This article over at Hullabaloo got me thinking about the term “centrist” as it is used in the media. The article is about Joe Lieberman’s “No Labels” group, which is in the process of trying to put together a presidential ticket in 2024.
A funny thing about centrists is that they never tell you what they are actually for. You do know what they’re against: the “extremes” on both sides, which they insist are equally extreme, though, so far as I’m aware, they never explain how the progressive wing of the Democratic Party can be meaningfully compared with the Republican Party as a whole, which is now a full on fascist party. Beyond that, they are silent on policy issues, though they may emit a mishmash designed to get you to hear what you want to hear. We must also bear in mind that the “center” has been moving rightward for years, as the media and people like Lieberman pretend that the extreme right has always been just about where it is at the moment, when any reasonable person can see that the Republican Party has been relentlessly marching to the right, while the “left wing” of the Democratic Party bears an uncanny resemblance to your peanut butter and jelly Democrat of the 1960s.
It’s unclear what Joe and his compatriots expect to accomplish, particularly if this is true:
No Labels is already gathering signatures to get on the ballot and is trying to recruit a Democrat and a Republican to run as a bipartisan ticket. Joe Manchin D-W.V., Kirsten Sinema, D-Az., Susan Collins, R-Me., and former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan are the names mentioned most often.
We can only hope they settle on Sinema, who is having trouble polling in double digits in the state she allegedly represents. None of those mentioned above are likely to be able to generate any great enthusiasm among the general public.
It’s unclear at this point which party would lose more votes if No Labels fields a candidate. My guess is that the point is to draw from the Democrat, as almost every third party movement has done over the course of the last 30 years or so. Whether it would work out that way is an open question, but the way things are looking now, barring outright theft by the Republicans, a possibility we can’t dismiss, the Democratic candidate should have a reasonably easy time beating the Republican in a two way race. The Democrats don’t need a third party to win; the Republicans might.
It’s also an open question whether Lieberman and his ilk can sell their third party to a substantial number of voters. When you dig into it a bit, you see easily enough that “centrists” are people who want to serve the interests of the rich without resorting to racist dog whistles and other culture war issues to get Fox watching idiots to vote against their own interests. The problem is that these idiots want to hear those whistles, as the evidence unearthed in the Dominion case has so well established.
These “centrists” claim to have the best interests of the country at heart, but in fact they are consciously attempting to put the country at risk of a complete fascist takeover. They know they can’t win, and they also know their presence in the race might contribute to accelerating our rush toward fascism.
Post a Comment