Here Comes the Middle – But Where Are the Leaders?

Here comes the Middle! Finally. Maybe.

At last, someone has come out in favor of the middle. Joe Manchin, Democratic Senator from West Virginia, has stated publicly: “We cannot basically have a divided country, we cannot withstand that. There’s a movement going on that people want, to bring the extremes back to the sensible and reasonable, responsible middle.” He added “Americans are sick of the political division in the country.”

We damned well are.

There is a model from the not-too-distant past for what is needed. Tip O’Neill, Democrat, and Ronald Reagan, Republican, both powerful leaders of their respective parties, fought each other politically but made deal after deal to move the country forward. The parties followed these strong leaders and went along. O’Neill and Reagan, though very different people and from opposites sides of the country (Massachusetts and California) and almost everything else, became exceptionally good and close friends.

How did this happen? It was a series of colossal accidents. Both Reagan and O’Neill were leaders; they had the intelligence, character, and personality for leadership. Then they got the life experience. And then they got the opportunity – Reagan to run for President, and O’Neill to be elected Speaker. All accidents, and then the accident of timing: they rose to their positions at the same time.

But here is a part that wasn’t an accident, and it made their astonishing ability to reach the most difficult agreements possible: neither O’Neill nor Reagan was a lawyer.

I repeat: neither O’Neill nor Reagan was a lawyer. That’s how it happened. Today’s politicians, who can’t agree on anything, who just shout at each other from the extremes and won’t give an inch, are almost all lawyers. Something about law school? Or something about the people who choose to go to law school? Or both.

Reagan, the Republican, and O’Neill, the Democrat, could put aside their party differences to find solutions. They had mutual respect for each other that separated their ideologies from the need for basic human decency. They disagreed often but still worked toward the common goal of making our country better.

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The new middle needs a new leader. A Republican? The person in the right position is Keven McCarthy, but he’s a follower – and of Trump, no less. The Republican head honcho, Mitch McConnell, is also positioned right, but it’s not going to happen. Someone would have to wake him up first.  Mitt Romney? He could do it, but would enough Republicans follow him? All the other Republicans seem lost in the cult of Trumpville.

            A Democrat? Well, maybe Manchin? He has the character for job, and the experience, but he’s pretty well consumed by the task of keeping his Republican-leaning voters happy. I don’t see anybody else since Biden, the politician, has made sure there is no-one available to challenge him for the nomination.

            So, if a new middle is going to arise, a new leader must arise. It could happen. I’ll bet there are people in the Congress, Senate, or governorships that have the intelligence, character, and personality to lead a movement (Manchin’s word) to the middle. They’d have to convince more than half the Republicans to abandon the extreme right (i.e., Trump and Marjory), and more than half the Democrats to abandon the extreme left (i.e., the Progressives and liberal elites). That will be hard, but the people are on his or her side wanting an end to extremism and division.

            Or there could be two new leaders: Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan showed the way. Just sayin’.