Your humble author has said for a while now that both major political parties are treating politics like a game of chicken, where each tries to be the second worst of the two, at least as far as the moderate “normies” and LIVs (low-information voters). But then, many in each party have convinced themselves that they are the middle-of-the-road voters and that of course the vast majority of the country shares their beliefs. This is not true, as Phil Magness notes.
Most Americans want price stability, a steady and growing economy, a government that respects civil liberties and civil rights, a functional congress that exercises is constitutional oversight of the executive branch, TSA lines that function normally, an ability to buy stuff from abroad without being slapped with a giant tax bill, and a culture that respects freedom of choice in our values and beliefs.
We don’t want wokeness and socialism shoved down our throat. We don’t want the 1619 Project to replace our understanding of the American founding. Nor do we want a Postliberal Integralist theocracy that shirks the Declaration of Independence in favor of the blog musings of some reactionary kook from continental Europe. We don’t want crackpot economic policies based on MMT, Greedflation, Marxism, economic nationalism, or some crazy LaRouche-infused 19th century tariff agenda. Nor do we want a president who ignores the courts, be it Biden or Trump. Nor do we want a congress that simply functions as an appendage of the White House.
Whoever first figures out how to actually bring in these “normy” voters without completely nuking their base will likely win big.
