Progressives must disregard all calls to move to the center. The status quo is not sustainable and will
The traditional mainstream media are giving Republicans a lot of airtime and print space. They are using that windfall to inflict an unwarranted fear into many Democrats advising them that a leftward move is detrimental.
“Michael Bennet Could Be the Answer to the Question Every Democrat Is Asking,” declared former GOP Rep. Joe Scarborough (Washington Post, 2/11/19), referring to the centrist Democratic senator from Colorado.
“GOP Pollster Warns Progressives Could Inflict Long-Term Damage to Dems” was a report in The Hill (12/3/18), highlighting Republican operative Ed Goeas’ contention that “moving left” “ends up hurting the [Democratic] party.”
“As centrists, Democrats would clean up in 2020, but instead, it’s leftward ho!” was National Review‘s promotion (Twitter (2/15/19) of an article by Michael Brendan Dougherty that counseled Dems, “Avoid talking about impeachment and stick to simple bread-and-butter issues.”
“Joe Biden is a gaffe-prone 75-year-old Washington veteran—who is exactly what Democrats need,” wrote National Review editor Rich Lowry (11/20/18). “The play for Democrats should be obvious…. Go with Joe Biden or someone like him with a Midwestern or working-class sensibility.”
In “Democrats Need to Beware Their Loony Left” (Washington Post, 2/13/19), conservative columnist Max Boot warned Dems not to “turn themselves into the far-left caricatures that Trump and Fox News would like them to become.”
Why are Republicans advising Democrats on any stances that would make them win? The fact is they wouldn’t. What they do know is that the body politic is fertile for a Progressive message.
We’ve discussed ad nauseam that when polled, most Americans are progressive, left of center. We also know that we have been trending this way for some time. While the effects of the Powell Manifesto had attenuated the migration for some time as it grew neoliberal and Right Wing sentiments for the last several decades, the reversal is now very evident.
Donald Trump in an insidious manner is the manifestation of the reality that Americans are yearning for a significant change. Whoever leads a change defines the constructs of said change.
A few election cycles cannot solve the disease that is the world’s racial problems. Even as our current social state should make it evident that race is but a social construct, during times of financial stress, it can be used as an irrational trigger to deflect causes of economic pressure. Egalitarian economies can prevent racial flares.
Yes, Hillary won the popular vote with her centrist mantra, but she lost the election based on the game, the effects of an undemocratic electoral college. Russia? Trump could have paid an American PR firm to do what the Russians did. Again, whoever leads, defines the constructs of the change.
Recently Dr. Eddie Claude Jr. appeared on NBC’s This Week and made the most prescient statements.
“I think part of what’s happening is that the traditional spectrum of our politics has changed,” Professor Glaude said. “Often times the categories, Progressive, Conservative, Centrist might not actually map on to what’s happening on the ground. It’s much more complicated, much more fluid.”
“I think the idea of expanding the pie and dividing the pie,” the Professor continued. “… Most Progressives are thinking that the expansion of the pie involves the top one percent, the top one-tenth percent, taking all of the expansion. We have to address fundamentally that the economy is not working for everyday ordinary folk in a way that it should.”
“Markets don’t determine what we value,” Dr. Glaude said.“The markets reflect what we value. And it is not about rejecting capitalism as such. It’s about building a society that reflects the value of every everyday ordinary people in our society. And I think that argument has to be had.”
Republicans expend a lot of energy ‘advising’ Democrats. They invest in every medium not necessarily pushing their solutions but giving reasons why Progressive solutions are not the answer.
Too often Democrats panic and instead of expending the effort to defend the practical and mathematical superiority of their ideas, they acquiesce to timidity. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other newly elected unabashedly Progressive stalwarts should give many, hope.
Republicans are expending a lot of energy to manipulate Democrats into giving up moving left. Moving to the center would be fatal, and the GOP knows it.
It is imperative that we continue to tell Americans issue by issue how we intend to make life better for them. But most importantly we need to make the truthful case that our current economic model is a clear and present danger to the personal economy and well-being of most. A move to the center is a continued fraud on Americans.
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At this point in our history, it would be far wiser to move to the center, and regain control of the direction of our country. Moving towards the progressive side will be much easier if Democrats have the White House, Senate, and House. Otherwise we rish further entrenchment of Trumpism.