Politics

‘Irritable Centrism’

A suburban core weary of extremes changes American politics.

Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 4, 2007 | Updated: 9:14  a.m. ET Dec 4, 2007

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  • Posted By: votenic @ 12/12/2007 4:19:48 PM

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  • Posted By: votenic @ 12/11/2007 5:04:11 PM

    2008 Presidential Election Weekly Poll

    http://www.votenic.com

    The Only Poll That Matters
    Results Posted Every Tuesday Evening.

  • Posted By: ghostcommander @ 12/04/2007 2:22:01 PM

    Bush/Cheney and the neo-cons have destroyed the traditional Republican party and have moved themselves completely off the page of politics into Fascism with their totalitarianism, corruption, incompetence, manipulation, domination, and control. They adopted the "Big Lie" of Joseph Goebbels--the Nazi propaganda minister of Hitler's third reich and turned it into a steady drumbeat to make America accept it as the "new truth"

    • Posted By: RealisticOne @ 12/10/2007 9:42:29 PM

      Couldn't have said it any better.
      I'm just confused of how they are still getting away with it. I thought for sure the Democrats would be jumping on the bandwagon to prosecute the criminals we now have in office, but I guess both sides are guilty and the American public will be paying a long time for this.

      Oh, concerning another topic, immigration, look and learn from our northern neighbors in Canada. In order to excel in any gov't. position, they must be bilingual. Give it 25 years or so without immigration control, the religious right will have won, some guy named Jesus will be running our country along with all of his buddies. Better start brushing up on your spanish, it's coming! (Press 9 for English)

  • Posted By: misterharban @ 12/05/2007 8:29:41 PM

    "Nothing great was every accomplished without great passion." -- What a crock. Surely our planet was formed by many cataclysmic, passionate events. But the magic in the place we live was created by countless passionless drops of rain and infinite grains of sand slowly shaping the results of those passionate events into something with form and meaning. Similarly, for all of the passion which may be a part of so called great human accomplishments, many of the greatest advances were less a result of passion than patience, persistence and hard work. Many great things have been the result of people who have the grit to continue when the passion is gone. Recent revelations of Mother Teresa???s struggles to continue when her faith failed her are instructive. Revolutionaries will always take credit for great changes. When great changes have resulted from the revolutions of the passionate, adequate credit is never given to the quiet passionless people who merely go out and clear the streets of loose cobbles so that traffic may pass. The passionate never seem to hang around to clean up their messes. Unfortunately, the job is not done, the accompli is not fait, until the mess is cleaned up and the tools are put away. Passion is great. It is a crock, though, when practiced by politicians and other fools who fail to respect and understand the efforts of the passionate proels who do the real work.

    • Posted By: rp8 @ 12/10/2007 5:56:32 PM

      Mr. Harban,

      This is some beautiful writing! I can't imagine that you don't have an optimistic vision of the future. I think people cannot live without optimism. Thank you!

  • Posted By: rp8 @ 12/10/2007 5:48:24 PM

    Interesting stuff! I think you draw the centerline a LITTLE too far to the right, because it's a fact that the status quo in Washington is NOT interested in the economic survival of Americans, and when they recognize this, Republicans are gonna lose big. However, Americans should always have known, deep in their hearts, that their affluence was unsustainable. It's common sense, and the 1200 square foot house I grew up in should never have given way to the average 2500-4000 square foot house that you see today. And the 1200 square foot house, paid off in 20 years, thank you very much.

    I think Democrats really lost when they embraced political correctness, which is irritating to the left as well. After all, aren't Family Guy, the Daily Show, and South Park politically incorrect AND deeply critical of the Administration? Now that the Right has imposed its own form of political correctness, it's gonna get dropped by another generation of Americans too proud to be told what to think. Lesson to politicians, don't try to manipulate the American people.

  • Posted By: votenic @ 12/08/2007 9:17:40 PM

    2008 Presidential Election Weekly Poll

  • Posted By: RWaters @ 12/08/2007 4:52:44 PM

    Ghostcommenter at 2:21 pm on 12/4/07 is exactly what this author is talking about. An insult to the intelligence of most Americans, this kind of thing just makes me run as fast as I can to the other side. Comments like that persuade no one. They preech to their own dimented choir while the rest of us who are more reasoned, centrist and thoughtful in our evaluations of our leaders just become more irritated at their "useful idiocy"

  • Posted By: RWaters @ 12/08/2007 4:47:24 PM

    Count me in as a card-carrying "irritable centrist." I live in that area of Colorado the author spoke of, however, my irritation has been in the other direction recently. The basic premise is still the same. I don't like either of the fringes trying to impose on me and when they do, I usually run a little to the other side. I've leaned right during the Bush Admin. even though I voted for Gore in 2000 because I've been "irritated" by the insults to my intelligence from the vocal left. But, at the same time, I leaned left during the Clinton Administration partially because I couldn't stand the antagonism of Gingrich and the Republican opposition in Congress during Clinton (Much like the unlikeability of the current Democratic Congressional opposition).

    You see the most vocal of people tend to be solidly on one side or the other while those of us in the middle just get more and more tired of our intelligence being insulted by people who form their opinions out of straight political loyalty and emotionally-based rhetoric rather than a reasoned evaluation of the issues and a respect for the facts.

  • Posted By: lycius @ 12/08/2007 12:15:05 PM

    I absolutely agree. Growing up in Wheaton, IL, famed for the Christian Wheaton College, and a suburb of Chicago, it has historically been Republican. But, the people here are not angry, social conservatives that want to burn leftists at the stake. They only desire a stable income, a safe community, and above all, a quality environment to raise their children.

  • Posted By: misterharban @ 12/05/2007 8:47:57 PM

    I know, "prole" -- Bad fingers, weak mind, whatever :-)

  • Posted By: misterharban @ 12/05/2007 8:34:37 PM

    Sorry for the correction in my previous post. "passionate proels" should read "passionless proels"

  • Posted By: Kaelinda @ 12/05/2007 6:39:26 PM

    I, too, am an "irritable centrist." I'm happy deciding moral issues all by myself - well, perhaps with a little bit of help from a few good friends. I want a government that doesn't spend all our money on any one thing, whether it's war or welfare, and I want a government dedicated to the proposition that all men (and women) are created equal, and I want a government determined to decrease its gargantuan size and control over American lives.

  • Posted By: fishfood @ 12/05/2007 2:07:05 PM

    This is one of the reason why nothing changes, or things happen so slowly. People aren't ready to face an issue! We can't take everything little, by little or step by step. You can't be efficient when you do things with moderation or always aid on the side of caution. Nothing great was every accomplished without great passion.

  • Posted By: uuforyou @ 12/05/2007 7:38:00 AM

    Moderation in all things. Drinking, eating,spending, politics or religion. The center is the place to be!

  • Posted By: rwalter13 @ 12/05/2007 7:34:00 AM

    I think if this guy is right, we're all in trouble. To even hint that this is acceptable political ground is stupid. Being irritable is now an acceptable political stance? Sure, let's not decide thing on merit, but overreact and trounce any idea we aren't ready to look at. I get more worried about my fellow Americans, every day.

  • Posted By: rwalter13 @ 12/05/2007 7:30:59 AM

    I think if this guy is right, we're all in trouble. To even hint that this is acceptable political ground is stupid. Being irritable is now an acceptable political stance? Sure, let's not decide thing on merit, but overreact and trounce any idea we aren't ready to look at. I get more worried about my fellow Americans, every day.

  • Posted By: rwalter13 @ 12/05/2007 7:30:56 AM

    I think if this guy is right, we're all in trouble. To even hint that this is acceptable political ground is stupid. Being irritable is now an acceptable political stance? Sure, let's not decide thing on merit, but overreact and trounce any idea we aren't ready to look at. I get more worried about my fellow Americans, every day.

  • Posted By: rwalter13 @ 12/05/2007 7:30:03 AM

    I think if this guy is right, we're all in trouble. To even hint that this is acceptable political ground is stupid. Being irritable is now an acceptable political stance? Sure, let's not decide thing on merit, but overreact and trounce any idea we aren't ready to look at. I get more worried about my fellow Americans, every day.

  • Posted By: will4222 @ 12/04/2007 10:36:25 AM

    Alan,
    Thank you for capturing the essence of what I have been experiencing. As a republican who voted twice against George Bush, I wonder if the Republican Party will ever understand. The Republican Party, that I used to financially support, was based on fiscal responsibility and less federal government intervention in state matter. All I see them reacting to now are narrow moral issues that I prefer to muddle through on my own.
    I have been around for 60+ years and I do not need politicians telling me what is right or wrong. I need leaders that understand the economics of the world and America???s place in that world and is not afraid to stand up to the left and the right to get us moving in the right direction again.
    WFG - Orlando Florida

  • Posted By: dewcooper @ 12/04/2007 11:53:36 AM

    The author, as with most media idiots first assumes that he knows 'how most Americans feel\think'. Nobody knows how most Americans feel or what they think, because nobody asks most Americans. They simple conduct polls with loaded questions or targetted demographics, and report the stats that support their view, much in the way the author has presented his, linking his views to 'most of America'.

    The author also makes the assumption that ALL voters simply vote party lines and must not be smart enough to pick a candidate regardless of party. Democrats may have won, not because of party idealogy, but because of the effectiveness of their campaign (maybe they even ran unoppossed) or the ineffectiveness of their opponent. Maybe they were elected based upon character and not voter party conviction? Parish that thought.

    • Posted By: Skinar @ 12/04/2007 4:05:03 PM

      Media idiots? It appears to this 'centrist' that you have made the author's point quite well. Once I read the line I quoted from you I was immediately deaf to the rest of your post.

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