Article: "Debunking Centrism"

[Armstead]

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050103&c=2&s=sirota

Debunking Centrism
The Nation

By David Sirota

...The American Heritage Dictionary defines "centrism" as "the political philosophy of avoiding the extremes of right and left by taking a moderate position." So to find out what is really "mainstream," the best place to look is public polling data....

Let's start with economic policy. The DLC and the press claim Democrats who attack President Bush and the Republicans for siding with the superwealthy are waging "class warfare," which they claim will hurt Democrats at the ballot box. Yet almost every major poll shows Americans already essentially believe Republicans are waging a class war on behalf of the rich--they are simply waiting for a national party to give voice to the issue. In March 2004, for example, a Washington Post poll found a whopping 67 percent of Americans believe the Bush Administration favors large corporations over the middle class.

The "centrists" tell Democrats not to hammer corporations for their misbehavior and not to push for a serious crackdown on corporate excess, for fear the party will be hurt by an "anti-business" image. Yet such a posture, pioneered by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, is mainstream: A 2002 Washington Post poll taken during the height of the corporate accounting scandals found that 88 percent of Americans distrust corporate executives, 90 percent want new corporate regulations/tougher enforcement of existing laws and more than half think the Bush Administration is "not tough enough" in fighting corporate crime.

CUT
Now an effort is under way to set this faux "centrism" in stone. One of the leading candidates for Democratic National Committee chairman is Simon Rosenberg, a former free-trade lobbyist and head of the business-backed New Democrat Network. His group is joined by even more organizations designed to push the party to the right. The Washington Post reports that a group calling itself the "Third Way" (read: "Wrong Way") is forming to tout "centrist" policies for Democrats. Instead of leaving the Beltway and holding a town meeting to gauge the pulse of red America's working-class core, the group held its initial meeting "over dinner at a Georgetown mansion." Instead of engaging in grassroots funding efforts, it is openly relying on corporate contributions.

"The answer to the ideological extremes of the right has to be more than rigid dogma from the left," said Senator Bayh, a leader of the new group and one of Washington's most highly trumpeted "centrists." But really, who is pushing a rigid dogma: these bankrolled politicians who have hijacked "centrism" to sell out America's middle class, or the progressive populists who most often have the backing of the American people?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. This is the kind of thing I've been saying for twenty years

But don't be surprised if the usual suspects show up to poopoo the article.

:-)

[TheFarseer]

2. I must disagree

"The "centrists" tell Democrats not to hammer corporations for their misbehavior and not to push for a serious crackdown on corporate excess, for fear the party will be hurt by an "anti-business" image."

I consider myself a centrist and I don't accept this argument. Alot, I would say most, of the centrists would be attracted to the democratic party because of their "standing up for the working man" but are scared off by social issues. I find it exasperating when someone brings up tax cuts for the rich with someone like, say, Hanitty and he says, "that's class warfare, we've already heard that one." OK maybe, but have you REFUTED it? He never even bothers to refute it. Rush's attempt is seriously lame, if you've ever heard it. "I could say, 2+2=4?! I've already heard that one, try again", but that would not refute 2+2=4. Anyways, enough ranting, but I think standing up for the average working man is the best part of the democratic party.

[CWebster]

3. "I think standing up for the average working man is the best part .."

might cost you your centrist status in the present playing field.

[Armstead]

5. It depends on the definition of "the center"

As that article pointed out, the "center" is more in line with traditional liberal and progressive beliefs, such as standing up for the working people, ensuring access to healthcare, etc.

The problem with "centrists" like the DLC is that they do NOT stand for those values of the real center. Instead they support a conservative corporate agenda that is contrary to that.

The real issue is not whether Democrats should appeal to "the center." The issue is defining that center, and not usinjg it as an empty term to promote a stealth corporate right wing agenda.

[TheFarseer]

8. Hmmmmm that's something I never thought of

Figuring out what the "center" is. It is NOT religious wackos. If your main issue is getting porn off the internet or ending all forms of abortion - you will never vote democrat. If your main issue is economic equality and jobs, but some of these family values issues are important to you also, then there is a chance.

One thing that Rush always says that is true, is that democrats have set it up so that things have to go wrong for them to gain popularity. If bush's economic "plan" fails, or if Iraq falls apart, or if some environmental problem is proven, then we win. That's no way to win, but I don't know how to easily change it. I guess that's what happens when one man and one party make ALL of the decisions for 4 years.

[jonnyblitz]

4. aaah this article again. it's been posted here often. but its good.

now to wait for the obligatory link to the DLCer, Matthew Yglesias blog that supposedly refutes this article that will no doubt be posted any minute..

[Armstead]

6. I haven't been around DU much lately

So , I'm sorry if posting it is redundent. But it is an important one, and gets to the heart of the matter.

[CWebster]

7. You could plaster it on every thread

and it wouldn't be enough(to please me, of course). :hi:

[welshTerrier2]

9. the "DEAD" center

the following article was written almost a year ago (January 29, 2004) by Robert Reich:

source: http://www.robertreich.org/reich/20040129.asp

In contrast (to the republican party), the Democratic Party has had no analogous movement to animate it. Instead, every four years party loyalists throw themselves behind a presidential candidate who they believe will deliver them from the rising conservative tide. After the election, they go back to whatever they were doing before. Other Democrats have involved themselves in single-issue politics – the environment, campaign finance, the war in Iraq and so on - but these battles have failed to build a political movement. Issues rise and fall, depending on which interests are threatened and when. They can even divide Democrats, as each advocacy group scrambles after the same set of liberal donors and competes for the limited attention of the news media.

As a result, Democrats have been undisciplined, intimidated or just plain silent. They have few dedicated sources of money, and almost no ground troops. The religious left is disconnected from the political struggle. One hears few liberal Democratic phrases that are repeated with any regularity. In addition, there is no consistent Democratic world view or ideology. Most Congressional Democrats raise their own money, do their own polls and vote every which way. Democrats have little or no clear identity except by reference to what conservatives say about them.

Self-styled Democratic centrists, like those who inhabit the Democratic Leadership Council, attribute the party's difficulties to a failure to respond to an electorate grown more conservative, upscale and suburban. This is nonsense. The biggest losses for Democrats since 1980 have not been among suburban voters but among America's giant middle and working classes - especially white workers without four-year college degrees, once part of the old Democratic base. Not incidentally, these are the same people who have lost the most economic ground over the last quarter-century.

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The rush by many Democrats in recent years to the so-called center has been a pathetic substitute for candid talk about what the nation needs to do and for fueling a movement based on liberal values. In truth, America has no consistent political center. Polls reflect little more than reflexive responses to what people have most recently heard about an issue. Meanwhile, the so-called center has continued to shift to the right because conservative Republicans stay put while Democrats keep meeting them halfway.

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[DaedelusNemo]

10. Exactly. Economic populism is the key to the center. /nt