The Downsides of Hard Right Politics

Washington Post columnist, EJ Dionne, has a wonderful column this morning about the dangers of playing too hard to your base. Dionne notes that moderates that voted for President Bush last year are in revolt after the recent stories involving Terri Schiavo, the fundy war on judges and the President's Social Security plan. As Dionne notes, moderates have a pragmatic view of government and want it to deal with the currrent economic problems and NOT on issues that only please a small group of extremists.

It seems like the President and Republicans on the Hill have believed the hype that they won a "mandate" (three percentage points does not a mandate make) and therefore can pursue a hard right agenda without any consequences. They are learning that ignoring the center, is like ignoring the laws of gravity: in both cases, sooner or later you end up falling on your butt.

This has been the warning that moderates like Christie Todd Whitman have been talking about since November 2. If you ignore the moderates, don't expect to win.

I'm interested to see how this loss of confidence among the public for Republicans will show itself come November 2006.