Politics ... once more

Clearly, I need to explain this again...

Dear Politicians:

Stop appealing to your base. Just stop it. Your base will vote for you anyway (and fund you anyway). You need to appeal to the middle.

What's the middle? The people you were appealing to during the election. Remember them? When your platform was trying to get the independent voters, the apathetic non-voters, and the cross-over voters? You weren't talking nonsense to appeal to your base, but trying to appeal to the broadest possible section of the public.

Here's the thing: Republicans, when we vote for you, it's because we're feeling fiscally conservative. Fiscally, not socially. Democrats, when we vote for you, it's because we're feeling socially liberal. Socially, not fiscally. Got that? Good.

So, let's try an exercise where we apply these ideas. Democrats, you've been voted into power. Now, I realize that you haven't held Congress and the White House for some time, so there's an awful lot of agenda you'd like to get to in order to satisfy the base. Resist that. Let's try to keep some campaign promises, shall we? How are we doing on that Closing Guantanamo thing? The Ending the Iraq War thing? Whatever happened to repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell? -- hell, that one would probably save money. Where's the Freedom of Choice Act? What about expanding funding for scientific research and restoring science to its rightful place? Do some of the stuff that we elected you for -- undo some of the things the Republicans did to appeal to their base -- rather than going off on stuff that appeals to your base and makes centrists a bit nervous that they'd voted you into power.

Republicans, you're not in power right now, so your task should be to explain to the middle (remember? those are the people you'll want to vote for you in the next election) why they made a mistake in putting Democrats in power. Don't be riling up your base over nonsense like death panels, mandatory circumcision or the President speaking to our schoolchildren to indoctrinate them with Communist Ideals -- this sort of nutjobbery is why we voted you out in the first place. Just stand there and beat the crap out of that economic drum. Why get people incensed over stuff that isn't even in the Health Care bill when you've got a perfectly good basis to challenge it in the fact that it will cost a trillion dollars over ten years, and maybe a stalled economy with a massive deficit isn't exactly the time to go spending a thirteen-figure number on a totally untested health care plan.

Yes, I know, silly me. I'm expecting you to be rational -- and to think that the American public is rational too. Give it a shot; we may surprise you.