Striving to be an Armadillo

In the Washington hubris back around 2005 or 2006 a member of Congress from Texas famously sneered about middle of the road voters that they were like Armadillo's, they get run over from both sides of the road.


Ideologues from all sides of the political spectrum dislike moderation.  Their intellectual worlds are built around logical constructs built on foundations of simplistic assumptions and characterizations about human nature and the world we live in.  They like clean logic, they don't like the messy ambiguity that often characterizes life.  Once they have their logical ideology in place they can be an expert on anything thereafter by plugging into the ideology and starting to talk, without the time consuming necessity of investigating facts or considering options.


Ideologues don't like moderates because moderates always seem to want to complicate their grand ideas with inquiries into whether assumptions are true.


If your only ambition in life is to be a politician its not a bad idea to latch onto an ideology.  You can speak confidently and authoritatively on any subject, on a moments notice, while people actually evaluating options and facts are being silent.  And a big plus is most voters don't have time to evaluate options and facts, in fact they don't even have time to listen to a long spiel about facts and options.  They like a short sweet sound bite that is emotionally appealing and will often go with it.


Unfortunately, if you actually want to be a positive influence in your life, history suggests being an ideologue is probably not the way to go.  In the United States the great depression of the 1930's and the great recession we are still recovering from both followed years of conservative ideology running the show.  From 1921 through 1933 Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and the Presidency.  That didn't happen again until 2001 to 2007.  Both periods were marked by unwavering belief that cutting regulation on business, cutting taxes and cutting the size and influence of Government were the key to a prosperous future.  Of course what actually happened at the end of each period was the two worst economic crashes in the last 100 years.  


What about the Democrats you say?  Evidence suggests the ideological left wing, while it certainly exists in this country, has never come close to the kind of power the ideological right has achieved.  Unlike many Western European countries we have never had anything like socialist control of any branch of government.  We have had a number of periods when Democrats controlled both house of Congress and the Presidency, and those periods saw the passage of Social Security, LBJ's great society, and the creation of lots of consumer and environmental protection legislation, but the periods where Democrats have controlled all branches of Government also included the years during WW I, WW II and the Korean War where big legislative initiatives were on the back burner.  For whatever reason, no pattern of disaster following Democratic control reveals itself.  


I also personally believe the nature of right and left ideologies makes Democrats in the United States less extreme in their views.  Republican ideas are rooted in self reliance and personal responsibility - they are focused on what is good for the individual, and heavy with overtones of "leave me alone so I can do what I want".  They flow easily from the values from our pioneer heritage, so as a nation we are inclined to be sympathetic to those values.  The middle of the road in the United States is actually to the right of center by the reckoning of many other countries.  But the frontier is gone.  Most of us can't walk out the back door and go shoot our dinner, or chop up a downed tree to keep us warm.  We can't get up and move because we now have a neighbor a mile away and we want our space.  We are town folk, heavily reliant upon each other.  Democratic ideas are rooted in that interlinked nature of society, in the common good, in shared responsibilities and tolerance.  Democrats think consensus is a value in itself.   Republicans think winning is the only value.  So even when Democrats are in control Republicans have more influence than when the reverse situation exists.


In a functioning modern society you need both these views.  They each have strengths and weaknesses and should be complementary rather than mutually exclusive.  We need the selfishness that is at the root of Republican ideology because that is what drives much of our economic development.  But Republicans often regard government as at best a nuisance (excerpt when they getting subsidies) but in fact Government plays a key role in creating a society that allows our culture and economy to thrive.   We need the sense of group identity, or group responsibility, that underpins most Democratic ideology.  


That's this Armadillo's view.