MARCHING TOWARD THE MIDDLE

October 21, 1998
	Dr. Carl Luna and Dr. Joe McKenzie, two professors of political science at San Diego Mesa College, take a look at the differences between Sen. Barbara Boxer and State Treasurer Matt Fong.

Online NewsHour Special Report: Election '98 Return to the California index. Oct. 20, 1998: Political writer John Wildermuth looks at the final debate. Oct. 14, 1998: Political scientists Carl Luna and Joe McKenzie on what the Senate race says about the Golden State. Oct. 13, 1998: Political writer John Wildermuth provides analysis from California. Oct. 12, 1998: Jeffrey Kaye reports on the U.S. Senate race in California.   Matt Fong, Republican Senate candidate for California. Barbara Boxer, incumbent Senator from California. U.S. Senate White House San Francisco Chronicle	SAN DIEGO: For all the hype the California Senate race has generated, the differences between the candidates are not that substantial. Indeed, you can trace the movement of the San Andreas fault line of California politics by looking at Matt Fong's and Barbara Boxer's similarities. In this moderate-middle ground the politicians are tough on crime, green-lite on the environment, favor legal abortion, favor a foreign policy that keeps America safe and an economy that keeps American's working. Both Fong and Boxer want additional money to raise pay and benefits for the military. Both support the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military and both back expansion of NATO to include Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Boxer is the unabashedly pro-choice candidate. Fong has had to do more of the Republican tap dance on the issue, trying to please moderates without antagonizing the anti-abortion-under-any-circumstance wing of the Republican Party. Both agree, however, that a woman has the right to chose an abortion in the first trimester and both favor a ban on late-term abortions, although Boxer favors an exemption where the mother's health is involved. Both are "tough on crime" and support the 1994 Federal ban on 19 forms of semi-automatic assault weapons, though Boxer wishes to expand the ban on new categories of guns. On the environment, both support existing offshore drilling moratoriums. Both believe Federal law should be changed to allow patients to sue HMOs in disputes over care, although Fong wants to place limits on money judgements. On such minor differences, the fate of the nation does not hinge.
	Searching for a difference.
	Where then, does the divide still loom? The Air Force Reserve lieutenant colonel favors additional spending to promote combat readiness and to resurrect and deploy "Star Wars" technologies. The mother and former Marin County Supervisor favors increased readiness spending funded by cuts in "unnecessary" weapons systems like "star wars." Fong distrusts open-ended peacekeeping missions and excessive U.S. fraternization with international organizations. Fong represents a trend in post-cold war Republicanism: a return to pre-cold war isolationism. Boxer reflects Democratic internationalism, supporting U.S. peacekeeping operations around the world and a commitment to a multilateral foreign policy. Yet Fong is the free trade advocate while Boxer is hostile to NAFTA. On the economy, Boxer favors traditional New Deal-style fiscal stimuli, targeting research and experimentation tax credits and reductions in capital gains taxes on profits from start-up companies. Fong, the supply-side Republican, favors a new flat-tax code (with and exemption for mortgage interest), abolition of inheritance taxes, an end to the marriage penalty and some form of social security privatization. The national swing to the right in the '80s and '90s did not bury liberalism or destroy the New Deal. The national pendulum that swung far left in the '60s, may well have overcompensated in its swing to the right, and now heads back to the new American middle. --Carl Luna & Joe Mac McKenzie