Who's Your Base ?

Pondering the effect that yesterday's election will have on the Republican Party, I'd like to propose an hypothesis: The Democratic Party is positioned far better to become a "Centrist" party appealing to most Americans. And one big reason is just who makes up the "base" of both parties.

1. While the Left has its share of extremists, these folks don't make up the Democratic base. Our base overwhelmingly consists of people who are centrist to moderately left of center. And if you can tear yourself away from right-wing talk radio and actually use your brain, you'll also see that leaders like the Clintons, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi are all pretty moderately left to centrist in their political philosophies.

2. On the other hand, the Republican base is almost completely made up of extremists. The Pro "Life" bunch, NRA fanatics, way-out-there evangelicals, the Limbaugh-Hannity black helicopter crowd. And Republican politicians spend so much time & energy pandering to this bunch that they completely alienate centrist to moderately conservative voters.

What do you think ?