Columnist Hal Rothman: The center works for us

Hal Rothman

Sunday, Oct. 23, 2005 | 10:12 a.m.

You know you're in Nevada when the Republicans don't hate the unions and some of the state's leading Democrats are anti-choice on abortion.

This unlikely formulation, which perfectly describes the sentiments of our two U.S. senators, Republican John Ensign and Democrat Harry Reid, also illustrates the ways in which Nevada politics differs from the national scene.

We're a small state, and our limitations force us to the middle. Sure, there are screamers on both ends of the spectrum, but to succeed in Nevada in politics, you tack to the center. Most of us hug the middle, some so passionately that we earn the odd label of "militant centrists."

You can see it if you look at the state in Election Day color terms. If you put Nevada into the red-blue division on which TV relies these days, you'd see a bright blue center pinpointing the Las Vegas Valley, surrounded by a thickening purple ring that represents our suburbs.

The rest of the state would be red with the exception of a couple of blue dots in the north. It's a typically Western case of demography vs. geography.

At the state level, this distinction is equally clear. For the past 15 years, when we've had a Democratic governor, the complaint from his party's base was that Bob Miller governed like a Republican. Kenny Guinn has faced the same predicament: His fringe is angry at him for governing like a Democrat.

The national political parties must find Nevada exasperating. We are growing so fast that some predictions give us as many as five U.S. representatives by 2020. Right now, one seat is red, another blue, the third really purple. Who knows what colors the two new ones might be?

Our problems are our own, much to the consternation of political pundits and national parties. The uniting factor in Nevada politics is contempt for Yucca Mountain and the foul and callous way the federal government has tried to force a nuclear waste dump down our throats.

It's hard not to cheer no matter what your party is as we watch Reid cut the Yucca Mountain budget with such fervor and consistency that, before long, we'll be able to drown the damn thing in the bathtub.

Even more, our location has pulled us to the center. We sit in California's enormous shadow, simultaneously subject to its whims and apart from it.

In our politics, we've seen everything from California carpetbaggers who move here to run for office -- and I'm talking about the 19th-century U.S. Senate as well as 20th-century gubernatorial races -- to an influx of outside money trying to influence local decisions. Mostly, we've hewn to our own course, as ridiculous as it has been on some occasions, because we need the center to hold.

This is of particular importance at a time when we are bombarded by California's worst political innovation, government by referendum. While this early 20th-century mechanism was designed as a counter to the centralized political power of "The Octopus," the Southern Pacific Railroad, the mechanism has in many ways outlived its usefulness.

Instead of an instrument of direct democracy, binding referendum has become a tool of special interests, of demagogues who can afford enough media time to twist the public's perception of an issue. This was not what turn-of-the-century California intended, and it was even further from the ideas of Thomas Jefferson and the founding generation.

While we're not so dependent on California that when it sneezes, we get pneumonia, it's hard to be independent when the world's fifth-largest economy is next door.

California's influence on us is growing, as more of Nevada's population has its roots in the Golden State and seeks here to avoid what former Californians see as the various flaws of their home state. Those shortcomings differ depending on whom you ask, providing even more reason for us to hold true to the precepts of Nevada.

We can sum those up most simply as "your business is your business" and "your property is your property." These two seemingly competing impulses, privacy and minimal regulation of the private sector, blend nicely in the Silver State. Our tradition is to leave each other alone and to let people manage their assets with as little interference as possible.

No wonder we're in the center. With privacy as a virtue, we lean Democratic. With lack of regulation as a virtue, we lean Republican. Split the difference and we're back to the militant center.

In Nevada, history is barely a barometer, much less a dependable guide. Nonetheless, the state's patterns and traditions should scare political extremists of all kinds.

The center serves us well: It allows us more rather than less freedom in all kinds of ways, encourages our primary economy, and reminds us of how different we are from our neighbors. The center may not be exciting, but it does work for Nevada.