America is not a country that likes to think of itself as radical in its politics. The countless foreigners who look upon our displays of militarism and nationalism at sporting events as remnants of quasi-fascist group think, or regard our suspicion of the most innocent government services, such as public hospitals, as a threat to "our way of life," might consider us so. But to us, this is just tradition. We generally don't use terms like "right-wing" and "left-wing" unless we are demonizing somebody. We prefer tame terms, such as "conservative" and "progressive." And of course, most of us calls ourselves "moderates."
So it is appropriate that a figure like Mayor Michael Bloomberg has become an important figure in the midterm elections this year. In addition to being a kagillionaire, Bloomberg has the rare distinction of having been active under three different party labels in the past decade. In times when voters are disillusioned with D.C. gridlock, Bloomberg can feed people's disillusionment by decrying the partisan warfare but remind them that veering to an ideological extreme, as offered by the Tea Party, is not the solution.
In addition to a number of moderate Republicans and Democrats in races all over the country, Bloomberg has endorsed Tom Barrett for guv right here in Sconz Nation. It will be interesting to see if Barrett decides to use that to his advantage I believe he already used a clip of the NYC mayor in his video at the Democratic convention in June.
