Last week I was at an industry dinner for work. The speaker for the night was Michael Smerconish of SiriusXM Radio’s POTUS. He also occasionally fills in for Chris Matthews on MSNBC. He is a native of the Philadelphia area, and used to have a local radio show here, so I’m sure that’s why they got him to speak.
If you’re not familiar with Smerconish, I’ll let you know that he prides himself on being in the middle. He opened his speech by running through a list of foreign policy and social issues that he agrees with and said something like, “that makes me sound like a Republican.” He then ran through a second list of social issues and said that made him sound like a Democrat.
His talk was enjoyable, and I know I won’t give it justice in this short article, but I’ll try to give an overview. The general theme of his speech was that there is a certain part of the population in America that believes everything on FoxNews is correct and a certain part of the population that believes everything on MSNBC is correct. Both these segments think they’re always right and the other is always wrong. He showed several different stats on his PowerPoint with evidence to back him up. He compared these people to himself watching professional wrestling as a kid. Before the good guy even made it to the ring he knew he wanted him to win. He liked everything the good guys did, and hated everything the bad guys did. He had other evidence to show that most districts in the country are solid Republican or solid Democrat, and there were very few that had house elections decided within 5% because that is the way they their boundaries were purposely designed.
Then he claimed that you have a large part of the country, 40%, who don’t fully agree with either the Democrat or Republican parties, just like he doesn’t. He says this group is more down to earth and doesn’t always see everything as black and white. This is the segment of the population he targets his radio show.
Well of course when it comes to matters of opinion people won’t agree 100% of the time. You could put 5 die-hard Beatles fans in a room and tell them to come up with their top 5 Beatles songs, and you’ll most likely see 5 different lists. That is what disappointed me about his speech. Smerconish is a smart and successful man, I wish he would understand the real argument. It isn’t Democrat vs. Republican, it is state vs. individual.
In a society based on liberty, it doesn’t really matter what your opinion on social issues is. You can live the way you want, and I can live the way I want and neither one of us will force the other to live by our demands. It makes total sense that the country would be bitterly divided when you have 2 parties that demand the other to act the way they see fit.
God Bless Freedom, Liberty, and Personal Property,
Slappy Jones 2
Historically, the political spectrum in America is anarchy on the right and totalitarianism on the left. We traditionally found our balance in the center-right, with an emphasis on limited government. However, over the past decade, we have shifted to the European model which presents socialism/communism on the left and fascism/nazism on the right. Thus, total goverment exists at both ends of the spectrum.
I contend that our nation’s fundamental transformation occured because our elected officials successfully confused our interpretation of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Constitution establishes the framework for our democratic republic while the Bill of Rights preserves individual liberties and limits the government’s powers. As such, the federal government has certain functions while the lion share of responsibilities rests with the states and, more abundantly, with the people. Politicians manipulate voters and garner their support by conflating social issues with government. Regardless of an individual’s beliefs on these topics, these issues do not fall within the purview of the federal government’s authority. Officials overstep their Consitutional authority and infringe on our civil rights when they insert themselves into these debates and attempt to legislate or regulate our behavior.
With all that being said, I return to Mr. Smerconish. He asserts that his beliefs are split between the Republican and Democratic parties. Therefore, he is “stuck in the middle.” However, this assertion is only correct when analyzed through the European model. In reality, Mr. Smerconish favors large, intrusive federal goverment in most situations. This places him squarely on the left end of the tradional American political spectrum. Describing himself as a moderate is an attempt to gain the acclaimed “independent voter” label. The media often discusses independents during election cycles and politicians are constantly battling to gain the support of this all important voter bloc. Independent voters are portrayed as “intellectual” and “thoughtful.” With those labels and the attention they garner, who wouldn’t want to be considered an independent? An in Mr. Smerconish’s case, this label seemingly sets him apart from other conservative and liberal radio hosts. But in actuality, anyone who pays attention to the news and politics forms their opinions far before election day. Independent voters are either low-information or, like Mr. Smerconish, only trying to inflate their image as cultivated, polished, and informed.