"It's hard to read this week's election results, and the public opinion polls generally, and not be concerned about the collapse of the political center.... [I disagree] that this is strictly a Republican phenomenon, in which the "tea party'' and other anti-government zealots are in the final stages of driving out experienced, thoughtful moderates from the Republican party. The dynamic on the Democratic side is as much about interest group politics as it is about political ideology, but you don't have to look hard to find it in the defeat locally of Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty and Montgomery Council member Duchy Trachtenberg, or nationally in President Obama's declining poll numbers."