Triangulation, Good Politics — Bad For The Country

Triangulation, Good Politics — Bad For The Country: If I asked you what the worst thing in American politics was today, I would get a variety of answers. Some of you might say “dishonesty”, others recoil from the “negativity” and I’m sure there are plenty of Americans fed up with the “petty partisanship” we’re confronted with at ever turn. But me? I’d point to Dick Morris’ Frankenstein monster, triangulation.

For all intents and purposes, triangulation is the art of trying to be all things to all voters, or at least getting as close as possible. What you want to do is support things that will fire up your base without alienating the voters in the middle. Then when your opponent comes up with an idea that may allow him to pull away some of your support, you don’t fight him, you adopt his idea, whether you agree with it or not. Doing this allows you to pull in the moderates who along with your base which will make it likely that you’ll win at the ballot box. In short, triangulation is political akido that allows you to defeat your opponent by replacing your principles and ideology with polling data. (Cont)

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