Ideology, Partisanship, andthe New Political ContinuumRobert B. SmithJournalists, pollsters, and pundits use categories ofpolitical analysis that they do not always clearlydefine and whose meanings are ambiguous. To makesense of the political rhetoric even the informed publicmust struggle hard. A single news analysis in the NewYork Times used the following ambiguous expressions:"social conservatism," "economic conservatism,""pragmatic conservatives," "doctrinaire conservatives,""a presentable conservative," "a centrist or moderatestate," and "painted as a liberal." The Economist addsto the confusion by defining one vague term by twoothers: Republican moderates, mostly from the North-east, are "gypsy moths"; Democratic moderates, mostlyfrom the South, are "boll weevils." In Values MatterMost Ben Wattenberg vilifies liberalism and liberalsbut never states which interests differentiate liberalsfrom conservatives or moderates from extreme liber-als or extreme conservatives. He contends that Presi-dent Bill Clinton's victory in 1992 was due to theRepublicans' inept campaign and Clinton's modera-tion rather than to his liberalism. He urged Clinton andother candidates to move to the center if they desiredvictory in 1996.When commentators fail to define their analyticalcategories clearly, their advice and reports lack speci-ficity. Since junbiguity increases the opportunities forsocial infiuence, this lack encourages the use of propa-gandistic campaign techniques. The application of thesetechniques may transform an election from one largelybased on rational discussion of clearly defined issuesand consent to one largely based on advertising andmanipulation. Campaign managers use these tech-niques, which they have borrowed from advertising andpublic relations, to attach highly desirable attributesto their own candidates and political philosophies andundesirable attributes to the opposition candidates andtheir political philosophies, thus obscuring the basicissues and confusing the electorate. By reinforcing thebelief that ends justify means, such political advertis-ing undermines the electorate's political values, thequality of political discourse, and thoughtful politicalparticipation.To shift the current discourse away from tit-for-tatattacks, name calling, and positive and negative label-ing toward more rational discussions of the costs andbenefits of political and policy choices, an explicationis needed of the meanings of the categories of politicalanalysis. What are the contemporary meanings, definedby political interests, of political ideology and currentpolitical partisanship? How are ideology and partisan-ship interrelated? What interests compose the catego-ries of thenew political continuum of progressives,liberals, moderate conservatives, and minimal-stateconservatives? How do these categories relate to ide-ology, partisanship and distrust?The philosophies of liberalism and conservatism, asSeymour Martin Lipset has noted, may have failed toadapt to new circumstances, and the public may notsee viable answers coming from either. However, threebroad domestic interests—economic equity, social14 / SOCIETY • MARCH/APRIL 1997equality, and the public's health—which are compo- ^. Public Health. Since most progressives andmanynents, respectively, of the prior politics of class and liberals and Democrats are receptive to governmentalstatus and the more recent politics of health, shape the activism, they are more likely than conservatives andplatforms of the political parties and now, with the end Republicans to favor governmental interventions aimedof the Cold War, do much to define key aspects of con- toward universal access to health care, a healthy envi-temporary liberalism and conservatism and the new ronment, and the public's health, especially women'spolitical continuum. reproductive choice. Centrists take an intermediateThe first interest, which pertains to the politics of position.social class and the distribution of economic resources. The issues of public health are rooted in the politicsharks back to the 1930s and President Franklin D. of resources and rights. Because the environmentallyRoosevelt's New Deal and helps to distinguish liber- concerned would use tactics involving governmentalals, centrists, and conservatives: economic interventions and regulation of industry, the1. Economic Equity. With Roosevelt's New Deal, issue of a healthy environment is an extension of theHarry Truman's Fair Deal, and Lyndon Johnson's Great politics of resources. Because they tend to reside inSociety, progressives, liberals, and Democrats have unhealthy environments, minorities and the poor arefavored trade unions, price controls, welfare, and other environmentally concerned. Thus, environmental con-governmental regulations and interventions in the cem here means the protection ofpeople from unhealthyeconomy that promise to facilitate the establishment of environments more than it means the protection of thecountervailing power against concentrated economic environment from people.power and protect the interests of the poor. Conserva- Because its comprehensive strategies are guided bytives and Republicans have not favored such policies the premise that health care is a right and not a privi-and instead have advocated tax cuts. Centiists have lege and that universal access should be provided healthdesired a reduced deficit. care reform is an extension of the politics of rights.Women, people with low family income, and ethnic Since minorities, the poor, and youths may lack healthminorities—those who most experience inequity—sup- insurance, they support these interventions. The de-port these governmental interventions. mand for women's freedom to choose whether or notThe second interest, which relates to the status of to abort an unwanted pregnancy is an extension of thedis-esteemed social groups, harks back to President politics of rights to reproductive life. But abortion isTruman's desegregation of the Army, President now most clearly an issue of women's mental and physi-Johnson's civil and voting rights initiatives, and, circa cal health—note President Clinton's veto of a bill ban-the 1960s and early 1970s, the reform-minded New ning a type of late-term abortion that protects thePolitics of the Vietnam era. It pertains to civil, social, woman's life but kills the fetus. (Since the survey didand constitutional rights for African Americans, not cover this topic, the analysis lacks