"These guys keep moving the center, I stay in the same place, and suddenly I'm a Marxist."

[Sapphire Blue]

The Center Left, Right?
Will Durst

Does anybody know what happened to the center? I remember hearing about it in the old days, but it seems to have disappeared like a wisp of mist in a solar wind. All anybody talks about is the left and the right. We're so polarized these days, I'm surprised our compasses still work. They should be stuck on due daft. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan speaking about the Democratic Party: I didn't leave the center, the center left me. And you can blame Uncle Ron for triggering the seismic shift that shoved the center to the right.

For instance:
Q. What did they call the homeless before Reagan?
A. Patients.

Bush One wallowed in Ronnie's footsteps and kicked the center a bit more righter and even Bill Clinton nudged it not less than a little. Then Bush Two… Fugetaboutit. He attached a rocket booster to the edge of the center and shot it so far West of Texas you can't see it anymore due to the curvature of the earth. Now I grew up a moderate. A raging moderate perhaps, but a moderate nonetheless. These guys keep moving the center, I stay in the same place, and suddenly I'm a Marxist. Just because I believe a society should be based on how it treats its least fortunate not its most fortunate. And that makes me a commie pinko yellow rat bastard? How the hell did that happen?

Think about it; Nixon- civil rights, the Environmental Protection Agency. He'd have problems getting the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor in Massachusetts. Goldwater: who said about gays in the military, "you don't have to be straight, to shoot straight," would be written off as an enemy of our troops and close personal friend of Nancy Pelosi's hairstylist, if you know what I mean.

20% of the country is, has been and always will be, far left. 20% is far right. The rest of us are in the middle. Between the fringes. You could say we are average, ordinary or even god forbid… normal. Me, I'm just a middle aged, middle class, Middle American of medium height, medium build who likes his steaks medium rare. And that's the only thing rare about me. Like a lot of us, I'm just a guy- a regular guy tired of having to pick either Anne Coulter or Sheryl Crowe as my spokesperson. These women have as much to do with me as a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach has to do with the United Auto Workers Pension Fund. Maybe it's Starbucks' fault for semantic size corruption. Selling America a medium sized coffee and calling it "grande." Everybody expects to be special. Everything has to be extreme. And the only thing I want extreme is the action of my laxative.

We're not just losing the middle, we're losing the middle class. And trust me, that is not a good thing. Cuz when the middle class disappears, you start to hear things like, "eat the rich," and trust me, nobody wants that. The rich are way too stringy. All that free time to exercise. The fat poor is where it's at. Mmm. The fat poor. Tastes just like chicken. So if you see the center or know what happened to it, please contact me ASAP. Reward on return.


http://www.willdurst.com/DurstCaseScenarios/WeeksWorth.html

[Richardo]

1. Like Will Durst

:thumbsup:

K&R

[Fenris]

2. I wholly agree.

[Richardo]

5. He had a great line about the hysteria regarding Bush's lies...

"A President lied? What is that, 43 in row?" :rofl:

[EFerrari]

6. Durst used to end his act with a series of oxymorons, the last being

"Fox News". :)

[EFerrari]

3. LOL!

Go, Durst!

[Raine]

4. Interesting article

THANKS for posting it! :thumbsup:

[and-justice-for-all]

7. I'll go with marxist...

as long as they don't call me republican.

[countmyvote4real]

8. It's telling when we are demonized with words like "socialism" and "liberal."

"Socialism" used to be the equivalent of an entry drug that led one to... (wait for it) "communism." That's not working out for anybody but China. And that's only because they used our capitalism to own us. WTF are Medicare and social security if they are not some form of socialism?

And let's face it, "liberalism" has saved and made this country what it is more than once in our history. Gay marriage is the next frontier. It will happen regardless of the cautious and narrow sighted views of our top three Democratic POTUS candidates. They have essentially removed themselves as forces of real change by their policies against outright support of equality.

How can a union member or women facing an unwanted pregnancy really trust any of these top three to stand up for them when it seems so easy for them to throw another constituency under the bus because they might lose some votes or support? Guess what? They lost mine.

And don't forget that it was the Clinton administration that gave us NAFTA. I don't see any epiphanies from Bill or Hilary on either of their records. Maybe some faux hand wringing, but no real change. Edwards can champion his "two Americas" campaign, but it clearly does not include full equality for GLBT. That goes for Obama as well.

And that brings me back to your OP. Equal is equal or it's not. And that is my center. That is our Constitution.

I'm not suggesting that we should raid a billionaire's fortune and redistribute it among the lower classes. I'm just saying that we are all in this together and some can and SHOULD do more than others to make it work for everyone.

[EFerrari]

9. Right and that's Will's point. The New Center is somewhere

to the self serving right of Richard Nixon. Or, that's one of his points.

[truedelphi]

10. Worse than that, Brother WIll, if thing's keep on as they are

And you keep speaking out, you will be lucky to be called a Marxist - Terrorist is more like it!

[lonestarnot]

17. Keep speaking out! You'll save money at the manicurist.

[Richard Steele]

11. K&R

[mmonk]

12. Same thing happened to me Mr. Durst.

Must be real.

[EFerrari]

13. kick

[Forkboy]

14. The DURST!

I've loved this guy for ages now.I remember him from way back doing stand up.He was always like a Bill Hicks lite to me (still is,and that's not a bad thing).

[EFerrari]

15. Durst is a big community guy. I don't think he's ever said no

to a benefit unless he had to be physically on some other stage at the same time. When we helped MoveOn open their book here, Durst came and did a set but he didn't have time to park because he was due at the Punchline later. So he left his car running IN THE STREET. LOL.

/oops

[Forkboy]

16. That's awesome.

A friend and I were just checking out some clips of him last week on YouTube.I hadn't seen him in awhile and he hasn't lost a thing.I'm not surprised at all by what you're saying.

[yardwork]

18. That's exactly how I feel!

Hell, Nixon sounds like a liberal in today's climate.

[Exiled in America]

19. The more we buy into "far left" and "far right" terminology, the more we lose.

I'm sick of this "far left," "far right" "center" way of talking about politics. It's such bullshit.

"far left/right" is just a way for other people to belittle someone else's views. You might call me "far left" but I consider myself at the center of reasonable, rational, defensible, moral policy, and in step with the vast majority of Americans.

Every time you take political labels off issues, and ask political questions without left/right frames, you find that the vast majority of Americans hold progressive ideas. When left to themselves and not spoonfed how to think by the media - it turns out most americans are for things like single payer health care and public education and a living wage and stronger worker protections and a more equitable tax system, and the end of corporate welfare , etc. etc. The majority favor choice, the majority want privacy, care about their civil rights and so on.

You can look at study after study that indicates that the public is actually much more "left" than the media or political system allow for. You just have get the public to say what they think and not realize they are talking about "evil libruhl" ideas.

There is no literal meaning to a "left, center, right" kind of model for political thinking. But if "center" means "in step with mainstream America" then my friends, the more "left" among us are the true "centrists."

[WillyT]

20. LOL !!! - K & R !!!

Yep

:rofl:

[Madspirit]

21. k&r...n/t

[EFerrari]

22. kick

[Yael]

23. K&R

He has a way with words! This was very entertaining.