Reply #2: One part of your analysis is flawed, for sure [View All]

[markus]

The middle do value individual rights, especially the right to privacy. This incorporates not just commercial privacy, but also the right to choose. They're probably not terribly comfortable with the Patriot Act, for that matter.

And at the end of the day, they have to feel secure domestically (crime, to some extent now terror as well) and abroad, and then they will vote both for their rather libertarian views (don't care about Clinton's affairs, pro-choice with reasonable limits) and their (pro-Democratic) pocketbooks.

There is a good book called the Emerging Democratic Majority which you might enjoy.

I disagree with some of their conclusions, but it makes for a very interesting read.

I would agree that the center is never going to come out and protest against the war, and this would be the same bloc that trounced McGovern, giving Nixon the benefit of the doubt.

However, this is also the bloc that elected Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.