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Ain't Nothing Centrist About Them
At this moment -- when 72 percent of the nation supports a public plan option and 14,000 people lose their healthcare every day -- the House Blue Dogs and conservative Democratic Senators are doing just about everything they can to cripple real health care reform.
So why does the media keep ceding them the label of "centrist" or "moderate" as if they are the guardians of mainstream values?
In a recent profile on reform slayer Max Baucus -- Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and creator of his majority Republican "Coalition of the Willing" -- Washington Post reporter Dan Eggen refers to Baucus as "a longtime centrist in the Democratic caucus." Even Harold Meyerson -- who along with E.J. Dionne and Ruth Marcus keeps the Washington Post op-ed page from being neocon central and is one of the best in the business at understanding the ideologies at play in Washington -- in a recent op-ed repeatedly decries the "centrist Democrats" such as the Blue Dogs who fight against taxing the richest 1 percent of Americans and promote a "can't-do" view of government.
All Things Considered host Guy Raz recently introduced a story on "forty centrist House Democrats from the so-called Blue Dog Coalition [who] are threatening to block the proposal in its current form...." He also spoke of "Congressman Mike Ross [who] heads up the Health Care Taskforce for the centrist Blue Dog Democrats." Want to see how "centrist" Mike Ross is? Check this out.
Even a good regional paper like Louisville's Courier-Journal-- in rightly blasting the Blue Dogs as "deplorable" for being "unable to muster the spine to pay for health care reform with even so innocuous a measure as higher taxes on the richest 1 percent of Americans"--calls them "centrist".
The danger is that promoting the view that these conservative Democrats are somehow at the center of our politics plays into the hands of those who would like to marginalize progressives as far outside of the mainstream. (And I have no doubt K Street is advising Republicans to constantly refer to their Democratic allies as "moderate" and "centrist".) It also misrepresents what most Americans want from the government in these times.
As Drew Westen, professor of psychology at Emory University, founder of Westen Strategies, and author of the invaluable The Political Brain, told me: "The average American, according to all available data, has largely moved slightly left of where it was in the Reagan years, and with changing demographics, it will be far left of Reagan and Bush in twenty years. So to call Democrats who are substantially right of the center of the electorate (let alone of their party), like Heath Shuler, 'moderates,' is both to misrepresent the center of political gravity in the general electorate and in the Democratic Party."
How we tell the story of this battle for health care reform matters and will impact whether the battle is won or lost. So-called "centrists" are far from the center of this debate. They are, in fact, out of touch and out of the mainstream -- like the rest of their conservative brethren.
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26 Comments so far
Show AllOnly a Katrina vanden Heuvel could call this abortion "real" health care reform.
Its plainly obvious that the America people do not want this corporate mish mash being served up as "reform"
About the only good it is doing is exposing those that serve the worst elements of our society.
Shame on her.
Cut Katrina some slack! The strongest advocates for a single-payer system are few in number and have trouble being heard above the din of corporate purveyors of healtcare for profit.
If our President, who so many of us saw as the real deal during the primaries and the general election, hadn't turned out to be a placater and an appeaser in the name of bi-partisanship we might be further down the road on this. Rather than being a concensus-builder he needs to be a leader, garner the Democrats in Congress together and go over all the corrupt bastards, including Bacus, like a steam roller and get this done. 70% of the Americans want it.
Katrina knows better than anybody that this is a different FORM from the system we have now. There is no SUBSTANTIVE change. Big insurance and big pharma, hospitals franchises for profit like fast food franchises will call all the shots. They are businesses, and the business of business is making money.
Well in fact they do not MAKE money. They just TAKE it from those that truly create wealth, that being the worker class.
Good point.
"If our President, who so many of us saw as the real deal during the primaries and the general election, hadn't turned out to be a placater and an appeaser in the name of bi-partisanship we might be further down the road on this. "
Suc-ker!
Ralph wouldn't have caved.
Katrina does not advocate for Single Payer. There is not one word in this essay about single payer. She is advocating for a public option, and she has absolutely no clue about how to achieve it, nor does she understand why it is being crushed by the Democrats.
"If our President, who so many of us saw as the real deal during the primaries and the general election, hadn't turned out to be a placater and an appeaser in the name of bi-partisanship we might be further down the road on this."
You are leaving out that you deluded yourself into believing this despite the fact that every stance Obama took prior to the election contradicted your "hopes" for him.
You should never have bought the lie, and you should have the honesty to admit that now.
I also agree that Katrina has long been a joke for her own brand of "centrist" liberalism. In fact, she also "marginalize(s) progressives as far outside of the mainstream" (like those you question 911).
"Only a Katrina vanden Heuvel could call this abortion "real" health care reform."
That sentence gave me quite a few laughs and even my otherwise staunch conservative father who hates Ms. vanden Heuvel because she used to talk mainly about abortion on the media outlets agreed with you after I showed him this one. I love entertainment especially when it's so truthful. :)
P.S.: Spot on on the rest of what you wrote. :)
So why does the media keep ceding them the label of "centrist" or "moderate" as if they are the guardians of mainstream values?
Why does even the progressive press continue to use the word "conservative" when describing the Republicans? There's nothing conservative about them. The party walks a nearly microscopic line between being reactionaries and outright fascists. The Democrats are yuppies, nouveau riche wine tasters wearing diamond studded Birkenstocks and driving a Hummer with a Smart Car or a Prius in reserve for reelection campaigns.
You got that right!
Does anybody have poll results or something similar to tell us what are mainstream values or beliefs? I don't think you'll find there's such a thing as a solid mainstream, people shift according to the particular issue. For example, my sister is very far to the left (I think she's so far to the left the Bushites put her on the no-fly list), but several years ago she was outraged when I told her Elian Gonzalez was an illegal alien and should be sent to live with his father. Seems she thought all illegals are bound to the US with super-glue once they arrive.
Limousine Liberals. Lexus Liberals. Read anything by Joe Bageant at www.joebageant.com -- Read his book, "Deer Hunting With Jesus". Today's liberals, the Vandenhuevel crowd, consider the rest of us little more than riff-raff, the great unwashed.
The Dems control the committee chairmanships. Baccus can be swept away with a stroke of a pen. Ask yourselves why he is not?
Perhaps many other Dems who have been silent on the issue and feed from the polluted trough of the health insurance industry need a guy like Baccus to shield themselves from being on the record.
Like all of Katrina’s nonsense, this is just another shallow essay lacking any depth whatsoever on behalf of her handlers Pelosi, Reid, and Obama.
"her handlers Pelosi, Reid, and Obama"
Actually, her handlers are not the "handlers Pelosi, Reid, and Obama" but the handlers of "Pelosi, Reid, and Obama". The media and politicians are run as two parts of one operation.
"ain't nothing...."
What the hell is that, Katrina, the silver spoon, "talk'n" "down" to reach the populace?
wonderful.
Sh' done halp uz, reel gud.
don t ya all kno Katrna knws wha bes fr al us lttle peepal?
mike ross gets behind his constituency (excuse me for being raw here for a second) like rock hudson got behind liberace.
get my drift? and he's a democrat!and he sold his business
but still holds 100% of the stock? sounds like a dick cheney
halliburton type of divesture. actually dick just said i ain't doing that f you! as for katrina bill maher and the ilk-
its a BUSINESS to get on the tube and radio and do their
thing. makes one although we may watch them think how sincere
they really are.gw north how right you are.how much
"competition" does anyone with a brain really think goes on
in the usa today.its all about collusion and fking the
middle class and the poor! marie antonette just may have
to lose her head so we can have real food instead of cake
as an anology.its going to take some massive demonstrations
in d.c. to hear us above the din of the k street lobbyists!
until we do this we will be stranded on f u street!
The most that massive demonstrations in DC will do is get a few people killed. I'm not talking about "pleeeeeze, sirs, let us have a permit so we can gather on the mall and a few lexus liberals can utter a few platitudes, pleeeeeze" kind of "demonstrations". I'm talking about REAL demonstrations -- no permits requested, huge gatherings of PISSED OFF people finally beyond the realm of "politeness" and "political correctness" -- I'm talking about the kind of demonstrations that strike the fear of god into Congress. Those are the effective kind, and they do get people killed. Sometimes it requires laying one's life on the line if one really believes in a cause. Today, in the fascist police state, no one has the balls. A few people need to lose their lives in order to galvanize the rest of the country, to show the world just exactly what the US has become -- just another fascist police state. OKAY, NOW... who wants to go first... yeah... about what I thought...
The whole shitteree is going to come down around our ears and ain't nuthin' gonna be done about it. Now shut up and pay your taxes, peasants. The business of the United States is business. Profits above all.
Well Katrina, I see you are sniffing the mood of vox populi (finally). That "calculus of political viability" thing isn't going so well, is it? Better late than never, I suppose.
I believe it's obfuscatory to call a traitor a right wing politician. A traitor is a traitor. Stop with the "wing" business. We need to remove respectability from people who front for rich businessmen.
Katrina vanden Heuvel makes me PUKE.
The Nation, a once proud magazine now slowly sinking rightward, refused to endorse the radical notion of a third party. Oooo... so radical!!
Nader would have given us single payer. Heck - maybe just voting in numbers for Nader would have given us single payer. Same for McKinney.
But Katrina vanden Heuvel only supports Democrats because she's a liberal.
Wanderer July 25th, 2009 8:04 pm...........AND, never even mentions SINGLE PAYER...obfuscating the the facts with "the public option". Propaganda from "The Nation" ....simple as that.
If enough of us voted third party "bomb-bomb Iran" McCain would be our President and "I can see Russia from my house" Palln would be nxt in ln line.
Yes single payer or medicare for all would be great, But our corporate lackies in congress wont go there.
If enough of us voted third party "bomb-bomb Iran" McCain would be our President and "I can see Russia from my house" Palln would be nxt in ln line.
Yes single payer or medicare for all would be great, But our corporate lackies in congress wont go there.
A stupid article. A centrist is a centrist because his policies are not leftist yet not rightist either. That's the best labeling system we've come up with for describing the spectrum of views present in the political spectrum, like it or not. Describing the political spectrum as ranging from liberal to moderate to conservative is even more confusing, like it or not.
Banning or adequately limiting how much America's political campaigns spend in America's election races is the only way to really give America good-enough politicians!!
I can't complain I voted for Kucinich for President. The Clintons are Centrists. I am very Liberal.
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." ~ Thomas Jefferson