New proto-centrist party in Mass.

Charlie Baker

Perhaps the country’s most interesting political development right now is in Massachusetts, where Gov. Charlie Baker, a moderate Republican, is supporting a sort of proto-new party called Massachusetts Majority that gives money to candidates of both parties whom Mr. Baker, currently America’s most popular governor, support. As Ed Lyons wrote in CommonWealth Magazine:

‘’By all appearances, Massachusetts Majority is the engine of a new statewide political party, targeting that sizeable majority of largely unenrolled voters who support Charlie Baker and his politics but are not being served by loud partisans to the left and right. These voters do not want to choose between supporting the positions of Donald Trump or progressive purists. Massachusetts Majority is specifically designed to be the organization they can finally support.

“Can Charlie Baker be the most popular governor in America, govern as a Republican, and also be the detached head of a third party here that supports Republican and Democratic candidates? It’s remarkably non-binary of him, and I think people in this state will be OK with that. After all, it is strict binary choices, and the accompanying polarization, that is destroying American politics. Here in Massachusetts, more than half want non-binary choices.’’

Can the newish organization be part of a foundation for a thoughtful new center or center-right national party? The old Slave States are probably off limits but perhaps something like the Massachusetts Majority can spread to large areas of the Northeast, Middle Atlantic, Upper Midwest and West Coast. The Northeast and Upper Midwest were the original heartland of the Republican Party – a party now dominated by the political descendants of the old Southern Democrats in the great 180-degree political party turn of the last half century.

To Mr. Lyons’s piece, please hit this link.