An Angry Obama. Finally.

Political moderates have stayed quiet for too long. It's time to speak up

By Joe Klein Monday, May 13, 2013
    • Jewel Samad / AFP / Getty Images

    US President Barack Obama speaking in the Rose Garden.

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    There are those who argue that the Senate vote on background checks may prove a turning point, that the gun lobby's campaign was just too egregious, that there will be a backlash. There is polling evidence that some of those who opposed the bill have lost altitude with their constituents. "The public always moves before the political elite," says Mark McKinnon, a political consultant who has worked for Democrats and Republicans and is one of the founders of the nonpartisan No Labels movement. "And I think there will be a huge premium in the next election for politicians who take bold positions on issues that aren't popular with their party's base" but that enjoy broad support from the public.

    It would be nice to think so. But the vast majority of Congresspeople live in safe districts, drawn by colluding state legislators who concoct logic-crushing maps to protect the incumbents of both parties. There is constant talk of making structural changes to the system to limit special-interest power--end congressional gerrymandering (California's Arnold Schwarzenegger managed to succeed at this), reform campaign-finance laws--but such changes would require a much more engaged citizenry than we have now. And in that chicken-and-egg sense, McKinnon is probably right: we need bold candidates to revive our democracy.

    I've seen this happen occasionally. In 1982, Mario Cuomo ran for governor of New York, a state seething with anticrime fervor, and opposed the death penalty. Rather than hide that fact, he celebrated it. If the question didn't come up in town meetings, he'd raise it: "Doesn't anybody want to ask me about the death penalty?" Skeptical New Yorkers still disagreed with him but saw strength and integrity. Courage worked; he won. And his opponent in that primary, the late Ed Koch, took a lesson from it: "If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist."

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