ELECTION POSTMORTEM

People, at least a few anyway, often try to find the bright side of an appalling situation. Hence this effort to find a glimmer of light in recent dark events.

There is a possibility that the election of Donald Trump to the Office of President of these United States is a move toward the center of the political spectrum. Over the last decades, at least since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the extremes of the two major political parties—Democratic and Republican, most particularly the latter—have been on the ascendency.

On the Republican side, the rise of the extreme right has been steady. Some rhetoric at the beginning of the Administration of George W. Bush suggested a desire for inclusiveness, but the tone quickly faded. The strength of that Administration’s conservative leanings was evidenced by the adoption of significant tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, the latter year of course being when major, hence expensive, military actions were underway against a foe called “Terroism.” Incidentally, though many conservatives will vehemently argue the contrary, those tax cuts likely contributed to the financial exuberance that culminated in the Great Recession of 2007-09.

The creep to extreme regions on the left by the Democratic Party has been more meandering. Democrats even pursued a somewhat centrist path during Bill Clinton’s two terms (1993-2000). And Democrats have not been in power enough to get too deep into the progressive swamp. Barack Obama had a mere two years of maneuvering room before he was largely corralled by the increasing power and belligerency of the Republicans. Nevertheless, the extreme left still preached a most progressive agenda, as witnessed by the calls in the recent election for free (meaning government paid-for) college education.

A result of these decades of political polarization, recognized by members of both parties, by the media, and by the public, has been political gridlock. The general feeling is that nothing is getting done. One major thing that is certainly not getting done is any progress toward controlling entitlement spending. As the population ages, spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security is capturing an ever greater, and unsustainable, share of the federal budget. Neither party has shown a willingness to confront the American people with the unattractive but necessary options for tackling this most serious threat to the nation’s financial well-being.

Thus there is a need for someone or some group unorthodox enough to assault the rigid political and ideological ramparts that are preventing Americans from doing what we think we are best at: solving problems. There is also a need for educating the American people on what is and is not possible. For example, promising an annual GDP (gross domestic product) growth of 5 or 6 percent if certain policies are adopted or abandoned is just not realistic.

But forget the second need for the time-being and focus on need number one: a significant reduction in the polarization that is preventing problem-solving. Just maybe that is what break-the-mold Donald Trump can accomplish. He may not achieve many, or any, of his concrete goals, but if he manages to get Democrats and Republicans, at least some of them, back toward the center of the political spectrum, he will have done a service.

Of course, this result depends on whether he can move from the rabble-rousing Donald Trump of the last year and a half to being a much more controlled and even-handed individual. The jury is very much out on that possibility.