Bipartisan Purging

All incumbents seem to be under greater scrutiny than ever by their party activists. Angry and fearful voters seem to dislike almost everybody and everything.

The defeat of Utah Sen. Bob Bennett, the harrowing race faced by Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, and the howlings of outrage on blogs from far left to far right about government policy, confirm what William Butler Yeats once wrote:  "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."

While Moveon.org savages moderate Democratic members of Congress and President Obama, the various Tea Party "spokesmen" rant against Republicans who dare in any manner to look for a bi-partisan center in which to form legislation.

We used to say that the far right and far left were the "tails that wagged the dogs."  Now, the dogs have disappeared, leaving only the violently flailing tails.  As we wrote earlier in this space, the pull of both caucuses in Congress is toward the poles of policy, not toward a constructive center.  Both parties find themselves intimidated by their "bases," those partisans who show up to vote no matter what and who tolerate little short of hair-shirt orthodoxy.

Florida's Charlie Crist, once odds-on favorite to win the Senate nomination for Republicans, has now become an independent and is falling in the polls.  The notion that an independent can win a party nomination in this political atmosphere seems silly from the beginning; Crist's continued fall in the polls confirms what most political pros know already--independents rarely vote in party primaries in off-years. Any chance that the Democratic nominee, Rep. Kendrick Meek, has to win has been enhanced by the Crist-Rubio debacle.

In Pennsylvania, all the momentum is with Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak as he tries to upend once-Republican, now Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter.  Either has to be considered a slight underdog to the Republican nominee, former Rep. Pat Toomey, one of the founders of the Club for Growth, another force for "purity" inside the Republican Party.  It seems unlikely that the Democratic base in Pennsylvania will turn out anyone but a "true" Democrat and Specter fails to meet that test.

All incumbents seem to be under greater scrutiny than ever by their party activists.  Since Democrats have more incumbents at risk, it seems likely that Republicans will pick up substantial seats in the House and Senate, but not enough at this point to take control of either Chamber.

But, nothing in the polling data shows a great surge in popularity for Republicans.  Angry and fearful voters seem to dislike almost everybody and everything.  The blogosphere reeks of violent language from both extremes and woe to anyone connected to Washington, D.C.  Denizens of the Capitol, captains of Wall Street, the wealthy of any background provide fodder for the purists.

Ironically, those who call for less government, lower taxes, and a balanced budget, rarely know just for what they wish.  Those same activists would largely reject the cuts in Medicare and Social Security that a true balanced budget during the next 20 years would require.  And, those who want larger government, higher taxes on "the rich," and less concern about deficits and debt, shield themselves from the economic catastrophe that might await the nation if present fiscal trends persist.

Yet, the screaming continues.

Yeats had it right nearly a century ago:  "The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity."