The vanishing center

IT IS A COMMON THEME of many self-described moderates that Pres. George W. Bush should "govern from the center." This advice sounds inclusive and magnanimous. It appeals as a way of leading the country out of an environment pockmarked by unremitting personal partisanship. The problem with this counsel is that there is no center from which to govern, and looking for it leads a president into quicksand.

The last White House resident to find sure footing in the ideological middle was Dwight D. Eisenhower. In the 1950s, politics was not dominated by take-no-prisoners consultants; both parties had liberal and conservative wings; most political commentators, usually on the radio, were measured and restrained in their views. After the jarring and abrasive events of the 1930s and 1940s and the ugliness of the McCarthy era in the early 1950s, the American people wanted some respite. Eisenhower understood that and established a partnership with the Democratic leadership in Congress, namely Sen. Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson and House Speaker Sam Rayburn, two moderate Texans. Beyond that, events had brought most citizens to broad consensus on fundamental issues. The Democrats had come to accept the legitimacy of a robust corporate capitalist economy; the Republicans had come to terms with a modest welfare state.

That was then, however. Since the 1970s, every president from Gerald Ford to George W. Bush has found the search for the center to be elusive at best and treacherous at worst. Ford's brand of pallid conservatism only won him a fierce primary challenge from Ronald Reagan. Jimmy Carter's environmental liberalism and fiscal conservatism excited few and, for his efforts, he had to face Ted Kennedy in the 1980 primaries. George H.W. Bush's violation of his "no new taxes" pledge in order to pacify the moderates allowed him to join Ford and Carter as one-term presidents.

Bill Clinton navigated the center a bit more skillfully by using the Republican Congress as a foil while accepting their initiatives for welfare reform, a balanced budget, and capital gains tax relief. For all his clever political maneuvering, though, Clinton presided over the steady decline of Democratic Party fortunes in Congress and in state houses across the country.

George W. Bush, meanwhile, was reelected, not by moving toward the center, but by energizing his political base support. His forays into the center have gained him even less than his predecessors. Bush's "Compassionate Conservatism" with its No-Child-Left-Behind initiative and the prescription drug benefit was an explicit attempt to capture center ground. In order to appease the big spenders of both parties, Bush signed highway, energy, and farm subsidy bills loaded with pork. Discretionary domestic spending has increased faster under the Bush Administration than under any chief executive since LBJ.

All of this has won Bush no points among Democrats. Not one Democratic leader has given the President a scintilla of credit for any of these domestic programs, and his approval rating among that party's voters in 2005 was among the lowest on record. Bush now is called a big spender and a budget buster by his opponents, and yet criticized because his education and prescription drug programs are not generous enough. Conservatives, on the other hand, see these initiatives as a betrayal of their bedrock principle that government already has taken on more than it can fund or administer effectively.

As Bush struggles to reenergize his presidency, he should realize that, in this deeply polarized environment, finding the center only gets one caught in a political crossfire. So, what should the President do?

* Bush should join with many in his party and declare war on pork and frivolous spending. He should use his power to force Congress to eliminate the unnecessary earmarked projects in both the highway and energy bills.

* He needs to appoint a tough fiscal watchdog to supervise the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast in the wakes of Katrina and Rita. He has to make sure that this program is not turned into another oat bag for corrupt politicians.

* The President should continue to nominate conservatives to the Federal court and let Democrats try to make the case against them. On issues that come before the courts such as the death penalty, racial preferences, and partial-birth abortion, the country is solidly with the conservatives.

* He can build on the recommendation of his tax commission to fashion a simplification program that allows most people to fill out their taxes on a postcard. This can be done by plugging loopholes, lowering rates, and reducing the number of deductions.

* He should vigorously and explicitly explain and defend his policy in Iraq. It is imperative that the President make the American people understand that this war is not Vietnam, a sideshow in the struggle against communism, but center stage in a deadly new battle against Islamic fascism.