George Lakoff: No Center, No Centrists

[XemaSab]

"Centrism" is the creation of an inaccurate self-serving metaphor, and it is time to bury it.

There is no left to right linear spectrum in the American political life. There are two systems of values and modes of thought -- call them progressive and conservative (or nurturant and strict, as I have). There are total progressives, who use a progressive mode of thought on all issues. And total conservatives. And there are lots of folks who are what I've called "biconceptuals": progressive on certain issue areas and conservative on others. But they don't form a linear scale. They are all over the place: progressive on domestic policy, conservative on foreign policy; conservative on economic policy, progressive on foreign policy and social issues; conservative on religion, but progressive on social issues and foreign policy; and on and on. No linear scale. No single set of values defining a "center." Indeed many of such folks are not moderate in their views; they can be quite passionate about both their progressive and conservative views.

Get rid of the very idea of the right and the left and the center. American ideas are fundamentally progressive ideas -- the ideas this country was founded on and that carry forth that spirit. Progressives care about people and the earth, and act with responsibility and strength on that care.

The progressive view of government is simple. Progressive government has two aspects: protection and empowerment. Protection is far more than the military, police, and fire departments. It includes consumer protection, worker protection, environmental protection, public health, food and drug safety; social security, and other safety nets. It also includes protection from the government itself, and hence a balance of powers, openness, fundamental rights, and so on.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/no-center-no-centrists_b_60419.html

[fascisthunter]

1. danke (nt)

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. I've been saying that for years

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Yes. The "center" is the middle ground of compromise we carve out between

people of many ideologies. No point in starting out with moderate positions because then they will just get pulled further to the right or left or down or up. It's like any other form of bargaining. Don't start out with you desired asking price because if you do, you aren't likely to get it.

[Armstead]

4. He's right....er, correct

From the article

"The DLC has concentrated on policy wonkishness (see their 100 new policy ideas on their website) rather than values. Their concentration on laundry lists of policies rather than vision, values, and passion has not helped the Democrats electorally.

The reason the DLC has been attacking progressives, Smith argues, is that DLC members have major conservative values and are threatened by the progressive base. Some of those values are financial: Wall Street, the HMOs and drug companies, agribusiness, developers, the oil companies, and international corporations that benefit from trade agreements, outsourcing, cheap labor abroad, and practices that harm indigenous populations but bring profits. A powerful motivation for the party has been that, if they take such positions, they, like the Republicans, can get big money contributions from Wall Street....

...But worst of all, the DLC has been cowed by the conservatives. They have drunk the conservative Kool-Aid. As Harold Ford intimated in his debate with Markos Moulitsas: To win you have be a hawk on foreign policy, a social conservative on abortion and gay marriage, and not raise taxes. Nonsense.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

14. thanks for pointing this out

I haven't read the entire article yet. Now I definitely need to. Just from what you wrote, I better understand the DLC, and why I've never liked it.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. This is the biggest pile of shit on here all day.

[Maat]

6. Well, I disagree.

Lakoff is an excellent writer who clearly articulates some very important psychological principles.

[bobbolink]

8. Well, so noble of you. You're welcome to hide the thread, Mr. Casual.

:crazy:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

16. You are entitled to your opinion, of course,

but since you don't back it up with any reasons, it becomes very difficult to understand why you feel the way you do. Do you think that his initial premise of there not being a line from right to left is incorrect? Or was it something else?

[bobbolink]

7. We need to focus more on the "protection" aspect!

It would resonate, and it's a real pity that we've caved so much on this.

Lakoff is right, as usual.

[ErnestoG]

9. Centrism is a buzzword for "we don't give a fuck".

And it can also serve as a buzzword for "stay the course".

It makes me a bit nauseated. These are not "centrist" times.

[New Dawn]

10. "Centrism" = tailing the GOP

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. This guy has it right

this is why Unity08, and movements like it, won't work. What we really see today is an attack on the progressive values our nation was founded upon. We need candidates to hold high the banner of progressive ideas.

[Two Americas]

12. power and economics

Politics has always been about power and economics, not values or personal preferences.

The greatest success of the right wing propagandists has been to re-define politics in such a a way that they always favor entrenched wealth and power, always defend the few at the expense of the many.

It is not those who have been duped into voting Republican who have been the most important targets of the right wing propaganda, it is us. We have allowed ourselves be defined by them, we have let politics be re-defined, and we are now forced to operate in a context that makes it virtually impossible for us to win. We see ourselves as the mirror image opposite of whatever lunatic idiocy they come up with—a caricature of “liberals” always as defined by the opposition.

But most importantly, the issues of power and economics have been erased from the political landscape. Since the Democratic party has traditionally stood for the poor and the powerless, in opposition to the Republicans who stand for the wealthy and powerful, the Democratic party has been erased from the political landscape, or at the very least rendered weak and irrelevant.

The Republicans are fighting - and fighting very hard and very effectively - to advance the interests, the needs and desires of the wealthy and powerful few. They don't care about the cultural war issues - those are all tricks to divide and conquer the people. Don't people realize that the super-wealthy are completely tolerant of minorities and GLBT people from their own upper crust circles? That the women have power and freedom? That they all eat organic and buy green? That the women have access to abortion? That they don't carry guns and are very much opposed to gun violence? That they have wonderful health care? That they have no fear from the authorities? That the Bill of Rights is intact for them?

It is to poor people that all of those rights and freedoms and privilege are to be denied. It has nothing to do with "values" or "lifestyle choices" or any of the rest of the nonsense that the right wingers have lured us into battling over with them.

We are being suckered. The reason we don't have more success is because we are not even on the right battlefield. If we can be fooled - and we are so easily fooled - into thinking that half of our fellow working class struggling friends and neighbors are really the enemy, that distracts us from seeing who our real tormentors are, and it cripples us politically.


Why is poverty so important for us? For the same reason that super-wealth is so important to the opposition. All of us a re a lot closer to being homeless than the $250,000 a year Republican voter is to the super-wealthy who control virtually every aspect of our lives now. That is where the battle lines are, not over the cultural war issues.

Every single liberal and progressive cause could be effortlessly advanced within a context of fighting for economic justice. In the absence of that context, all of the liberal and progressive causes will be stalled indefinitely. And meanwhile, as we play out the role assigned us by the right wing, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. That is the true goal of the Republican party, and it is the root cause of every single social problem we are fighting.

Power and economics—that is what politics is about. The people know that, The opposition knows that. We are the only ones who are confused, because we have all of our bright shiny and righteous causes to distract us. Once we get clear about that, we will be able sweep the right wing from power once and for all.

[Armstead]

15. You should post this as a seperate thread

Excellent points

[Two Americas]

18. thanks

Right here -

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2774660&mesg_id=2774660



link fixed

[mckeown1128]

13. I am reading one of George Lacoffs books right now.

"Whose Freedom" it is pretty good so far. I recomend it.

[Adsos Letter]

17. well posted, Ms. Broccoli...

:hi:

[mtnsnake]

19. I couldn't agree more. There are plenty of Liberals who have a few conservative views & vice versa.

This will no doubt piss off those who think they're the last pure liberals on the face of the earth. Most people just are not purely one thing or another, but a mixture.

Lakoff is is smart because he knows how damaging that labels can be, once they're applied.

[mzmolly]

20. "Barack Obama has it right: Get rid of the very idea of the right and the left and the center."

Sounds like a worthy endorsement for Mr. Obama?

An excellent read, thanks for sharing. :hi:

[XemaSab]

21. I cut out that part from teh OP

I didn't want to alienate any people. :crazy: