What Happened To The Vital Center

Gradually, the moderating influence that parties played in structuring campaigns and the policy process eroded to the point where extreme polarization dominated and decision-making power migrated to the presidency. Weakened parties were increasingly dominated by presidents and their partnerships with social activists, leading to a gridlocked system characterized by the politics of demonization and demagoguery. Executive-centered parties more easily ignore the sorts of moderating voices that had prevailed in an earlier era. While the Republican Party is more susceptible to the dangers of populism than the Democrats, both parties are animated by a presidency-led, movement-centered vision of democracy. After tracing this history, the authors dismiss calls to return to some bygone era. .

In the wake of a bitter presidential campaign and in the face of numerous divisive policy questions, many Americans wonder if their country has split in two. Is America divided so clearly? Two of America's leading authorities on political culture lead a provocative and thoughtful investigation of this question and its ramifications.

There is no evidence that politics can be healthy over the long term without being connected to realms beyond politics, i.e., without placing political life in a framework of ultimacy," write theological ethicists Kyle A. Pasewark and Garrett Paul. What is required is a recovery of emphatic centralism in public discourse and praxis that is found neither in the extremes of the Right or Left, or even somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Rather, what is required is an ethic that is centered, or grounded, in a body of thought, commitments, and values that define human relations, culture, and institutions in a way that allows for effective political practice. For Christians, a particular Christian political practice is advocated that is rooted in an emphatic Christian centralism, a body of reflection and action that takes the language and realities of sin, love, and power seriously, and employs them as criteria for reforming political practice. Sure to prompt reflection and critique from traditional conservatives and liberals, both religious and secular, The Emphatic Christian Center also offers a contemporary political agenda based on these principles that addresses the pressing and interrelated problems of poverty, the family, sexual violence, and the environmental crisis.