In search of the political center.

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.

After millions of dollars of campaign expenditures and an unending stream of puerile television ads, the 1996 election merely has brought America back to the political center. Yet, that is just part of the story. The nature of the center has changed substantially. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the center was the place created by both sides protecting their favorite programs. Ronald Reagan made sure that the defense spigot remained open and taxes were reduced, and the Democratic Congress kept the domestic dollars flowing. The public seemed content with that combination. The end of the Cold War and the public horror over ballooning deficits altered the political mood. In 1994. the voters changed the character of the center. Each side then had a handle on the other's faucet. Pres. Clinton vetoed Republican tax cuts and the Republican Congress forced him to accept reductions in the growth of Democratic programs. The result is ironic and comes closer to what Ross Perot, with his paltry eight percent of the vote, has advocated than anything either Bill Clinton or the Republicans would desire, if left to their own devices.

Getting to this result may be messy. Both parties are more ideological than any time in recent history. The Democratic Party has a stronger base in the liberal Northeast and Pacific Coast, and the Republican Party has deepened its hold in the conservative South and Rocky Mountain states. Congressional moderates of both parties who once were the glue for smoother compromises are disappearing rapidly. Nonetheless, the results well may be those that moderates would desire, but getting there will be contentious.

Can the nation expect modest progress in the next two years? A compromise budget bill could include Clinton's college tuition tax credits, the Republicans, reduction in the capital gains tax and the $500-per-child tax credit as well as continued caps on discretionary domestic spending. There is even the possibility that such a budget could include some Medicare cost containment proposals designed to keep the program afloat through the next several years and off the political map.

On other issues, Clinton will continue to play a defensive role, protecting his political allies - specially the National Education Association, AFL-CIO, and trial lawyers - from the Republican Congress. Major reform ideas of the right are dead for now. Bob Dole's proposal for a 15% across-the-board reduction, having failed to ignite the voters...