Moderates anyone?

A recent survey has just shown that candidates identified as moderates on both sides of the political spectrum are facing more and more challenges to win their seats this year in the Congressional elections.

In the primaries this past spring both parties, especially the Republicans, lost moderate Republicans to much more conservative and it the case of Deleware, Nevada, and Alaska, Kentucky and others establishment candidates lost to tea party insurgents.

What this means long term is that more and more candidates in office are on the extreme right and extreme left. Not coincidentally the people most likely to vote are those that are strong right or strong left.

This is the problem.

Until the vast center of Americans in the middle choose to get involved and active, not just in November elections but in the primaries themselves we will continue to get extreme candidates who listen to those extreme voters that elected them.

This will not be a good thing.

There is hope. While I do not like Joe Lieberman the fact that he as a Democrat when he ran as an independent after having been taken out in the Democratic primary ended up regaining his seat shows the middle counts. It also illustrates how in the primary a small group of inspired voters can upset the applecart.

Mike Castle in Delaware can attest to that.

Lisa Murkowski an Alaska Republican taken out by a tea party Republican is running as a write in candidate in Alaska and according to polls leading. Even in Alaska it would seem those closer to the middle can in the right circumstances win.

Another example is Charlie Crist, one time Presidential contender in Florida lost in the primary to a tea party candidate and running as an Independent can now win only if the Democrat Kendrick Meek gets out of the way.

There is room for a third party. However this will only work if those people in the middle get involved early in the process.