This analysis of the 1996 election was written soon after that election.
"Truth is not an option." -- Gris Caravel
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`Moderates' Were Losers in Election.
Don't pay too much attention to what the media says: election results show
that hardline GOP "conservatives" do much better at election time than
so-called GOP `moderates."
By THE SPOTLIGHT STAFF
Plutocrats controlling the Republican Party gave voters "The Undertaker"-Bob
Dole-because (they said) Pat Buchanan was "too conservative," and "couldn't
win." The media obediently told voters that this was true. However, two
respected political analysts, reviewing election returns from 1994 and 1996,
said those election results suggest that just the opposite is true: voters
actually prefer candidates with distinctive ideologies over "moderates" of
the Dole mode.
Prof.. Leonard Williams, political scientist at Indiana's Manchester
College, and Neil Wollman, professor of psychology at Manchester, concluded
that voters overwhelmingly rejected so-called centrist candidates in
congressional races, in favor of those with stronger liberal or conservative
ideologies.
As with the Democratic incumbents in 1994 [the more liberal of whom won 95
percent of their reelection efforts], the more ideologically extreme
Republican incumbents also received a higher percentage of the vote than did
their more moderate colleagues," the professors stated.
The professors added that the more conservative/ populist Republicans won 94
percent of their races, and did better than Republican "moderates" even in
what were described as marginal districts.
"No matter what people may say they want, or what analysts say people want,
recent election results suggest that voters have not rewarded ideological
moderation," the professors added. "Contrary to today's conventional wisdom,
the voters seem more comfortable with those on either side of the street
than with those in the middle of the road."
Nevertheless, expect further "sweet nothings" to be whispered between the
Clinton administration and the "more moderate" Republican congessional
leadership, all in the nameof "bipartisanship." They will target meager
cost-of-living adjustments for senior citizens living solely on Social
Security, ad infinitum.
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