Obama should use the State of the Union address next week to declare an end to playing-to-the-base politics. As Massachusetts’ Senate race shows, voters don’t want more ideology—they want problem-solving. Avlon is the author of Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America.
Independent voters finally have the political establishment’s attention. The red state vs. blue state fiction that has dominated politics for too long is starting to be seen as the fraud it is.
Under the play-to-the-base vision of politics bequeathed to us by Karl Rove, a stereotypical “blue” state like Massachusetts never should have voted for a Republican. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee apparently believed that as well.