Four Parties?

On last Sunday’s Meet The Press, host Chuck Todd revealed some fascinating polling data.

The electorate is equally divided between Trump Republicans, traditional Republicans, Biden Democrats and Democrats who prefer the politics of Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. Exactly 17% of voters picked each of those four categories.

Host Chuck Todd made the point that it’s unlikely that the nation will actually split into four parties, but this is a useful way of thinking about politics right now.

What I find most interesting about it is that it’s more evidence that the center is stronger than most people like to think it is. That’s because the Party Republicans and the Biden Democrats on Todd’s screen are far more likely to join together to get things done than the extremes are. It’s easy to imagine Biden reaching across the aisle to work with the likes of Mitt Romney or Susan Collins. It’s virtually impossible to see Sanders breaking bread with Ted Cruz or Warren huddling with Josh Hawley.

A lifelong Democrat, the truth is that I often feel like I have more in common with Never Trump Republicans then I do with the far left in the Democratic Party. I’m probably closer to the left on policy and closer to the moderate Republicans in terms of culture. One way to think about it is that I want everybody who works at my golf course to earn a higher minimum wage.

What’s important is that the power to get things done and to improve the lives of everyone lies not in the extremes, but in the middle.