Excellent point by kos on Lieberman's "centrism"

[BurtWorm]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/5/30/131257/698


Everytime I hear someone blather about "moderate" or "centrist" I harken back to this:

John Podesta, president of the progressive Center for American Progress (CAP), faced pointed questions from lawmakers at last Thursday's New Democrat Coalition (NDC) meeting about an inflammatory e-mail his organization sent to liberal activists and bloggers.

In a March 9 e-mail, David Sirota, a fellow at CAP, accused 16 pro-business Democrats of supporting bankruptcy-reform legislation because they received political contributions from the commercial banks and credit-card companies that stand to benefit if the legislation becomes law.

The e-mail coursed through the blogosphere and generated angry phone calls from liberal activists to the offices of the 16 centrist Democrats. Sirota, a former minority spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, criticized 16 of the 20 Democrats who wrote Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) March 7 urging him to bring bankruptcy reform to the House floor <...>

According to an aide familiar with the meeting, one lawmaker said, "There is a school of thought out there that we should `shoot all the centrists,' so John, are you of that school or do you want us to just go ahead and shoot ourselves now?"

This incident rests in my mind as the consumate example of the fiction of the "centrist" label. I remember it as if it was yesterday, and I remember exactly what we were asking of those members of the NDC:

"What, exactly, is 'centrist' about the bankruptcy bill?"

Was it supported by a majority of the American people, putting it squarely in the political mainstream? Nope. It was a corporate giveaway to the credit card industry. Nothing more. Nothing less. People like me and Sirota and countless others pleaded to the NDC to explain why they called the bill "centrist", we promised to lay off once they exlained themselves, but we never got a single answer. Not one.
<my emphasis>
Because they couldn't. There is nothing "centrist" about the bankruptcy bill, just as much of what passes as "centrism" in DC is nothing of the sort.

Sirota is dead on.

So is Lieberman a "centrist"? Well, in the DC formulation of the word, sure. He's well-entrenched in the DC establishment, he's a corporate lobbyist's wet dream, he cheerleads military adventures abroad without shouldering any of the hardship, and he's quick to abandon party loyalty (and principles) for an opportunity to earn kudos from George Bush and Sean Hannity.

Under any rational definition of "centrist", Lieberman wouldn't qualify.

But really, there is nothing rational about DC or it's media establishment.

[TahitiNut]

1. Pols are 'centrist' if they commit fewer atrocities than others.

That's the only 'definition' I'm able to glean from (what passes for) public and DU discussions. It's a little like calling Jeffrey Dahmer a 'moderate' because he murdered fewer people than Ted Bundy. Come to think of it, maybe Ted Bundy's a 'moderate' becasue he didn't murder every female he met.

There's nothing 'centrist' about corporatist predation when the average wealthy person in the top 1% owns (and profits from) about 50% of all corporate equities and securities and the bottom 80% own only 10%. That's a 400::1 ratio. Fucking over the bottom 80% to further increase the wealth of the top 1% is extreme, not 'centrist'.

[mmonk]

2. The whole term "centrist" is a lie

in my opinion. Center would indicate balance and there's no balance in the self-proclaimed "centrist" movement. It's definitely right of center.

[Selatius]

3. The "bankruptcy reform" law is NOT centrist; it's Corporatism

Nelson, Biden, and others who voted for that atrocious attack on the middle class and the working poor are what the Democratic Party needs less of if it wants to cast itself as a people's party.

The reason why this nation is as bad as it is right now is because of corporate cash in the election system and politicians who take the easy road and sell-out.

[BurtWorm]

4. That term says much more about how far right the power structure is

in the US than about where the actual "center" of popular desire is.

[Bill McBlueState]

5. "centrist" implies a faith in the establishment

"Centrist" applies to someone who thinks things for the most part are going just fine -- someone who thinks that neither the extreme-looking ideas of the right or left are necessary to fix anything. So in a government that's been drifting to the right for the better part of forty years, the "centrists" are right-wing. They basically have their fingers stuck in their ears and are shouting to drown out the sounds of the people's dissatisfaction.

I don't think "extreme centrism" is an oxymoron at all. It means you think the people and forces currently in power, left to themselves, will do the right thing. In today's America of, by, and for the corporations, that kind of faith in the system, embodied by the DLC Democrats, is pretty extreme.