The Middle of the Road Where the Road is Supposed To Be

Posted by Bob Lord

I’ve said this before — I bristle at empty platitudes. One we hear all the time is how our discourse is too polarized and how we need politicians to move to the center, with the clear implication that splitting the difference between the two “poles” is definitively the place to be. And, so, over the past three decades, as the entire spectrum on economic issues moved further and further right, with the perceived center moving right along, what used to be considered “fringe” right became center. Because center is presumptively the ideal place to be, as the spectrum moves over time, wacko becomes eminently sane.

And sane becomes wacko. Check out this link to a short piece in yesterday’s Guardian (it‘s a quick read): 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/26/earth-population-consumption-disasters

In Europe, the spectrum sits considerably left of where the American spectrum currently sits.. Consequently, what at one time may have been the middle of the road, and currently is center left in Europe, is extreme or “wacko” left here. Without a doubt, the piece in yesterday’s Guardian, discussing what should be considered an entirely rational view about population control and curbing excess consumption, would not see daylight here. Anyone in the U.S. adopting such a view would be considered loony. Think about that. World population is on a path that in no way is sustainable. If no preventative action is taken, some population busting event — war, pestilence, mass famine — is unavoidable. Yet a discussion of the need to distribute contraceptives on a large scale in certain parts of the world is a non-starter here. So, what’s so special about being in the political center.

I conservative friend of mine used to joke how he was in the middle of the road where the road is supposed to be. I never agreed with his self-description. To me, he usually was somewhere in a ditch a couple hundred yards of where the right edge of the road was supposed to be. But his implicit argument and the expression he used to express it were spot on. Being in the middle of the road (i.e., the political center), has no inherent value. At one time, people in the middle of the road believed blacks shouldn’t be allowed to marry whites. People in the middle of the road just a few years ago thought gays shouldn’t serve openly in the military.

So, if you ever feel compelled to move to the center, don’t succumb to the pressure of an empty platitude. Figure out where the road is supposed to be, and stand right in the middle.