The collapse of the middle

I wrote this on Facebook earlier, in a rare political post from me over there:

"The past few elections have seen the mass removal of 'moderates' from elected positions in the US and UK, as evidenced by the elimination of Blue Dog Democrats, Rockefeller Republicans, Third Way, the UK Lib Dems, etc., combined with the rise of prominent outsider politicians in both countries. The emphasis appears to have shifted to maximizing votes from core supporters; to paraphrase Meghan Trainor, it's 'all about that base'.

This isn't necessarily negative; voter turnout has been declining for years and if energy returns to voting across the political spectrum and productive debate increases, that's positive."

Many people feel as though moderate politicians haven't been good for either country; by trying to appeal to only a small part of the electorate, said officials end up appearing to disgruntle core party supporters, who want to see their views represented properly rather than given a watered-down substitute at best.