The Rise of the Middle

By now most people are aware of the Tea Party movement to represent the extremes but most have not hear of the new political group that is beginning to make noise called the “Militant Middle.” This group is made up of disillusioned independents and moderates who feel that current government policies are being dominated by the extremes. The “Militant Middle” has even found a vocal supporter in Jon Stewart:

Stewart tells his devoted audience, "We live in troubled times with real people facing very real problems; problems that have real if imperfect solutions that I believe 70 to 80 percent of our population could agree to try and could ultimately live with. Unfortunately the conversation and process is controlled by the other 15 to 20 percent."

Political scientists say that the Republican and Democrats are picking more extremely partisan candidates because it is easier for them to get funding within the party in the initial stages and it is easier to distinguish them from other candidates in their campaign. Voters who would normally steer towards the middle are being forced to pick polarized candidates (because those are their only options—something that could help this is allowing people other than registered party members vote in primaries) so voters appear to be more partisan than they actually are.

Advocates of the middle seem to suggest that Downs’ Median Voter Theorem is actually not working. The “Militant Middle” is arguing that the Democrats and Republicans and their candidates are actually not moving towards the middle but rather forcing the middle to choose a side (like making you walk that extra mile to get a hotdog instead of competing for your business). Even though parties are fully informed of the middle’s preferences, they are simply not conforming to them. One interesting thing to note is the complaints by some contributors that President Obama promised policies that suggested a movement towards the middle after winning the primaries (like the theory predicts might happen) but they feel that he has not delivered on these.

Even if this movement fails to bring any real candidates to the political forefront, the party can serve the same purpose as the aforementioned Green Party by putting partisan Republicans and Democrats on notice in an attempt to bring the extremes back to the middle.