Barone: GOP should run against the power of the center

Michael Barone, senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner, suggests that the "GOP should run against the power of the center". Essentially, the GOP should not run to the center, only to become more centrist, but should lead and grow the naturally popular anti-centralization resistance.

"... Republicans today should be less interested in moving toward the center and more interested in running against the center. Here I mean a different “center,” not a midpoint on an opinion spectrum, but rather the centralized government institutions being created and strengthened every day. This is a center that is taking over functions fulfilled in a decentralized way by private individuals, firms and markets."

"... the original TARP package was passed largely with the votes of those in both parties with safe seats and not in political peril, and that everyone is assuming that Congress won’t vote any more TARP money anytime soon. It tells us that the voting public doesn’t like this stuff."

See the rest of the article at the Washington Examiner.

Mr. Barone moved from the left in his youth (even supporting George McGovern in 1972), to consistently right in his wisdom, as noted at Wikipedia. His analyses, often calmly meshing principles and poll results, may be helpful in moving others from voting wrong to voting right.

Mr. Barone is co-author of The Almanac of American Politics 2008. He now writes daily columns for the Washington Examiner and wrote for 18 years as political analyst for U.S. News and World Report, apparently archived at WJR. He is also a Resident Fellow at AEI, the American Enterprise Institute.