Centrist politicians don’t want to do the right thing (they serve corporations, not you)

[Karmadillo]

I guess that's why we can't have single-payer or a public jobs program to serve the millions of unemployed while rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, but we can have ruinously expensive criminal wars and tax cuts for the rich.

http://www.ianwelsh.net/centrists-dont-want-to-the-do-the-right-thing/#comments

Centrists don’t want to do the right thing
2010 December 29
by Ian Welsh

<edit>

Stuart is still falling into the “they’re not evil” trap.

The fact is that high unemployment keeps down wages, and that keeps down the costs of their big donors—big corporations. It is a win for them. As for the foreclosure crisis, almost any sensible solution would require some sort of cramdown, which would hurt the financial firms which are centrists largest donors.

No, actually, while centrist politicians might in some theoretical “how many angels dance on pins” sense prefer that there not be a foreclosure crisis, they don’t mind that much, and high unemployment is a positive for the people they actually work for.

You can’t serve two masters. Centrists serve major corporations. If they can do something for ordinary people that doesn’t hurt those donors, sure, they may do it, but if not, forget it.

[dkf]

1. High unemployment keeps down wages...

Expanding the labor pool with illegal immigrants works directly against the struggling underpaid worker and yes it is the corporations that need this downward pressure on wages to exist.

[OHdem10]

2. Are Centrists really the Moderate Republicans the RWers have

been purging from the Republican Party over the years.

Pro-Business and advocates for the Wealthy.

[ThomCat]

3. So many people are in love with the idea of being in the center,

not for any rational reason, but just because they assume that the center must always be right. But the truth is that the people in the center are usually tools of the right. They are the ones making right wing ideas seems moderate, constantly pulling us farther to the right, pushing "compromises" that always move us to the right, but never to the left.

I have never yet seen a centrist standing firm to defend an idea from the left, but often standing firm to defend ideas from the right. Health care is a great example of this. Obama adopted the REPUBLICAN bill, and then proceeded to give constant concessions moving even further to the right. It was the army of centrists who insisted that this was somehow a liberal deal, and somehow the best deal, and somehow the only possible deal, even while the left was prohibited from being part of the negotiations. The centrists were water-carriers for the right from the very beginning, and still are today.

Why is it that people on both the right and left can see through centrists, but only the right have succeedes in using centrists consistently to accomplish anything? No matter what centrists delude themselves into thinking, even the ones who think they are democrats always end up serving republicans.

If I ever see a so-called moderate that defends the left as often as they defend the right, and resists the pull to the right, then I'll believe that they are really the center. But that's never what we see. Instead we see them justifying why the left has to give in and accept losses, be right but still lose.

The center has been the death of the left.

[XOKCowboy]

4. +1

[mmonk]

5. Center only means Democrats

that work within the constraints of overall Republican policy directions.

[blindpig]

6. What politicians don't serve the rich?

How'd they get elected in the first place? And if they do cross the owners how long will they remain in office?

[Uncle Joe]

7. I wouldn't be against a hypothetical center, if there were such a thing, but there isn't.

To have a center would require a balance of power and that just simply doesn't exist, whether from a financial resource point of view or that from an information dissemination and presentation ability.

The recent United decision by the Supreme Court will only serve to further warp any sense of real balance in regards to political discourse and deliberation.

Thanks for the thread, Karmadillo.

[LWolf]

8. +1

[Enthusiast]

9. K&R

Centrist decisions/legislations are ruining the nation.

Afghanistan War-centrist.
Iraq War-centrist.
Free trade agreements-centrist.
Extend the Bush tax cuts for billionaires-centrist.
Relax regulations on corporations-centrist.