Chapter 78.1: Middle of the Road

It has begun, as I believed it would. The political parties — or at least the media — in the United States are seeing a shift, not merely away from Republicans but also toward the center. In short, the number of independents is increasing.

Indeed, in the New York Times story I've linked to above is this very interesting paragraph: "Over the same period, the share of the electorate that registers as independent has grown at a faster rate than Republicans or Democrats in 12 states. The rise has been so significant that in states like Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina, nonpartisan voters essentially constitute a third party." (My emphasis)

I've argued with friends who enjoy political debates that the Republican party will undergo a significant shift as moderates wedge themselves away from conservatives. But the Democratic party has seen a shift as well as more centrist Democrats (I count myself as one) find themselves less comfortable with the more left-leaning liberals. To my eyes, that will be the deepest chasm that emerges if there is an Obama administration — especially since it's highly likely to be accompanied by a Democratic majority in both bodies of Congress.

I'll leave it at that for now, but this is a topic I'll return to.

Chapter 72: That's What I've Been Saying...

Finally, there's something I can point to that supports what I've been telling people about John McCain: He's a conservative, not a moderate. He's probably more conservative than President Bush in many areas.

Of course, I could have done the investigative work myself and misleadingly taken credit for espousing this viewpoint -- which is not exactly new, merely not commonly reported. But why bother right now? I'm not voting for him in the upcoming primary. I can wait for the national election if he's the Republican nominee, which I now think is how it'll work out. I've said before that McCain is a noble politician, and I still believe that. I respect this man. I'll have time to do the research.

Anyway, back to my point. The New York Times published the op-ed by Adrian Woolridge that I linked to above and added an "Editorial Observer" opinion piece by Francis X. Clines about the senator and his appeal to South Carolina primary voters.

I wish I had written this paragraph from Woolridge's piece:

There is a reason Republican primary voters are so confused by Mr. McCain. He is a Republican who is disliked by the hard core of his party but loved by many independents and Democrats. He is almost universally regarded as a moderate and a maverick, a combination that independents love and conservatives loathe. The trouble with this widespread understanding of Mr. McCain’s politics is that it is entirely wrong.

He goes on to explain that McCain's squabbles with other conservatives have been primarily to battle for principles he believes are not conservative enough. "He opposed torture because he thought it was a violation of the American tradition of human life and human rights," Woolridge writes. (As a moderate, I agree with him.) McCain's opposition to Bush's tax cuts were because he felt Congress was spending too much (that's a discussion for another time), and he promoted immigration reform "because he thought the 'conservative' alternative (encouraging illegal immigrants to go home) is unworkable economically and dubious morally." Yeah, I can see that, too.

What I like about McCain is that he is intelligent and takes reasoned stands on issues. Democrats could learn a lot from him, and I hope they do. And fast, because I think one of them is going to be running against him for president throughout the summer and into November.

Chapter 63.4: Albatross!

So, President Bush has commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby. I think that tells us that the president knows he has limited power and is in his lame duck period. And this will be one more nail in President Bush's legacy coffin.

The president's decision was praised by conservatives for his decision, and vilified by Democrats. But I'd like to know what other Republicans say about this. What's Arlen Specter's opinion in this matter? He's the former chair of the senate judicial committee, what does he think? I've not read enough stories to determine whether he's been interviewed, but he certainly wasn't the first of the Republicans to advance an opinion.

The president has another albatross around his neck. It's not as big as Iraq or Katrina, but in some ways it's a worse thing to be remembered for; it could be argued that he flouted judicial authority, thumbed his nose at the system. Does he even care anymore?

Chapter 62.4: Conservative Truth?

Ok, a quick note -- but I'll need to read on. I can't believe what I've just read in the Los Angeles Times: a history teacher got angry because a student used the term BCE (before common era) rather than BC (before Christ), which the student got it off of Wikipedia?! And as a result of this anger, the teacher decided that conservatives needed to create a wiki-based encyclopedia that conveys the conservatives' perspective.

That's ridiculous! The point of an encyclopedia is to convey information in as objective a manner as possible. It should inherently be neither conservative nor liberal, Democrat nor Republican, western nor eastern. I recognize that objective truth is a matter of debate, but that's part of the point too. If this teacher wants to dispute BCE, wonderful! Go for it. But it's not as though it was created by Wikipedia. The term has been around for many years. Personally, I think it's an unnecessary attempt at political correctness: the timeline starts at the same point, so the Christian bias remains intact. But I think Muslims and Buddhists recognize the historical significance of Jesus, regardless of whether they agree with the tenets of Christianity. Jews have a different calendar than Christians; these things coexist without any significant problems, right?

If the teacher wants to complain about the potential for anonymous changing of Wikipedia entries, fine. That's actually being addressed in something called Citizendium. I'd rather complain about why a teacher seems to have a problem with a student venturing beyond the teacher's information in order to learn. The teacher should be helping to mold this student's mind, helping the student to think for himself and assess the veracity of sources of information. Just because a book is published, for example, doesn't mean it's accurate. Interpretations cannot be assumed to be fact. As far as I can tell, BCE is a term of art -- and not a particularly elegant one. But teaching students to only use one perspective is simply ugly.