The Democratic Primaries Have One Clear Loser: Third Way Centrism
Something HOPEFUL from the...
The Roosevelt Institute
By Mike Konczal | 03.03.16
The Democratic Primaries Have One Clear Loser: Third Way Centrism
It’s worth taking a break from watching the implosion of the Republican Party to pay attention to intra-Democratic fighting.
Liberal economics has had a pretty great run in the 2016 primary, and I’m optimistic about its chances going forward. I’m even more optimistic after reading this thrown-together op-ed from Jon Cowan, president of the centrist think tank Third Way, titled “3 Ways Hillary Clinton’s Super Tuesday Wins Upend Democratic Conventional Wisdom,” in which he tries to prove my optimism wrong.
Super Tuesday, to Cowan, shows that “the implications of Hillary Clinton’s winning streak are significant: Liberal populism can’t possibly be the future of the Democratic Party.”
Even better for centrism, “Mrs. Clinton has not tacked left to beat Mr. Sanders; she is beating him because she has attacked his core premises.” (If Clinton goes on to lose in 2016, he’ll blame centrism for that loss, right?)
This is clearly wrong, both as a read of the campaign and as a claim about where the future of the party is.
If this were simply a matter of an op-ed being wrong on the internet, we shouldn’t care, but the question of how Democrats understand what has happened has consequences for their general election strategy—a strategy in which liberal economics must play a central role.
The primary has shown us that young voters, the future of the party, are very liberal, and that the debate is centered around liberal economic goals, excluding traditional centrist concerns. It has also shown us where the limits currently are in liberal economics—limits that are important to know so we can continue to push past them.
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A 25-year-old voter right now was negative three years old when Michael Dukakis lost in 1988. They simply aren’t of an era in which the old Reagan battles are relevant. They don’t know that being a liberal (or a socialist!) is obviously a dirty thing in D.C. circles. A place like Third Way makes no sense to them. They’ve grown up in a world of war and economic stagnation, and they think a more expansive version of liberalism is crucial to challenging this. Polling work we’ve done here at Roosevelt shows that a robust liberal message is the best way to increase enthusiasm among these key groups, enthusiasm that will be necessary for the general election.
These voters are the future of the Democratic Party, and it’s essential that there’s liberal infrastructure to guide this generation into power, directing its energy into local, state, and national elections. (I hope Sanders has a way to keep this base active and growing after the primary.)
But the future, as of now, is clear: The party must choose between liberal economics ideas and arguments to engage and sustain them or centrist ones if it wants them to stay home on election day.
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Read in full~
http://rooseveltinstitute.org/democratic-primaries-have-one-clear-loser-third-way-centrism/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Sorry, but that just tickled my funny bone. 
Negative 5 was my best year, I think. Probably. I'm pretty sure. 
thank you for posting.. 
the continuation of republicans masquerading as Democrats under the cover of "Centrism". They may be the short term winner because the game is rigged, but the future is lost to them. The young are our future, & they're Liberal.
Personally, I'd love to see the Democratic Party ditched by us liberals in future elections if Hillary is our nominee in this one. Its time MoveOn & DFA & Working Families Party & the AFL-CIO & BLM band together with the Greens to form a new viable third party to challenge the 2 conservative corporate-bought parties.
The Progressive Populist Party. The PPP. 
Just dreaming...
Thanks!
