Tearing Themselves Apart

It has always been Karl Rove's dream to shift the political centre of the United States far to the right. To do that it was necessary to nudge moderate Republicans, the fiscal conservatives, out to the edge where the social conservatives normally reside.

Adding the social conservatives to the fiscal conservatives allowed the Repugs to seize control of both houses of congress and the White House and to load the judiciary to match.

Bonding the centre and the far-right was no mean feat but, for a while, both saw the marriage in their own interests until the religious right, the far-right came to dominate and the fiscal conservatives, the moderates, saw their values trampled by a freewheeling, big spending, far right president.

This union was always unnatural but managed to live on so long as the administration was on top of its game. With a disastrous war on his hands, a deficit anchor around his neck and his popularity in the toilet, Bush has lost his ability to hang on to the fiscal conservatives, the moderates.

In Canada, Stephen Harper is also trying to move the political centre toward the far right, nudging moderate Tories over toward the realm of the social conservative Reform. Harper has a tougher challenge because the political centre in Canada is a lot tougher to budge than it was in the states, especially after the populace was traumatized by 9/11.

The centre seems to be holding far to the left of Stephen Harper's ideals and recent polls show it's costing him at the polls. Now it's time for the Libs to define the void that Harper has created and make it their own, the political centre. The pendulum is swinging again - our way.