The myth of the “center”
http://boztopia.com/?p=15Atrios, Carol Shea-Porter, centrism, Jon Tester, liberal, Matthew Yglesias, PATRIOT Act, progressivehttp://boztopia.com/?p=15#comments
One of the more irritatingly persistent memes that’s been hanging around like an annoying roommate is the notion that Democrats won by moving towards “the center.” That the blowout on Annihilation Day was somehow a triumph for sensible bipartisanship over bickering partisanship. And that the Democrats who won are more conservative than is the norm for the party, and that they’ll find common ground with the Republicans.
Don’t believe it. Atrios debunks the myth of the “center” in succinct fashion:
There was a time when the “political center” had some actual meaning and some genuine relationship to voter preference, but it’s now a concept which has been redefined to be equated with the elite consensus. Centrism is sensible, sensible pundits are sensible, so whatever sensible pundits think is correct is the center. Magic!
Precisely. The chattering class is furious over an election they were generally completely wrong about, and even more so by the fact that they no longer control the discourse. In their view, “centrism” is whatever benefits whomever is in power at the moment, and that “sensibility” usually means “Every policy we support.” In fact, that’s the sort of thinking I find in practically everyone-”sensible” means “All the shit I agree with,” and to disagree makes you “unsensible,” and generally a wacko leftist.
Well, let’s take a look at the “sensible centrist” policies of Montana’s newest Senator, Jon Tester. Supporting stem cell research? Opposing the PATRIOT Act? Raising the minimum wage? Wow, sounds mighty non-centric to me. Or how about New Hampshire’s Carol Shea-Porter? What’s she got to say about education, for example?:
The right wing of the Republican party is trying to undermine our confidence in our public schools because they want to create a taxpayer funded voucher system for private education from K-12 . Their goal is to convince families to give up on their schools and the educators who are working so hard to cope with the complexities of education and society today. We must not be fooled into abandoning our school system. We need to fix problem schools, but we must make them stronger, not doom them to failure.
*gasp* Supporting public schools? How unsensibly non-centric! Matthew Yglesias has more on the so-liberal-I-might-cry policies of Shea-Porter.
The truth is not that the Democrats won by moving to the center. The truth is that there IS no “center” where everyone can agree anymore. There hasn’t been for years-at least the bulk of my lifetime. There are issues we support, and issues we oppose. We build coalitions to support politicians based on these issues, and either find common ground or bitter opposition.
The other truth is that these are solidly liberal policies, or at least distinctly more leftwards than the pro-corporatist, fundiecrat, pro-surveillance wings of the GOP are willing to accept. If the political tide of the country has moved to support issues like these, that’s a sign that the people have caught up to progressive thinking. If there IS a center, it’s moved very much in my direction, not away from it.
Progressive liberal populism has come around again. Oh, happy day.
One of the more irritatingly persistent memes that’s been hanging around like an annoying roommate is the notion that Democrats won by moving towards “the center.” That the blowout on Annihilation Day was somehow a triumph for sensible bipartisanship over bickering partisanship. And that the Democrats who won are more conservative than is the norm for the party, and that they’ll find common ground with the Republicans.
Don’t believe it. Atrios debunks the myth of the “center” in succinct fashion:
There was a time when the “political center” had some actual meaning and some genuine relationship to voter preference, but it’s now a concept which has been redefined to be equated with the elite consensus. Centrism is sensible, sensible pundits are sensible, so whatever sensible pundits think is correct is the center. Magic!
Precisely. The chattering class is furious over an election they were generally completely wrong about, and even more so by the fact that they no longer control the discourse. In their view, “centrism” is whatever benefits whomever is in power at the moment, and that “sensibility” usually means “Every policy we support.” In fact, that’s the sort of thinking I find in practically everyone-”sensible” means “All the shit I agree with,” and to disagree makes you “unsensible,” and generally a wacko leftist.
Well, let’s take a look at the “sensible centrist” policies of Montana’s newest Senator, Jon Tester. Supporting stem cell research? Opposing the PATRIOT Act? Raising the minimum wage? Wow, sounds mighty non-centric to me. Or how about New Hampshire’s Carol Shea-Porter? What’s she got to say about education, for example?:
The right wing of the Republican party is trying to undermine our confidence in our public schools because they want to create a taxpayer funded voucher system for private education from K-12 . Their goal is to convince families to give up on their schools and the educators who are working so hard to cope with the complexities of education and society today. We must not be fooled into abandoning our school system. We need to fix problem schools, but we must make them stronger, not doom them to failure.
*gasp* Supporting public schools? How unsensibly non-centric! Matthew Yglesias has more on the so-liberal-I-might-cry policies of Shea-Porter.
The truth is not that the Democrats won by moving to the center. The truth is that there IS no “center” where everyone can agree anymore. There hasn’t been for years-at least the bulk of my lifetime. There are issues we support, and issues we oppose. We build coalitions to support politicians based on these issues, and either find common ground or bitter opposition.
The other truth is that these are solidly liberal policies, or at least distinctly more leftwards than the pro-corporatist, fundiecrat, pro-surveillance wings of the GOP are willing to accept. If the political tide of the country has moved to support issues like these, that’s a sign that the people have caught up to progressive thinking. If there IS a center, it’s moved very much in my direction, not away from it.
Progressive liberal populism has come around again. Oh, happy day.