to “that other party”, and then justify their movement as a defensive move. So how did we get in this mess?

Elaine S. Povich, a freelance reporter, wrote an article for the AARP Bulletin that sheds some light on this. In reference to the gridlock in Washington she points to party polarization; “Perhaps most important, the parties are pretty polarized. Even if you do have a member who has a desire to build bipartisan coalitions, it’s very hard to do if there’s no one in the middle.” Povich points out that this polarization can be traced back to the 1980′s presidency of Ronald Reagan and his big tug of war with Congress. She says Reagan moved the Republican Party to the right, shunning liberal or even moderate Republicans. Democrats, moving in the opposite direction, became more liberal and squeezed out moderates and conservatives. She also points to 1990′s Republican House leaders such as Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who was very conservative and gave no quarter to those who disagreed with them, even in their own party. “They took hard-line positions and refused to compromise”. Finally, Povich says the Democrats were so crushed in the 1990′s under a Republican Congress that they moved to the left.

In the same AARP article, Emory University professor Merle Black, an expert on politics and elections is quoted as saying “There is now a ferocious power struggle between very conservative Republicans and very liberal Democrats. You don’t get any points for compromising or splitting the difference.”

So where does this leave us; it appears we have Ronald Reagan to think for the extremist radicals in both parties. Can anyone think of any other country that is in turmoil and disarray today due to extremist radicals?

The AARP Bulletin article can be found here.