POLL: Is America’s political center having its moment?

SALT LAKE CITY — You hear politicians say all the time how divided we are, but what if we’re really more in the political center than we’ve been in years? 

Neoconservative political analyst Bill Kristol is the founder and editor-at-large of the political magazine The Weekly Standard. Kristol is now editor-at-large of The Bulwark. 

He thinks America may be experiencing an early emergence of the political center which could be the answer to growing partisanship.

Moving toward the political center

Kristol joined Inside Sources host Boyd Matheson to discuss a possible movement toward greater bipartisanship after the Trump administration.

“You made a really interesting comment on The Bulwark podcast last week talking about the prospects of partisan political achievements, that they may actually be more promising than people might think. Tell us about that,” Boyd said.

Kristol said it many ways politics in the nation’s capital is more polarized than ever. But he said there are signs of hope that change may be coming.

“There’s a bit of rebellion brewing. Some of the backseat, backbench lesser-known members of Congress in the House and the Senate are getting together. Some well-known ones, like Mitt Romney, are talking to their colleagues across the aisle about immigration, about voting rights, about some of the economic infrastructure-type issues,” Kristol said. 

Not as divided as you think

Kristol cited the following example:

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday voted 21 to 1 to approve sweeping legislation to push back on China on a number of issues, including human rights and economic competition.

“You didn’t see those votes much in the Obama and Trump eras. So I think there’s a little bit of a contrary case to make that maybe we’re gonna move forward to a little bit of bipartisanship,” Kristol said.

“Again, I don’t think the country is nearly as divided as our politicians want us to believe it is. It keeps them in power and gives them excuses to do nothing,” Boyd replied.

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