The Myth of the Ideological Center In American Politcs
What or where is the center anyway?
Economically and Fiscally Conservative and Socially Liberal?
Or, is it Socially Conservative and Economically and Fiscally Liberal?
In my view there is no such thing as an ‘ideological center’.
The ideological center is a myth that simply cannot and does not exist in the world of high stakes, prime time political reality.
This is how ‘centrism’ goes:
We pay a team of firefighters to enter a burning tenement to save the life of a child who the government budget cutters have determined isn’t worth the cost of feeding.
Or, as Joe Biden, the ‘centrist’, would have it :
He’s In favor of the desegregation of public schools. However, he’s against busing, the only viable means of achieving it…
If ‘Centrism’ exists at all it is in the maintenance of a status quo….
07/08/2019 @ 11:29 am
Reasonable argument.
07/08/2019 @ 11:44 am
When I think of “centrists” I NEVER consider them to be the political “center”. Today’s “centrists” are so far off center that 1990 Republicans would have considered them to be “the fringe right”.
The actual political center, the sweet spot if you will, is so far to the left of Nancy Pelosi, Schumer and Hoyer that none of them can see it from their house (arkane SNL reference).
07/08/2019 @ 11:51 am
Is there a significant constituency for the maintenance of the status quo?
How would a distribution of views look? Would we be looking at some sort of bell curve or would we be looking at two peaks separated by a valley in the center? As we move to the twin peaks model, which is where I think we’re going in a hurry, centrism becomes less of a valid concept, certainly less of a valid constituency.
Part of what we’re looking at is a political distortion engendered by the realities of getting to and staying in office as opposed to what the public wants. Here we watch social egalitarians – and they’re not all completely egalitarian, particularly on gender issues – pandering to wealthy interests to keep themselves in office, and so mechanisms designed to decrease the absurd disparities in wealth distribution we have now are diverted, diluted, or short-circuited in the name of centrism that isn’t really centrist per se, it’s just special interest politics exploiting the country.
07/08/2019 @ 11:51 am
That’s one hell of a resume. Now boil it down to 20 words and….never mind. That’s impossible.
07/08/2019 @ 11:52 am
Loved the graphic by the way.
BindleSnitch - Who or What is a "Centrist"?: Making Amy's Case
08/17/2019 @ 10:45 am
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