Extreme Moderation: Our democracy needs an army of militant centrists

~ Laura

The editors of the Economist, a centrist political and economic magazine coming out from the UK, wrote a scathing editorial on American politics. They say that because the Republicans refuses to disavow Donald Trump, the preservation of American democracy is entirely reliant on the Democratic Party. But the Democratic party has become prey to extreme ideas from the far left, they write. In order to win the next elections, the editors say that the leaders need to jettison the progressive wing of the party. Their woke nonsense is distracting party leaders from handling the real problem of stabilizing our democracy and leaving us open to the real danger of Trump 2.0 in 2024. 

Some Democrats minimize the impact of identity politics coming out of their Progressive wing. Privately, they might admit that those issues are juvenile and pointless, but then quickly pivot to extreme politics of their opponents. Why are we even wasting time critiquing woke politics, when the other side won’t recognize that a pregnancy in a 10-year old is a horrific thing, they say. 

Read more at my newsletter, Apt. 11D

Published by Laura

24 thoughts on “Extreme Moderation: Our democracy needs an army of militant centrists”

  1. This is just saying the Democrats should lose. If the Democrats have to police every local party for leftist heresy and the Republican party gets a pass for running candidates who tried to overthrow the government, democracy is done in this county. In 2020, there was a tremendous effort to elect the most moderate of the candidates. This hardly moved anyone in the center. Democrats worrying about Democrats to the left of them is nothing but writing ad copy for Republicans.

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  2. I think we’re in serious danger of Trump 2.0. People arent happy with Biden. Kamala and Pete have no chance of winning an election, We have to make changes. If those changes are polntless, as you suggest, then we’re sunk.

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    1. The Democrats need progressive votes to win as much, if not more, than they need moderate votes. It’s mostly progressives I see volunteering. I think most progressives are aware that in a coalition, you only get some of what you want and you have to put up with some policies you find unattractive or stupid. The moderate wing of the local Democrats spent millions attacking my state house representative when she ran in the primary for the U.S. House. She won and the next week appeared on the stage with those same people who attacked her. The audience, a huge chunk of whom were the volunteers that put her over the top, listened politely and applauded to all the speakers. It’s just how you run in a coalition.

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  3. A couple of things come to mind–just what do “centrist” Dems look like? Do you want Joe Manchin calling the shots even more than he does now? Or Kyrsten Sinema? What would a centrist agenda look like? I bet a lot like the Build Back Better plan, which is very popular among Americans, but not Republican senators or the two Democrats I just mentioned. I know everybody’s unhappy with the president, I think because we’re either used to the performative politics of the previous president–or because we’re used to Internet time, which has no relation to real time. Certainly inflation is the big issue on people’s minds, but start asking Republicans what their plan is to bring it down. They don’t have one because there’s not a lot any government can do in that regard. I think we have to dance with who brung ya, as they say.

    I’m not sure even The Economist, which I’ve subscribed to for over 30 years, would describe itself as centrist. That likely says more about the alternatives to it than it does about their politics.

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  4. I have no idea what how we should deal with the divisions with the Democratic Party, but those divisions, along with political exhaustion and apathy, are putting us on the path to another Trump presidency. It’s not just the Economist saying this. If Biden were to run against Trump tomorrow, Trump would win. Even with all this Jan 6 stuff on the news.

    I really, really don’t want to see Trump in the White House again. I’m willing to entertain all alternatives. Like getting a bunch of Democrats to switch parties (temporary) to put someone like Liz Cheney on the ballot to challenge Trump in a primary.

    We also need to develop new Democratic leadership. Kamala and Pete are not polling well.

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  5. I am a voting pragmatist who has always criticized third party voters, and I am struggling mightily with my desire not to leave the democratic party. I think Laura is 100% correct, people need to wake up about how deep the disillusionment goes. I come from an educationally elite, atheistic, left-leaning family (my father was a grad student when Nixon resigned, and I remember the block party that ensued). I went to Oberlin College! I have a humanities Ph.D., am pro-choice, strongly pro-separation of church and state, and a strong believer in government social welfare programs. And I desperately want a moderate party, so I can leave the democrats in the dust. I will vote for the candidate with the best chance to beat Trump, I will vote for democrats on the statewide ballot, but I am very, very alienated. I think Laura is 100% correct, people need to wake up about how deep the disillusionment goes.

    For me, it’s not about the Covid response or inflation. It’s about the shaming of those with opposing arguments, the hostility to reasoned discourse, the refusal to consider how grandiose ideologies affect and harm real people. The lack of humility. The inhumanity. The profound lack of empathy. Oh yes, there’s empathy, for those on the right side. Only that’s not empathy–it’s in-group sympathy, exactly what I used to oppose in conservatives.

    Just one example of what is bothering me is what’s happening with criminal justice. I was an early followers of Radley Balko, and I have always been horrified at the valorization of the police. But anti-carceral culture with its rejection of prisons is absolutely unacceptable. Sending the bodega worker to Rikers for defending himself? The weak prey to the strong–is that what the left wants? Old people in cities terrified for their lives, and vulnerable to shame and even prosecution if they attempt to defend themselves? There is a middle ground here, but the left shames those who try to find it.

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  7. From Teixeira’s article on the Democratic Party’s loss of Hispanic voters: “Republicans are quietly building a multiracial coalition of working-class voters, with inflation as an accelerant.”

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  8. I reject (and have always) wholeheartedly the view of the “center”, “moderate” or silent majority. I think we all have a patern of views that don’t align, that we are all a coalition of interests. Gitlin wrote this as a plea against Ralph Nader’s third party challenge from the left in 2000:

    “On Earth, the only land ahead is the compromised land. Politics means satisfactions and dissatisfactions, not redemptions. There is this truth: We are condemned to share the Earth with people we dislike, even despise. In a democracy, we are condemned to share power with them. A large party — any large party — is a coalition of interests.”

    And, in the US, the structure of our democracy requires a large party, a national large party that crosses boundaries. When Gitlin was writing, he was making the plea to those who wanted to move the Democratic party “leftward”. Now, the disillusioned complain that the party is too far left? too arrogant? too angry? But the plea and danger is the same. I have positions across of a spectrum and weights attached to them, as does everyone else. I wouldn’t try to argue that my views are the center and have never understood others who do (except through valid polling of others) and we also follow and lead. Why is putting more people in jail more of a centerist position than regulating guns more strongly?

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  9. But, most of all, I’m wary of the idea that I can game the system (by voting other people’s preferences, or by switching parties to help someone I do not like to get ahead, or spending money to support a more extreme opponent) will get the result I prefer (electing a Dem congress, defeating Trump, supporting Pritzker, . . . ).

    I acknowledge the difficulty we are facing but am unconvinced of an alternative to voting my values that will produce a better outcome. If there are people who won’t vote for candidate because they don’t support banning books in libraries because they mention gay people, I’m not willing to sell out my values in the hopes that they’ll vote against Trump if they do. I will vote for the Democrat, though, even if the coalition picks someone who I would “struggle mightily” to support.

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    1. BeeJay, beware of snake oil salesmen who say: ‘the current situation demands that you adopt the position I have favored all along’ (I am that guy…)
      My nostrum for a lot of the current trouble is ranked choice voting, which enables you to vote your heart without disaster and transfers your vote to your second best after your fave goes down. I’m involved in an effort to bring it in in my town, and I’m really tickled to see what it seems to be doing in making victory less likely for flamboyant nutballs in Alaska https://alaskawatchman.com/2022/07/12/poll-shows-begich-murkowski-dunleavy-winning-in-ranked-choice-voting/ and here in Virginia the Reeps used it to nominate the far more plausible Youngkin over the raving loony Amanda Chase.

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  11. Personally, I’m worried for the future of Christianity. I don’t think “Jesus said ‘Fuck your feeling'” is the way forward.

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  12. I have found this opinion piece to be unappetizing, but probably accurate.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/the-free-money-revolution-is-finally-eating-its-children/GGCYUE74Y7J4N3IMBNTU7XGYOI/?c_id=3&objectid=12533898&ref=rss

    Add it all up, and one point is clear. Inflation is completely lethal for any party that happens to be in power. Here is a simple prediction. It doesn’t matter whether they are from the left or the right. Over the next three years, not a single ruling party anywhere in the developed world will be re-elected.

    One by one, presidents, prime ministers and chancellors will be thrown out of office. Inflation will redraw the landscape in many different ways. But a series of changes of government will be one of them – and the next three years will be very politically unstable.

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  13. There’s also a need to not let certain right wing extremists control narratives around issues like gay kids. A lot of guys my age came out in high school (late 70s/ 80s ) and there was absolutely no being out at school, dating or taking your boyfriend to prom. They snuck into bars instead and were often preyed upon by older guys. It’s incredibly hypocritical to talk about “grooming” when in fact not being able to safely explore dating in adult supervised spaces is what makes these kids vulnerable.

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  14. At least in some parts of the country, it is entirely different for gay teens. They get to be people, teens, participants in the community and culture. It is wonderful and it matters. Other students know them and they know they are gay and they are included and sometimes the ones with power. Florida’s laws targeting them matter and Texas’s laws against transgender people matter. The children are not theories they are people.

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    1. Yes, gay teens matter. Absolutely. And as a side note, so do autistic teens, but honestly nobody gives a flying fuck about autistic teens. But we’ll leave that pet peeve aside for the moment, because that’s not what people who are calling for moderation are saying. They aren’t saying that we shouldn’t care about gay teens, but we shouldn’t make those issues dominate the Democratic discourse.

      And they have to find a way to provide gay teens with info about safe sex without exposing every 13 year teen to about anal sex information. Most parents don’t want their kids to learn about that stuff yet. We have to respect that. And the kids with autism who have a two year lag in social-emotional learning are certainly not up for that.

      My son did not have any sex education, which is typical of what happens in most public schools for kids in special Ed classes. I have paid a therapist to teach him that stuff NOW, at age 20, because we only just realized the gaps in that knowledge. If public schools don’t provide specialized sec education for autistic people, and no one cares, I find it hard to get outraged when others aren’t getting what they need either.

      Also, the people who are calling for moderation are also pleading for practicality. If don’t made some serious changes, Trump will be president again. And this time will be worse.

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      1. Those issues aren’t dominating the Democratic debate. They are dominating the Republican propaganda machine’s advertisingand will continue to do so until people stop repeating it.

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      2. It’s not even a new trick. Attack a less-than-popular group to get a public statement of defense from the Democrats, then say that’s all the Democrats focus on.

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      3. It’s moderate democrats who r pissed at other democrats in my state. I’m not sure that I would even describe them as progressive democrats. More like corrupt democrats, who are indebted to organized interest groups.

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  15. The Democrats in my state closed schools and never said one peep about the damage that resulted. Instead, they passed a sex Ed bill with topics that piss off parents. Sorry, but they will all get voted out of office.

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  17. I think the Supreme Court is about half likely to effectively overturn Baker v. Carr, which would make any electoral-only strategy close to doomed.

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