I worry about the "false centrism" that passes for "moderation" these days.

madfloridian

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Wed Nov-26-08 08:58 PM
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I worry about the "false centrism" that passes for "moderation" these days.

The Republicans for years have been on the attack against our party. They planned it that way, they organized it, they used their "noise machine" to destroy the word "liberal". They made Democrats fearful of being too different than the Republicans were. And when the Democrats tried to be like them....they scorned us.

They openly admitted they would not even try to be nice about it all.

Right wing leader said they would be obnoxious in attacking the Democrats.

Our movement must be highly provocative. The thing we have most to fear is that we will be ignored.

Cultural conservatives must understand the predicament we are in. We must be willing to take measures that perhaps we would be unwilling to take under different, more ideal circumstances. We will have standards--we will never try to justify dishonesty, destruction of the personal reputation of our opponents, cheating, assault, etc., in the service of victory for our movement. However, we will not consider ourselves above appearing "unseemly" or surrendering some our personal dignity. We must be willing to shake people out of their complacency--which means being obnoxious if the situation requires it--because given the fact that the dominant leftist culture is safely ensconced, complacency only serves the interests of our opponents.

It is not enough to say that conservative philosophy is more sensible than that of the Left. If we leave it at that, we will only attract "sensible" people to our movement. But "sensible" people do not go to the barricades, they do not make great sacrifices for a movement. And the experience of the conservative movement has shown this to be the case. We need more people with fire in the belly, and we need a message that attracts those kinds of people. As Plato said, "madness comes from God, whereas sober sense is merely human."

They did not want to attract sensible people. They felt sensible people would not go to the extremes required to win.

They had no intention of being nice.

We will maintain a constant barrage of criticism against the Left. We will attack the very legitimacy of the Left. We will not give them a moment's rest. We will endeavor to prove that the Left does not deserve to hold sway over the heart and mind of a single American. We will offer constant reminders that there is an alternative, there is a better way. When people have had enough of the sickness and decay of today's American culture, they will be embraced by and welcomed into the New Traditionalist movement. The rejection of the existing society by the people will thus be accomplished by pushing them and pulling them simultaneously.

We will use guerrilla tactics to undermine the legitimacy of the dominant regime. We will take advantage of every available opportunity to spread the idea that there is something fundamentally wrong with the existing state of affairs. For example, we could have every member of the movement put a bumper sticker on his car that says something to the effect of "Public Education is Rotten; Homeschool Your Kids." This will change nobody's mind immediately; no one will choose to stop sending his children to public schools immediately after seeing such a bumper sticker; but it will raise awareness and consciousness that there is a problem. Most of all, it will contribute to a vague sense of uneasiness and dissatisfaction with existing society. We need this if we hope to start picking people off and bringing them over to our side. We need to break down before we can build up. We must first clear away the flotsam of a decayed culture.

In trying to accomadate that very loud Republican noise machine, many of our Democrats moved their way. It was easier to do it than fight such an overwhelmning media conglomerate. They called it the center, but it wasn't the center at all. It was the conservative right.

George Lakoff pointed out the dangers involved in this kind of centrism. He compliments Obama in trying to work in the true center, but the rest of his words show how hard it will be.

No Center, No Centrists

Barack Obama has it right: Get rid of the very idea of the right and the left and the center. American ideas are fundamentally progressive ideas — the ideas this country was founded on and that carry forth that spirit. Progressives care about people and the earth, and act with responsibility and strength on that care.

....."The very idea that there is a "center" marginalizes progressives, and sees them as extremists, when they simply share fundamental American values. The term "center" suggests there is a "mainstream" where most people are and that there is a single set of views held by that mainstream. That is false.

..."My colleague, Glenn W. Smith, has pointed to the DLC strategy of getting as many "swing voters" as possible and the minimum number of base voters needed to win. That is why the DLC and Rahm Emanuel argued against Howard Dean's 50-state strategy and for a swing-state alone strategy."

...."But worst of all, the DLC has been cowed by the conservatives. They have drunk the conservative Kool-Aid. As Harold Ford intimated in his debate with Markos Moulitsas: To win you have be a hawk on foreign policy, a social conservative on abortion and gay marriage, and not raise taxes. Nonsense.

Howard Dean talked about this "false centrism" in 2004. I think this very kind of centrism is why we need to be so on guard now in every way. The very ones who have been using this "center" politics for year without realizing they were moving too far to the right....are the ones being put in positions of power right now.

Those like Dean and Lakoff who warned about it are not being heard much from right now.

Here are some words from Dean in 2004 about this "false centrism"...which could easily take over our party for good. This is a turning point for us. It is not about Barack Obama per se. It is about the bubble surrounding him now, and the people who have his ear.

Dean says learning to trust the grassroots is not easy but is necessary to grow the party.

Without the involvement and commitment of people at the ground level, you don't really have a party. You have no pool from which to draw future congresspeople, senators, and presidents. And you have no genuine excitement.

..."He says "the truth is when you trade your values for the hope of winning, you end up losing and having no values--so you keep losing.

We have to reconnect to the base.

He has more to say about using that false kind of centrism to fail to connect to the base.

In recent years the Democrats, in our pursuit of big dollars, have neglected the people we're there to serve. We let our connection to our base atrophy and have forgotten, as they say in politics, who brought us to the dance. In service to a falsely named "centrism," we've sidestepped every major request from labor unions, especially on including worker protections in our free-trade agreements.

The quotes are from You Have the Power, 2004.

This may have been from 2004, but it has warnings for us today. Look what is happening now with all the lectures to the big three auto makers and the unions....while Citigroup and others get off without even a slap on the hand.

I don't see that the grassroots have much power right now. Some of the bloggers are coming to that conclusion as well. It's not popular to speak up, but it is necessary when those who advocated that false kind of center are getting all the power.