Gov. Charlie Baker denounced political extremism during a television interview Monday, as he reflected on the Republican Partys lackluster performance in battleground states in the midterm elections.
Baker, a Republican ranked as the most popular governor in the nation, advocated for collaboration among elected officials rather than divisiveness on CNNs The Lead with Jake Tapper. His comments came as Tapper pressed Baker about why voters in battleground states rejected Republicans, with Democrats retaining control of the Senate and the GOP only narrowly winning the House.
They want people who they believe are going to be reasonable, who are going to be collaborative, and who represent a fundamental tenet of democracy that its supposed to be a distributed decision-making model, and youre supposed to be OK with, Baker said in the CNN interview, which was recorded at the Massachusetts State House and aired on Monday afternoon.
Former President Donald Trump continues to exert significant influence on the electorate, Baker acknowledged.
That factor likely stymied Republican candidates chances at winning their election bids, said Baker, a frequent Trump critic. But Republicans need to move beyond Trump, Baker said.
What voters want are candidates and elected officials who are going to engage with the so-called other side, and who are going to take seriously that you are supposed to try to represent and hear the voices of all the people that you serve, Baker said. The big message coming out of Tuesday, and I would argue the big message voters are going to send going forward is you need to demonstrate in word and deed that you believe this is always going to be about more than just your party and your partisans.
But Baker indicated Americans are growing increasingly dissatisfied with political parties and becoming independent voters. In Massachusetts, 60% of the electorate is enrolled voters, Baker pointed out.
Thats a big statement that people are making about what they think about the narrowness of the vision and the attitude of the parties, Baker said.
Social media is partly to blame for political extremism, said Baker, invoking a warning from David Bowie from 1999.
As Baker paraphrased it, the legendary songwriter realized the burgeoning internet would be exhilarating and terrifying, and that it would completely change everything about the relationship between the content producer and receiver. Bowie also predicted the internet would spur tremendous disruption and the capacity for a very dark side to find itself and to leverage it, Baker said.
Baker said Bowie was right on numerous counts.
I do not believe the vast majority of the people who get up and go to work every day, get up and go to school every day, worry about their families, and their communities, and their kids, and their neighbors, spend anywhere near as much time on social media caring about politics as people in politics and people in media think they do, Baker said. I view it as a universe: Its loud, its influential, its noisy, but its not where most people live.