Why Democrats Should Chuck Centrism
Posted: 09-11-2018 12:51 AM
What The Leftist Insurgency Wants Is What You Want And You Know It
Edited & Excerpted from "Centrists Don't Exist" by Hamilton Nolan:
Forty years of rising inequality, an endless “war on terror,” and the election of America’s most prominent racist clown as president have, at long last, given rise to a political moment in which actual left-wing candidates (by American standards, at least) threaten to gain a measurable amount of power.
The most common objection to this development, heard mostly from older Democrats who have held some measure of influence in the party, is that it threatens to pull the party too far to the left, which will result, presumably, in a loss of power down the road. This is nonsense in two ways.
First, from a purely political perspective: How’s the old strategy been working for you, Democrats? You control neither Congress, nor the White House, nor the Supreme Court, nor the majority of state governments, despite a national demographic mix that is in your favor.
More importantly: the unquenchable urge of Democrats to move to the center is based not on genuinely held beliefs. For decades now, the Democratic Party has pursued the brilliant strategy of discarding ideals completely and starting with the negotiated position, calling it common-sense centrism.
Fetishizing centrism is a disease. It is a proven loser’s game. More to the point, it is not the honest pursuit of what you want. Democrats have gotten far to used to moderating themselves out of fear. Ever since the Clinton era, Democrats have been censoring their own ideals because they thought they had to.
Cut open a Democratic centrist and you’ll find a lefty heart inside, if it hasn’t shriveled away completely. People become Democrats because somewhere deep down they believe in the exact same policies that the leftists “insurgents” of today are now pursuing. But an entire generation was implicitly taught that those ideals were not realistic. And now they are afraid to embrace them wholeheartedly.
The sort of moral beliefs that give rise to political beliefs do not direct people into what pundits call the “center” of the political spectrum. Politics is not a bathtub that seeks a perfect mix of hot and cold. Politics is using power to achieve certain ends. The ends that people want to achieve are, consciously or subconsciously, aligned with broad philosophical beliefs.
The freedom of the right wing is the freedom to exploit anything and anyone for your own gain. People whose impulse is the opposite—the good of the whole, rather than the good of the individual—end up on the left. Many people cannot articulate this, and our two-party system is awful at manifesting these urges in a human way, and furthermore a lot of regular people don’t have time to think much about politics at all.
Many will just end up voting for whoever their uncle says, but anyone who cares enough to get involved in politics and cast votes based on actual policy positions is driven by a belief about right and wrong. A belief about what their general ideals are. And nobody’s f*cking ideal is “a Bloomberg-Biden ticket.”
Democratic voters: have no fear. Vote your conscience. Things are bad. We have a long journey to fix things now. Don’t concede positions that you don’t believe in. Don’t lose your nerve. Don’t run to the center because you have lost faith in the ability of pure ideas to become real. Look at recent history. Centrism is a failure. All the big bad socialists are just giving voice to what is in your own heart.
There are no centrists. There are only scared idealists. You want this. Stop fighting it and get on board.
Edited & Excerpted from "Centrists Don't Exist" by Hamilton Nolan:
Forty years of rising inequality, an endless “war on terror,” and the election of America’s most prominent racist clown as president have, at long last, given rise to a political moment in which actual left-wing candidates (by American standards, at least) threaten to gain a measurable amount of power.
The most common objection to this development, heard mostly from older Democrats who have held some measure of influence in the party, is that it threatens to pull the party too far to the left, which will result, presumably, in a loss of power down the road. This is nonsense in two ways.
First, from a purely political perspective: How’s the old strategy been working for you, Democrats? You control neither Congress, nor the White House, nor the Supreme Court, nor the majority of state governments, despite a national demographic mix that is in your favor.
More importantly: the unquenchable urge of Democrats to move to the center is based not on genuinely held beliefs. For decades now, the Democratic Party has pursued the brilliant strategy of discarding ideals completely and starting with the negotiated position, calling it common-sense centrism.
Fetishizing centrism is a disease. It is a proven loser’s game. More to the point, it is not the honest pursuit of what you want. Democrats have gotten far to used to moderating themselves out of fear. Ever since the Clinton era, Democrats have been censoring their own ideals because they thought they had to.
Cut open a Democratic centrist and you’ll find a lefty heart inside, if it hasn’t shriveled away completely. People become Democrats because somewhere deep down they believe in the exact same policies that the leftists “insurgents” of today are now pursuing. But an entire generation was implicitly taught that those ideals were not realistic. And now they are afraid to embrace them wholeheartedly.
The sort of moral beliefs that give rise to political beliefs do not direct people into what pundits call the “center” of the political spectrum. Politics is not a bathtub that seeks a perfect mix of hot and cold. Politics is using power to achieve certain ends. The ends that people want to achieve are, consciously or subconsciously, aligned with broad philosophical beliefs.
The freedom of the right wing is the freedom to exploit anything and anyone for your own gain. People whose impulse is the opposite—the good of the whole, rather than the good of the individual—end up on the left. Many people cannot articulate this, and our two-party system is awful at manifesting these urges in a human way, and furthermore a lot of regular people don’t have time to think much about politics at all.
Many will just end up voting for whoever their uncle says, but anyone who cares enough to get involved in politics and cast votes based on actual policy positions is driven by a belief about right and wrong. A belief about what their general ideals are. And nobody’s f*cking ideal is “a Bloomberg-Biden ticket.”
Democratic voters: have no fear. Vote your conscience. Things are bad. We have a long journey to fix things now. Don’t concede positions that you don’t believe in. Don’t lose your nerve. Don’t run to the center because you have lost faith in the ability of pure ideas to become real. Look at recent history. Centrism is a failure. All the big bad socialists are just giving voice to what is in your own heart.
There are no centrists. There are only scared idealists. You want this. Stop fighting it and get on board.