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Netroots In The Center

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Blog Related
Posted on Sat Aug 11, 2007 at 09:55:32 AM EST
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In the WaPo opinion pages, Kos and SusanG argue we are all Centrists now:

Convinced that this is fundamentally a conservative nation, [Harold] Ford demanded that Democrats unceasingly inch toward the right or risk electoral irrelevance. As then-DLC official Ed Kilgore put it in 2005, "If we put a gun to everybody's head in the country and make them pick sides, we're not likely to win." But we who live outside the D.C. bubble -- in all 50 states, in counties blue and red -- were hearing voices at odds with the Washington consensus. People wanted real choices at the ballot box. And given the disastrous rule of the Bush administration, they wanted a Democratic Party that stood tall and pushed back like a true opposition.

. . . In fact, we pushed the party so far left that we positioned it squarely in the American mainstream and last year won a historic, sweeping congressional victory, something the "centrist" groups had been unable to accomplish for decades -- not even in the DLC's glory days of the 1990s.

. . . The DLC had two decades to make its case, to build an audience and community, to elect leaders the American people wanted. It failed. . . . Their time is up. The "center" is where we stand now, promoting an engaged and active politics embraced by significant majorities of Americans.

In fairness, I am posting Ed Kilgore's response to all this:

The quote, which appeared in a Ron Brownstein piece in The National Journal, was this:

"We are more of a coalition party than they are. If we put a gun to everybody's head in the country and make them pick sides, we're not likely to win."

The context of the quote was a long conversation with Brownstein about how Democrats needed to deal with the Rovian "polarization" strategy. And all I was trying to say was that counter-polarization was an insufficent response for Democrats, given the enduring ideological tilt of the electorate, for many decades, towards the center-right. I did not say, imply or mean that Democrats needed to "move to the right" or "blur the differences between the two parties." Au contraire. The whole point was that Democrats had to complement a mobilization strategy with a persuasion strategy designed to pull swing voters in our direction over time. "Standing up" to Bush and the GOP, and offering clear choices between the two parties, I thought then and think now, is essential, but the choices we offer have to be attractive to people who aren't reflexively on our side.

As it happens, today, as opposed to 2005, we'd likely win the "gun to the head" test. But that's not just because Democrats are suddenly "standing up to Bush;" it's because his record, and his party's complicity in that record, are abysmal, and the whole world knows it. The tangible consequences of Republican misgovernment are at least as important as the "noise" we make about it. That matters because Bush is going to leave office soon, and like it or not, if Democrats want to build an enduring progressive majority, we'll have to seal the deal with millions of voters who will be vulnerable to Republican arguments that W., like Nixon before him, failed because of personal incompetence and imperial delusions rather than conservative ideology.
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    Netroots In The Center | 10 comments (10 topical)

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    Ender was complaining the other day (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by andgarden on Sat Aug 11, 2007 at 10:46:39 AM EST
    about people in the netroots claiming to be centrists. I actually rather like the strategy. If I tell you I'm a centrist, you actually have to ask me about issues if you want to have an idea of what I think.

    Ender is a Republican (5.00 / 3) (#3)
    by Big Tent Democrat on Sat Aug 11, 2007 at 10:57:18 AM EST
    He is smart to complain and push back on that.

    Which is why Dems should claim to be Centrists.

    Parent

    Right (5.00 / 1) (#4)
    by andgarden on Sat Aug 11, 2007 at 11:39:42 AM EST
    that it pisses him off is almost reason enough to keep pushing.

    Parent
    Please, not centrists. (5.00 / 1) (#8)
    by dkmich on Sat Aug 11, 2007 at 03:29:43 PM EST
    Sounds like a giant cheese melt sandwich.  What the netroots is is middle America.

    Parent
    Well, good, it's about time (4.00 / 1) (#1)
    by Nanette on Sat Aug 11, 2007 at 10:24:29 AM EST
    The "Netroots" IS firmly in the center and even, a lot of it, to the right - and when centrists and center-rightists position themselves as the "left" (even the name of this site irritates me, often) that works to push liberals and people on the actual left into the hinterlands and the "fringe".

    So, a rare thumbs up to kos (on this, I haven't read the rest of the article). I hope it catches on.


    I gotta say, (none / 0) (#5)
    by Compound F on Sat Aug 11, 2007 at 02:21:42 PM EST
    that Op-Ed rocked.  Major kudos to Susan and Kos.  Right on the beak, it was.  Damn.  fine stuff.

    Holy smokes. (none / 0) (#6)
    by Compound F on Sat Aug 11, 2007 at 02:51:18 PM EST
    they even linked to it at NRO.  Conservatives must have noticed the "alarm substance" in their pants.

    What a fool (none / 0) (#7)
    by dkmich on Sat Aug 11, 2007 at 03:26:14 PM EST
    As it happens, today, as opposed to 2005, we'd likely win the "gun to the head" test. But that's not just because Democrats are suddenly "standing up to Bush;" it's because his record, and his party's complicity in that record, are abysmal, and the whole world knows it.
     So Democrats winning has nothing to do with them.  They are winning because the Republicans are failing and losing.  How nice to know he sees Democrats as flacid and ineffective.  DLC needs to go yesterday.  

    Raining on parades (none / 0) (#9)
    by koshembos on Sat Aug 11, 2007 at 05:29:43 PM EST
    There several assumptions made by both the DLC and Kos that are questionable. Is the concept of center meaningful and stable? Kilgore believes that the center is the the median and an interval around it, he also assumes that this median falls in the dividing line between the Republicans and Democrats.

    This, of course, this is a major misunderstanding. The center, whatever it is, meanders its way like a river in the flat lands sometime it's Republican, as in the case of less taxes, and sometimes it's Democratic, as is the case with the war in Iraq.

    Kos is wrong to assume that he is now the center because of his views on Iraq, healthcare and the corruption of the Republicans. However, this is far from the whole political world of people. To see that just consider the gay marriage. Kos world, as myself, have no problem with that (I wouldn't have no problem with any marriage as long as it does involve a Republican and any og my kids), however the populace feels terribly uncomfortable with it. This doesn't even consider the schizophrenic view of people that taxes should be kept low but the government should improve the infrastructure, schools, etc. This is clearly a Republican and Netroots dogma.

    Netroot "centrists" and Lewis Carroll (none / 0) (#10)
    by diogenes on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 09:29:34 PM EST
    "When I use a word it means exactly what I want it to mean, nothing more and nothing less."

    Netroots In The Center | 10 comments (10 topical)

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