"a REAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY, alive and kicking!!"...the MYTH of Centrism

[bvar22]

This is a blast from the past by Jim Hightower, December 2005.
I recently re-read this article, and found this retrospective troubling as we approach the 2008 elections.

"In most cases, their backbones have been drained of any populist commitment they might once have had and filled with both corporate cash and the corporate agenda (from the Iraq war to the anticonsumer bankruptcy bill, most of the Bushite horrors have been abetted either actively or passively by congressional Democrats). They seem incapable of standing tall for the vast constituency that desperately needs them, instead slinking behind the skirts of clueless consultants and fundraisers who keep advising them to put forth only the meekest, corporate-approved, don't-rock-the-boat proposals. At a time when we should be setting off big caliber ideas, Democratic leaders are firing pea shooters."

<snip>

"First of all, they are them. Congressional Democrats are mired in the same swamp of corporate money that has sucked up the Republican party, and Democrats have shown (with some notable and encouraging exceptions) that they cannot be trusted to vote for the people's interest over corporate power. This is why voter esteem for Democrats has not risen as the GOP's numbers have fallen.

Second, and most important, people are not shopping for the best of the worst. Folks are yearning for integrity, for deep change in how the system operates ... and for whom. Being the "anti" party not only is a loser, but it's also fundamentally dishonest and a craven abandonment of the Democratic party's essential democratic role in our nation's history. Americans don't want merely to be "aginners," but to be FOR a party -- to be for it because it is clearly for the people, and better yet, is the people."

http://alternet.org/story/29788/

[BridgeTheGap]

1. Good old Jim...down home and to the point

One of Molly Ivin's buds.

[NoFederales]

2. "...filled with both corporate cash and the corporate agenda..."

The butt-sniffing shills are indeed "aginners", clearly not for the people.

NoFederales

[ClassWarrior]

3. "No Center, No Centrists"

More on the myth of "centrism" from George Lakoff:

http://www.rockridgenation.org/blog/archive/2007/08/14/no-center-no-centrists/?searchterm=centrism

NGU.

[xchrom]

4. i am wyldly recommending this. n/t

[wyldwolf]

8. funny thing though, no matter how many "progressive" writers deny centrism...

... centrists keep winning. :shrug:

It seems the left thinks they can beat centrists by pretending they don't exist and trying to convince others they don't exist.

[xchrom]

12. it's not about your existing -- you exist.

it's your lack of self revelation -- your inability to recognize what the center really means today -- in a current context.

i get you -- i know what you're about -- and it's sad.

that's all.

[redqueen]

5. Too bad the "base" has bought the centrist BS hook, line, and sinker. n/t

[stimbox]

6. Didn't he also say?

"The only things in the middle of the road are a yellow streak and roadkill"

K&R

[bvar22]

7. There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road

"There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos."---Jim Hightower




Pssst. Hillary is DLC. Pass it on.

[stimbox]

9. Awesome, thanks.

I knew it was something like that.

[Carolina]

10. K&R

That was so good!

[Totally Committed]

11. This was a GREAT article!

Go, Jim!

TC