In the end, though, politicians are now almost forced to pander to the ravening voter base, support the view that virtually every plank in your party's platform is irrefutably correct, because that's what voters want to hear. That's the only way to compete in primaries. This is ultimately the result of the modern proliferation of access to news. On the surface it seems great, with easy access to all kinds of opposing viewpoints. The reality is that this makes it totally unnecessary for a conservative voter to ever read liberal opinions, and vice versa. Selective news access is so easy now, and you just have to look at where the links doug posts come from, or the links bad_luck posts come from, to see why politicians are less and less likely to move toward center. It makes it painfully easy to play off popular perceptions and ignore harsh realities, because nobody your voter base listens to is going to call you out on it. Not sure what the solutions would be, though.