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Etling: Finding the real center of politics in America

Former Washington Post White House correspondent Lou Cannon, 73, has written five books about Ronald Reagan, plus “Reporting: An Inside View” (1977). He lives in Summerland, and has been in the news of late supporting the journalists who stood up for ethics and walked out of the troubled halls of the Santa Barbara News-Press.

Last Sunday, Cannon was the featured speaker at an event sponsored by the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life, held at the Firestone family’s Crossroads estate in Foxen Canyon.

Cannon entranced a rapt audience of about 75, demonstrating the analytical skill that made him a top Washington reporter, as he delivered an hour-long, in-depth, rapid-fire review of the mid-term elections. He covered the country, and touched on the politics that have shaped our nation in the last century.

The talk was entitled “Can the Center Survive,” after a line from W.B Yeats’ poem “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” which reads, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.’s 1949 book, “The Vital Center,” got a mention as well.

“An awful lot happened to Republicans on Tuesday, most of it bad,” said Cannon. Karl Rove’s political strategy was to abandon the center, and appeal to the base, Cannon pointed out.

Politically speaking, “War overshadows everything else,” said Cannon, whose granddaughter has served a year in Iraq. He reviewed historical precedents in wartime elections, ranging from Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Gen. George C. Marshall’s “Operation Torch” North Africa invasion in 1942, to LBJ’s Vietnam debacle.

“We are a socially conservative nation,” Cannon noted, pointing to the outcome of same-sex marriage initiatives, eminent-domain decisions, affirmative action, and death-penalty votes across the country. Ethical issues, independent voters, and simple mistakes played their role in the outcome as well, he said, citing copious examples.

It was a political tour-de-force. Cannon’s conclusion — the center has held.

Congresswoman Lois Capps was there.

“I want to memorize every word you said, Lou, because I think this is such a very critical time, following a very decisive election for our nation, to really be cautious as we proceed.

“The stakes are so high. I want to try to share what I’ve learned from you about the importance of the center, and the importance of nurturing that, as we try to tackle the awful situation in Iraq, and the other pressing issues facing our country.

“I hope that what happened after the elections continues, when the president was gracious, and the new leaders of the House and Senate were gracious. Cynical people say, oh, a couple of weeks and it will all be back to business as usual,” said Rep. Capps.

“I think the majority of people in the House, and I’ve only served in the minority, could see why the mean-spiritedness arose on the Republican side, because of the way they had been treated when they were in the minority,” said Congresswoman Capps. “I ‘m just convinced that you all want us to get to a different way of doing the business of the people. And yes, you can be competitive, and you can argue, but I’ve seen democracy really diminished in the actions on the floor.

“I’m not blaming one side, because I think it happened to them on the other side,” she continued. “But when the majority does not give an opportunity for the voice of the minority to be heard, then we lose what one good Dane taught my husband, ‘Democracy is born in conversation.’

“If you argue and don’t come to a compromise, you just become ideological,” said Rep. Capps. “That doesn’t serve the majority of the people, who are not red, not blue, but are some shade in between.”

Center director Wade Clark Roof said, “The Capps Center was established in 2002 to advance discussion of major issues related to ethics and values and to promote civic engagement. Non-partisan and non-sectarian, the Center exists to strengthen and extend the principles on which a democracy rests, namely, tolerance, civility, and the importance of dialogue about the common good.”

William Etling is the author of “Sideways in Neverland: Life in the Santa Ynez Valley.” E-mail valleynotebook@gmail.com, or call 688-0500.