Ain't Nothing Centrist About Them

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/25-2

Ain't Nothing Centrist About Them

by Katrina vanden Heuvel


At this moment -- when 72 percent of the nation supports a public plan option and 14,000 people lose their healthcare every day -- the House Blue Dogs and conservative Democratic Senators are doing just about everything they can to cripple real health care reform.

So why does the media keep ceding them the label of "centrist" or "moderate" as if they are the guardians of mainstream values?

snip//

The danger is that promoting the view that these conservative Democrats are somehow at the center of our politics plays into the hands of those who would like to marginalize progressives as far outside of the mainstream. (And I have no doubt K Street is advising Republicans to constantly refer to their Democratic allies as "moderate" and "centrist".) It also misrepresents what most Americans want from the government in these times.

As Drew Westen, professor of psychology at Emory University, founder of Westen Strategies, and author of the invaluable The Political Brain, told me: "The average American, according to all available data, has largely moved slightly left of where it was in the Reagan years, and with changing demographics, it will be far left of Reagan and Bush in twenty years. So to call Democrats who are substantially right of the center of the electorate (let alone of their party), like Heath Shuler, 'moderates,' is both to misrepresent the center of political gravity in the general electorate and in the Democratic Party."

How we tell the story of this battle for health care reform matters and will impact whether the battle is won or lost. So-called "centrists" are far from the center of this debate. They are, in fact, out of touch and out of the mainstream -- like the rest of their conservative brethren.

[annabanana]

1. I'm getting tired of hearing the blue curs being described as

"moderate Democrats" and "fiscal conservatives"..(Did a ONE of them ever turn down funding for the wars? I ask you?)

They are Republicans who had more powerful Republicans in their districts, but were determined to jump on the gravy train anyway!

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

3. Where were they when the Repukes were stealing money from the Treasury, running up the deficit;

borrowing money from China for their illegal wars and tax cuts for their wealthy friends. Where were these DemoCRAPS? They aren't Democrats. Their Republi-CRATS.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

2. I want to pull my hair out when the media refers to Blue Dogs as "moderates"

By definition the Blue Dog Democrats are conservative Democrats.

I'm trying to figure out how 72 people can wield so much power over the rest of us. :puke::puke:

[mopinko]

4. ding ding ding

we have a winner. a media driven mega-turd.

[sarcasmo]

5. Bought and paid for by the insurance and health care lobbyists.

Dirty GREEDY bastards only looking out for themselves.