The Centrist Dodge

[Velleity]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum..._blog.html

This puts into words something I have been wringing my hands over for quite some time.

Quote:Self-styled “centrist” columnists have a perennial problem on their hands. They have built reputations by calling for middle-of-the-road solutions to our problems. Yet they can’t acknowledge that Obama and Democrats are the ones who are offering solutions that are genuinely centrist, because that would constitute “taking sides.” This would imperil their “brand,” which rests heavily on transcending partisanship, and on their ongoing insistence that the future depends on following a middle ground between the parties.

These commentators have found several routes around this problem. One is to continually call for a third party without admitting that the solutions they themselves envision any third party advancing have a good deal in common with what Dems are offering. Another is to simply pretend that Obama and Dems have not offered the solutions they have, in fact, offered.

The author goes on to give an example from Thomas Friedman. Friedman pretends that President "Obama hasn’t been clear about what he wants" and Friedman has used other dodges as well.

[jaxx]

One of the things that we got from dubya was the "my way or the highway" mentality. He didn't start it, but he encouraged it and his administration was built on it. It has become the calling card of the rightwing in all things. The 'centrist' columnists have become fence sitters in a time when they have made themselves irrelevant because they can't admit the GOP doesn't have all the answers. They blame PBO for not having a jobs plan, never mind the AJA. No health care plan, never mind the ACA, and so on. What they are doing is carrying water for the right.

Let them sink.

[Treestar]

Exactly, Jaxx, the extremists of both sides are "my way or the highway" (or armed revolution) - the Republican party itself is now off the chart into extremism. The "middle" is the Democrats - or the Democrats' middle, as it were. Yet the right gets so far with its temper tantrum bullying. The MSM enables them because they cause the dramatics.

In life I have noticed that people who engage in dramatics tend to get the level headed involved in their drama and bad behavior and drag people down. They shouldn't be allowed to do that.

[There Is No Spoon]

God I can't stand these types.

They're worse than the partisan types who are at least honest.

I HATE false equivocation - the 2 sides are NOT equal.

[sandnsea]

Oh please. Pick a side. The differences in left and right couldn't be more clear. It's gotten to the point where the goals aren't even the same. You can't have centrist solutions when one wants to navigate a river and the other wants to pollute it, drain it, and pave it over. Twenty years ago there was an opportunity to put together middle of the road legislation. The right wouldn't accept it. Now we're passing legislation that they proposed at the time - and they still won't accept it. The further right we let them go, the more they show their true colors. Or should I say color. Whites Only. Until the ivory tower journalists figure that out, they won't be able to write a useful political analysis. They're the ones who need to go to the corner bar and figure out who these beer drinkers they're always blathering about, really are.

[Peadar O Suileabhain]

A true centrist is able to look at ideas from across the ideological spectrum and find the best aspects from all quarters.

These people are Broderites. The Village. Path of Least Resistance Democrats/Republicans.

They put a premium on predictability and an enforced stability. They avoid conflict like the plague mainly because they view that as a gauche, plebian activity that the Better Sort don't indulge in.

Local example...there are two Dems running for governor of NH this year. Both are relatively liberal women who formerly served as state senators. They have nearly identical voting records.

The difference lies in how they handle themself. The "centrist" is Maggie Hassan. Why is she the "centrist" and Jackie Cilley the "liberal"? It's because Hassan took the local version of the Norquist Pledge. She is an acolyte of our quasi-Democratic governor, John Lynch, who signed an anti Obamacare bill into law because he wants to play nice with his wife's friends in the hospital and health insurance industry. Jackie respects the voters enough not to play these sorts of play it safe calculations. Say what you believe, make your case, and have an honest conversation. The alternative simply pushes real change off into the dim and distant future.