My high school government teacher would ask us, "what happens when you try to stay in the middle of the road?" And the answer is "you get hit by a truck" even more true 20 years later
This was a brilliant read - thank you for putting this case (reality!) so clear-sightedly. That left-right charade has completely hoodwinked voters in the UK, too, where our archaic first-past-the-post voting system reduces us only to two electable parties. Starmer’s Labour did the whole shift right to claim the centre thing, and now the UK has one of the most authoritarian, big-business-led governments we’ve ever seen. Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn’s new party already has over 600,000 members, giving it the biggest party membership in UK politics!
I was a Democrat until I could no longer stomach Clinton, then returned to support Bernie. But the stereotype for the middle for many years—fiscally conservative and socially liberal—is more or less what Harris, Biden, Obama, and the Clintons represent. Everyone is so divided by faction, though. This morning, NPR presented a story that pointed to the focus on DEI as a distraction away from electoral success, because we cannot address racism and the needs of “the working class” at the same time apparently. But if observing and defining the need for inclusivity is somehow too far left, then what the hell is the center? Pure conservatism? This is what we’re left with to counter radical populist fascism? Screw that. Define your values and explain them with clarity and passion. Define your enemies (billionaires, unchecked growth on a new domestic military, threats to the social safety net, etc.) and unload on them mercilessly.
Most people think they are in the center, just like people making $80k and $800k think they are middle class. LOL. I think I am the most reasonable thinker I know. And so do you. And so does our boss. And so does Jeff Bezos.
If disillusioned voters who still believe the political process is salvageable in the US really want to get serious about left-ratcheting the system, they could split both parties and form a new actual left wing party. The resulting new party would be twice the size of either of the old parties, and the old Democrats would be able to coax right wingers across in order to attempt preventing the left-ratchet. Which would leave the Right-wingers standing in very lonely little groups that nobody would take seriously anymore.
This is just one option, but I would prefer if people let go of representative democracy entirely and went all in on creating a federated network of local councils with participatory direct democracy as a new standard... and then use this system to figure out where America really wants to go in the future once Capitalism's hold on politics is broken.
Great article - but isn’t what is missing from the debate in general that we need to reimagine what the centre actually is…? Not an attempt to triangulate to somewhere in the middle of the Overton Window at any one given time…rather - a metaphysical/meta-political centre which transcends it…? A centre built on values which don’t sway with the prevailing winds rather than one built on policy which seems expedient for electoral purposes…? And perhaps it will be whomever captures that position who will build a coalition that will shape the future…
Thank you, I 100% agree! We need to hurtle toward egalitarianism at top speed, and that means moving the Overton Window far enough to start letting it into public consciousness. Universal healthcare, UBI, unions, living wage, signing the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child, ending war, taxing the rich, all of it.
I disagree with this pretty significantly. "There isn't some huge block of voters who are perfectly situated between the Black Panthers and the KKK."
I'm not sure how anyone could actually believe this. The space between the Black Panthers and the KKK is pretty expansive. I have met 2 people in my whole life who expressed some admiration for either the KKK or the Black Panthers, neither of whom I'd consider "wise".
Moderation isn't a lie, it's a plea for sanity. And the diversity of opinion that occupies that space makes it difficult for those on the outside looking in to comprehend, but here we are anyway. I can well imagine the Americans concerned about the fascist nature of Trump and his administration, and the sychofantic right, just as they can be concerned about the volume and tone of the far left that demand moral purity of all they come into contact with lest you be excommunicated from the left-wing coalition. How can I imagine it? Because I am that.
It doesn't mean I don't understand where to prioritize my concern; it doesn't mean that because I don't like Trump, I am by default ideologically similar to Mamdani. This boxing of people, the idea that we ought to "pick a side" is a losing strategy. I don't align with socialists, communists and people who think the United States of America embodies evil. The media environment of the democratic party and the left now seems to be courting people like this, and I don't like it.
Mamdani ran a race in metropolitan NYC. Do you think that strategy will win out in West Virginia? Texas? Wisconsin? Because those elections matter too. Biden, a moderate, got more votes than any presidential candidate ever in 2020. And your telling me the center doesn't exist? I'm sorry, but that is patently false.
“Palestine is the perfect example. Now, horrifyingly late in the genocide, more Democratic politicians are finally voting to send fewer weapons to Israel. But for 20 months most of them tried to have it both ways; they tried to find a center point between the slaughtered and the slaughterers. They tried to triangulate the middle position on genocide. And it left people disgusted. It left people seeing that most of these politicians are spineless. The fact that Senators and members of Congress couldn’t, and in many cases still can’t, bring themselves to vote against sending bombs to be dropped on civilians wasn’t some brilliant centrist calculation, it was weak and disgusting and depraved.”
Best description of Demoncrap party leadership I’ve ever heard!
My high school government teacher would ask us, "what happens when you try to stay in the middle of the road?" And the answer is "you get hit by a truck" even more true 20 years later
This was a brilliant read - thank you for putting this case (reality!) so clear-sightedly. That left-right charade has completely hoodwinked voters in the UK, too, where our archaic first-past-the-post voting system reduces us only to two electable parties. Starmer’s Labour did the whole shift right to claim the centre thing, and now the UK has one of the most authoritarian, big-business-led governments we’ve ever seen. Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn’s new party already has over 600,000 members, giving it the biggest party membership in UK politics!
MAGA keeps kicking our asses because they stand for something, odious as it may be.
“There’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos” - Jim Hightower
I was a Democrat until I could no longer stomach Clinton, then returned to support Bernie. But the stereotype for the middle for many years—fiscally conservative and socially liberal—is more or less what Harris, Biden, Obama, and the Clintons represent. Everyone is so divided by faction, though. This morning, NPR presented a story that pointed to the focus on DEI as a distraction away from electoral success, because we cannot address racism and the needs of “the working class” at the same time apparently. But if observing and defining the need for inclusivity is somehow too far left, then what the hell is the center? Pure conservatism? This is what we’re left with to counter radical populist fascism? Screw that. Define your values and explain them with clarity and passion. Define your enemies (billionaires, unchecked growth on a new domestic military, threats to the social safety net, etc.) and unload on them mercilessly.
Most people think they are in the center, just like people making $80k and $800k think they are middle class. LOL. I think I am the most reasonable thinker I know. And so do you. And so does our boss. And so does Jeff Bezos.
If disillusioned voters who still believe the political process is salvageable in the US really want to get serious about left-ratcheting the system, they could split both parties and form a new actual left wing party. The resulting new party would be twice the size of either of the old parties, and the old Democrats would be able to coax right wingers across in order to attempt preventing the left-ratchet. Which would leave the Right-wingers standing in very lonely little groups that nobody would take seriously anymore.
This is just one option, but I would prefer if people let go of representative democracy entirely and went all in on creating a federated network of local councils with participatory direct democracy as a new standard... and then use this system to figure out where America really wants to go in the future once Capitalism's hold on politics is broken.
Great article - but isn’t what is missing from the debate in general that we need to reimagine what the centre actually is…? Not an attempt to triangulate to somewhere in the middle of the Overton Window at any one given time…rather - a metaphysical/meta-political centre which transcends it…? A centre built on values which don’t sway with the prevailing winds rather than one built on policy which seems expedient for electoral purposes…? And perhaps it will be whomever captures that position who will build a coalition that will shape the future…
Thank you, I 100% agree! We need to hurtle toward egalitarianism at top speed, and that means moving the Overton Window far enough to start letting it into public consciousness. Universal healthcare, UBI, unions, living wage, signing the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child, ending war, taxing the rich, all of it.
I disagree with this pretty significantly. "There isn't some huge block of voters who are perfectly situated between the Black Panthers and the KKK."
I'm not sure how anyone could actually believe this. The space between the Black Panthers and the KKK is pretty expansive. I have met 2 people in my whole life who expressed some admiration for either the KKK or the Black Panthers, neither of whom I'd consider "wise".
Moderation isn't a lie, it's a plea for sanity. And the diversity of opinion that occupies that space makes it difficult for those on the outside looking in to comprehend, but here we are anyway. I can well imagine the Americans concerned about the fascist nature of Trump and his administration, and the sychofantic right, just as they can be concerned about the volume and tone of the far left that demand moral purity of all they come into contact with lest you be excommunicated from the left-wing coalition. How can I imagine it? Because I am that.
It doesn't mean I don't understand where to prioritize my concern; it doesn't mean that because I don't like Trump, I am by default ideologically similar to Mamdani. This boxing of people, the idea that we ought to "pick a side" is a losing strategy. I don't align with socialists, communists and people who think the United States of America embodies evil. The media environment of the democratic party and the left now seems to be courting people like this, and I don't like it.
Mamdani ran a race in metropolitan NYC. Do you think that strategy will win out in West Virginia? Texas? Wisconsin? Because those elections matter too. Biden, a moderate, got more votes than any presidential candidate ever in 2020. And your telling me the center doesn't exist? I'm sorry, but that is patently false.
“Palestine is the perfect example. Now, horrifyingly late in the genocide, more Democratic politicians are finally voting to send fewer weapons to Israel. But for 20 months most of them tried to have it both ways; they tried to find a center point between the slaughtered and the slaughterers. They tried to triangulate the middle position on genocide. And it left people disgusted. It left people seeing that most of these politicians are spineless. The fact that Senators and members of Congress couldn’t, and in many cases still can’t, bring themselves to vote against sending bombs to be dropped on civilians wasn’t some brilliant centrist calculation, it was weak and disgusting and depraved.”
Best description of Demoncrap party leadership I’ve ever heard!
“Things fall apart. The center cannot hold. The blood-red tide of innocence is loosed upon the world.”