Those who still bother to pay attention these days are constantly reminded of about how politically polarized we are as a nation, and how nasty our political discourse has become. Certainly there have been times in our history when we have been similarly divided, and once the rift was so great as to precipitate a bloody civil war. But that was back in the old reality-based days, when the world only spun in one direction and truth, while elusive, was at least something to be desired.
So while the MSM continue to stage pundit bumfights and report constitutional crises as partisan bickering, the question arises: How polarized are we, really? The historian Richard Hofstadter argued that the desire for consensus has always been the driving force in American society - that despite occasional conflicts and upheavals, we always move back to the center. While the historical debate continues as to whether consensus or conflict played a larger role in shaping us as a nation, no one disputes the presence of that center. So where, one might ask, is the center? Indeed, where is the word "centrist" in our political discourse? One occasionally hears the word "moderate" uttered in public, usually in a derogatory context, and often in the past tense, but I cannot recall the last time I heard the word "centrist."
Are we really to believe that there are no centrists left among us, or even that they do not constitute a majority? Nixon spoke of a "silent majority," one which in my better moments I still believe exists, albeit in a slightly different form than that which Nixon envisioned. But then again, is it really that different? Does it not consist of people whose day-to-day lives have little to do with the wedge issues and base-rallying grandstanding that are the stock-in-trade of contemporary politics? Does it not consist of people who want a responsible but restrained government that works to better the lives of all Americans? Does it not manifest itself in a desire for better public education, better, more affordable, and science-based health care, fair taxation, fiscal discipline, and clean, affordable, and plentiful energy? Must one really be a liberal to want those things?
I think not. The problem is that we have allowed the right, with the complicity of the lapdog media, to define what the center is; thus the definition of "centrist" has moved rightward, and true centrist values are now tarred with the brush of liberalism - which, fair or not, has become a term of derision. For example, Bill Clinton is the quintessential centrist; yet the right vilified him as middle America's worst liberal nightmare. And all he did was balance the budget, shrink government, start paying down the national debt, raise educational standards, reform welfare, and put more cops on the streets. One might think that, given the overwhelming popularity of most of his policies and the persistence of his enemies in labeling them "liberal," mainstream Americans would have been united in declaring: "Gee whiz, if that's liberalism, I'll have another helping of granola." But alas, even eight years of relative peace and long-awaited prosperity could not erase the stigma attached to that word. And then there was the blowjob thing.
Yet the Clinton agenda was not liberal, but centrist. And if you agreed with all or most of it, chances are that you were a centrist, too. By contrast, John McCain is not a centrist, nor is Joe Lieberman. They're not even close. To characterize them as such is terribly disingenuous, unforgivably shallow, and patently misleading.
So anyway, what I'm proposing (to the extent that I'm proposing anything) is a campaign to reintroduce both the term and the true concept of "centrism"to American political discourse. That said, I am not the person to initiate such a campaign; for while my positions on many issues could be considered centrist, I have found myself growing increasingly liberal as I grow older, and as I watch my country go ever further down the tubes. All I'm asking is that real centrists out there - and I know that there are many of you in this community - stand up and be counted. Hell, while we're at it, why don't we all stand up and be counted? How many among us consider ourselves centrists? Liberals? Libertarians? Conservatives? Socialists? Whigs? Know-nothings?
I'm writing this because today is a good day for me, meaning that I am presently harboring a faint hope that we may be able to salvage what's left of our country. But in order to make that happen, we must stop allowing the right and the MSM to frame the debate - and that will require an honest and accurate representation of the nation's political spectrum that truly reflects where we all stand relative to our nation's social and political traditions.