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To: Common Tator
I am sure those politicians all said what you say they said but the real numbers, I am sure, are quite different. They are more like 17% Democrats, 16% Republicans, 15% undecided and 52% who say, "A pox on both your houses." The 52% who realize that voting is a futile exercise.

This fall, 435 House seats "up for grabs," but only 11 seats are subject to an open election. The other 424 have so solidly locked up their seats that they are shoo-ins no matter how the people vote.

In 1965, two kneejerk liberals, one Democrat and one Republican were vying for Mayor of NYC. The center was somewhere between those two kneejerks. Bill Buckley entered the race because, he said, valid viewpoints were not being considered--he wanted to open the discussion--to move the argument from outside the left foul line to someplace on the field. That is also the reason he started National Review magazine.

Over the 50 years that you have catalogued, the center has shifted back and forth. Nixon said, "We are all Keynesians now," which Eisenhower wouldn't have understood. Under Dubya, government spending and government size are growing much faster than they did under Bubba, and the Constitution is being trashed at a rate unseen since FDR--the center has shifted remarkably even though your piddly numbers probably stayed the same.




29 posted on 06/21/2002 12:01:32 PM PDT by edger
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To: edger
Over the 50 years that you have catalogued, the center has shifted back and forth. Nixon said

Of course it has. That is what the contest is all about. I did not argue that the center never changes, I argued the left and right fight over it. He who wins the center wins. Both parties have won the center and both parties have lost the center. It is always up for grabs. And both parties have grabbed it.

But your statemnet that Ike was more conservative than Nixon is funnny. At the 1952 Republican Convention Everett Dirkson the Ill. Senator nominated Robert A. Taft for the presidency. In that nomination speech Dirkson accused Ike of being a Republican in name only. IKE was indeed a RINO and Everett in stentorian tones called him one.

Just a year before, in 1951, Harry Truman had offered Ike his support for the Democratic Nomination for President. Both Harry and Roosevelt had believed Ike was a Democrat. I wonder what Ike ever said that gave them that idea? Ike was Harrys first choice for the 1952 Democratic nomination for president. Ike turned him down. That is the reason for the hate looks Harry gave Ike at the inauguration in 1953 and why Harry told the media about Ikes English girl friend.

Ike was about as conservative as Jim Jeffords and Nelson Rockefeller. But the Pubies needed the center and the Demorats had had it since 1932. There was no way Barry Goldwater's hero Robert A Taft could win. So the pubies went for a center pleasing RINO. And the RINO went for the center and got it.

Oh by the way, did you know that WILIAM F. BUCKEY in his August 1980 edtion of national review trashed Reagan for going too far to appeal to the center?

William F. Buckley. Did you ever notice that little men who can't impress you with their thoughts, often try to impress you with big words.


30 posted on 06/21/2002 6:21:53 PM PDT by Common Tator
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