Nonsense. The "moderate middle" is a creation of the inside-the-beltway punditry aided and abetted by the dinosaur media. The voting public is near evenly split left and right. What wins elections is turnout, i.e. motivating the base.
I strongly disagree - the people at the polar extremes are in the minority. Most people hover somewhere in between. There are many people who are strong fiscal conservatives - but are for gun control or are environmentalists. There are many other people who are strong social liberals - but who are opposed to gun control or are anti-abortion.
You can't neatly package everyone into two convenient pigeonholes. Fifty different Americans are likely to have fifty different opinions. We are not two monoliothic blocs.
That is just not exactly true....
We have a 50/50 approximation between liberal and conservative leaning voters...
All participants are absolutely required to be on board for any side, either liberal or conservative to win.
If you successfully split off any segment, either the right, middle or left wings of the party faithful, YOU LOSE!
The way this election is shaping up, the PO'd and upset middle and left wing of the party has decided to stand it's ground, as the right wing, who have never accepted them and have continued to trash them unmercifully for the past two to three years.
As a result, candidates find themselves moving to the center to capture this voter base while the far right continues to distance it's self from the rest of the party and it's President.
Now you see the split in Congress, and it will get much worse before it ever gets better.
The only way to get these groups back on the same page, is for both sides to achieve a compromise, and I don't believe the right wing is willing at all to compromise in any way, shape or form. I thing the middle is willing but it takes two to tango.
And that is that........as we move into a very important election cycle...