Foreign Policy's Mike Boyer is right on in his blog analysis, titled seductively (for me anyway), "Calling All Centrist, Internationalist Republicans." It uses a recent Pew Research poll tracking American voters' party identification, and stances on policy and social issues.
Republicans must take notice. Both parties hold only partial keys to the new center that has formed under their noses, and one of them stands to become a long-term majority by adapting its philosophy to it.
The new center has accepted the primacy and effectiveness of markets, but doesn't fear regulation and government intervention if it's done intelligently and efficiently. They're proud to be Americans, but don't want us to be arrogant overseas. They're practical environmentalists. They embrace giving people choices over their own lives, both in the private and public spheres, and don't approve of pushing morality on people from either the left or right. They don't want to get rid of the welfare state, but they want it smaller and more effective. And like most Americans of every generation, they're not ideologues. They want competence, and for things to work.
America is in the midst of a realignment. Will anyone running for president in 2008 be able to articulate the changes going on, and what government needs to do to meet the new challenges involved?
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