|
No; this demonizing of "centrism" is the wrong direction. Nobody who puts any amount of effort into thinking about it ascribes to being a "centrist," but putting forth a "you are either 100% with us or you are a piece of poo poo" argument smacks of a certain speech by GWB after 9/11 in 2001. It's language of exclusion. The problem isn't "centrism;" it's a weak-rear end and corrupt Democratic party that lost the keys to the kingdom that they had as soon as they ran that fatass Gingrich out of town and poo poo all over the hard-right "Contract with America." They've blown it ever since. "Centrism" has nothing to do with it. It's incompetence and corruption. So-called "centrism" isn't "the Right in disguise," as you indicate. "Centrism," which isn't even a real political theory in the US, is nothing more than "the portion of voters that don't blindly ascribe to a certain political category to the exclusion of all others." You say "centre" a lot. This leads me to believe that you are not a US citizen. Please correct me if I'm wrong. An outside view of American politics and the perceived positions of the parties or political categories has no correlation to those parties or political categories as they exist everywhere else. The US is a VAST nation with incredibly diverse populations, regional ideologies and biases, and an entrenched two-party binary stranglehold on the government. You can forget about "the left" and "the right" in the terms of the rest of the world, and that these "centrists" are those that believe in "compromise." It isn't the case, at all. Don't confuse "The Left" in America with anything approaching a real political power philosophy. It isn't. The Democrats are not "The Left." The Democrats are not "Centrists." They (as in the elected Democrats) are useless, directionless, wishy-washy and spineless people incapable of leading and have no real conviction, unless they are a single-issue leftist. The Democrats as a party consistently fail to engage any white people, period, and by choice. This is important, because the Republicans do. the words "Liberal" and "Progressive" are epithets hurled at all Democrats by the Right, but that's mere meaningless invective. The Democratic party is thoroughly useless - Obama won the White House twice because people like him - because white people like him. He isn't exactly "the left," but he has done more good for progressive and leftist causes than anyone else since the Carter era. Also - not a Democrat party-line hack. His party choice was a vehicle, not a religion. Most elected Democrats have no capacity to inspire or lead whatsoever, and are far too timid to deal with actual problems: the disappearing middle class and loss of American prosperity, climate change, hawkish interventionism, and corrupt capitalism, for example. This is why you can't take a "you're with us or against us" approach to so-called "centrists," at least as the word applies to voters. These "centrists" are voting R because the Democrats are busy doing things that do not affect the day to day lives of the "centrists - " who would be loving thrilled to vote for a non-Republican, non international-incident level embarrassing ticket if the Democrats would grow some balls and actually address things that directly affect the majority voter. "The Right" is pretty much as you describe, but do not make the mistake of believing that everyone who votes "R" is a bigoted, racist, homophobic, tranny-hating xenophobe that hates welfare queens and believes that the bible is science. "The RIght" is a distinct minority - even among white people - but they have a stranglehold on the reins of power in the Republican party and the good fortune of generally running their terrible candidates against noodle-limp Democratic candidates. The Left has nothing like this sort of power with the Democrats. This is very important: the white vote matters. White people matter in elections. The Right exploits this with the knowledge that all they have to do is keep talking about gays ruining the boy scouts and Muslims instituting Sharia law in Oklahoma. Yes, the bigots concentrate here, but it's not a real representation of the party or the party's voters. The Right is Republican today, but the situation was completely flip-flopped at various times throughout US history. And the Right has always relied on the white vote. Today's Democrats don't even try - it really is as if they go out of their way to demonize whites. Look - I know that isn't the intention; that's just how it looks when heard in conjunction with the Republican bullshit. I am in no way claiming that the Left is trying to "oppress" the whites. They just ignore them. It's a losing strategy. When you talk about "centrists" as "the Rights in disguise," (and I know I'm paraphrasing there), you are not really understanding the role of race in an American election cycle. A lot of the people you are talking about, and seem to be angry at, are whites who vote Republicans into office. You're directing your anger at the wrong people. The Left can engage the majority white voter, and if they did so, they would get poo poo done - local, state, and national level. If they'd also pay attention to the electoral college and how it differs from the popular vote (which does not matter), they might have won the White House in 2000 and 2016 - but it wouldn't have done much good, because they still got slaughtered on every other ballot. The Left, as a "political force" in the US, are fringe-issue voters that only vote once every 4 years - they ignore local and state elections and somehow believe that their vote for President is "the big one" that matters. This is why "the left" consistently fails - the "centrists" have nothing to do with it. The Left is also way too lazy to even approach the energy of the Tea Party - that was a racial issue to a large degree. Occupy Wall Street was the closest the Left has come to that kind of "movement," but they lacked staying power. Sanders could have harnessed the power of the "centrists," but he wasn't given an opportunity to do so because "Hillary's Turn." "Centrists" are not politically minded. Their vote will default to an "R" or a "D" if they are not led to vote for a real, inspirational candidate. The "centrists" are not the enemy of Leftism, Progressivism, or Liberalism in the US. Telling centrists that they are the bad guys is how you end up with Herr Gropenfuhrer as President. "Centrists" aren't the problem. You can instead look right at the Democratic party leadership and elected officials. These are not "centrists," they are just farcical incompetents. KaiserSchnitzel fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Dec 12, 2016 |
#
¿
Dec 12, 2016 19:58
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 06:38 |
|