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The Radical Center We Don't Need
Tom Friedman of the New York Times is at it again, claiming that what America needs to fix our economic and political mess is a radically centrist third party. Radical in this case means conservative when it comes to belt-tightening. Friedman in Sunday's Times urges a third party "to fill the space between the conservative Santorum (or even Mitt Romney) and the left-of-center Barack Obama."
David Walker (Photo: Melissa Phillip, Chronicle / HC)
Friedman has written this column before.
This time, he has a coyly undeclared candidate, David Walker, formerly president of the austerity-mongering Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Walker, who served in a previous life as head of the Government Accountability Office, has been barnstorming around the country, denying that he is running for anything, blaming America's woes on Social Security, Medicare, and Federal deficits.
Walker even campaigned hard for votes in Politico's third party preference poll last October, contending that his personal campaign was only to drum up support for the idea of budgetary prudence, and coming in second. But it sure looks to me like the fellow is running for something. And nice to have Friedman as a cheerleader.
Normally, a single-issue crusader like Walker would not get to first base. But this time, a dubious group of Wall Street multi-millionaires has created a vehicle for the likes of Walker called Americans Elect, to reserve a third party spot on the ballot, with the candidate to be selected later. They claim that the goal is to enhance democracy and break partisan deadlock. They also count Friedman as a big booster.
Americans Elect has already raised $22 million, and has qualified its yet-to-be named candidate for the ballot in 14 states including California. With some 6,000 paid and volunteer canvassers, they hope to gain a ballot slot in every state. Later this spring, its 350,000 members will vote via the Internet for their choice of nominee.
However, if the self-appointed steering committee of hedge fund private equity magnates doesn't like the public's choice (Bernie Sanders? Ron Paul?), they get to override it. As Ronald Reagan once memorably said, I paid for this microphone. The brand name is Americans Elect, but it might as well be Money Talks.
If anything, Americans Elect and David Walker epitomize all that's wrong with American democracy. Americans Elect is the creature of multi-millionaires and billionaires, who now have the ability to spend infinite money putting their thumbs on the scales of American democracy thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Walker himself enjoys his enlarged megaphone thanks to the billion dollars that retired private equity mogul Pete Peterson put into the austerity crusade.
The deadlock preventing solutions to America's real problems is not the result of a symmetrical partisan stand-off. Republicans are surely farther to the right than any mainstream party in American history, but today's Democrats are hardly left-wing. The policy stalemate is simply the consequence of Republicans blocking everything Obama proposes.
We already have a centrist party. It's called the Democrats. Obama's Democrats are to the right of Richard Nixon on most domestic economic issues. If Democrats had not joined Republicans in financial deregulation, we never would have had the economic collapse of 2008.
Contrary to the claims of Friedman, Peterson, and Walker, what ails America is not the long term budget projections of Social Security or even Medicare, but the continuing knock-on effects of the financial collapse of 2007-2008. The weakness of the housing sector, combined with lagging wages and persistently high unemployment, is leading to a prolonged period of deflation. More fiscal austerity would only make things worse.
If you want to balance Social Security's books long term, the solution is to increase wages -- the source of payroll taxes. Had wages increased with the economy's productivity for the 30 years after 1979 as they had for the 30 years before, Social Security would be in surplus forever. Alternatively, raise the ceiling on which payroll taxes are levied. Social Security has nothing whatever to do with the current economic crisis. And if you want to fix Medicare, fix the rest of the health system, which is the world's most inefficient because of the dominance of commercial interests.
A secretive independent party financed by hedge fund and private equity plutocrats is not only a blight on the democratic process. It could end up being a dangerous wild card in a momentous election.
If Rick Santorum is the Republican nominee, it's reasonable to expect an Obama win, maybe even by a landslide. Santorum is just too far to the right of most Americans. But if a Wall Street financed independent is on the ballot, running as a conservative on fiscal issues and a moderate on social issues, there's no telling how the election might play out. Such a candidate might draw off Republican votes -- or could attract independents who would otherwise back Obama.
Ross Perot, the last fiscal conservative to run as a pseudo-populist, was running first for several weeks in the spring of 1992. And he was a lot weirder personally than David Walker. As things worked out, the Perot vote helped Bill Clinton, but it could have gone the other way. In 2000, of course, Nader helped throw the election to George W. Bush.
As the Friedman column suggests, a lot of the pundit class laps up this "radical-center" malarkey. The Washington Post editorial page has been an ongoing commercial for fiscal austerity, and Walker has generally gotten a very respectful press. It was the influence of the deficit hawks that pushed Obama into appointing the late and little-lamented Bowles Simpson commission, which in turn compelled the president to waste nearly a year obsessing about budget balance when he should have stayed focused on recovery.
Austerity, as we see in Europe, is absolutely the wrong economic policy. It feeds on itself, driving the economy deeper into a hole. As GDP sags, wages and tax receipts sag with it, making budget balance a vanishing mirage. The more you cut the deficit, the more the economy falters, and the cycle repeats.
The combination of bad economic advice, a ballot slot bought and paid for by secretive private equity and hedge fund players, and a candidate who became a media figure courtesy of Peter G. Peterson, epitomizes everything messed up about our politics. How fitting that Tom Friedman should be its tribune.
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30 Comments so far
Show AllA radically moderate party! What a great idea! That would be perfect for promoting war in the name of peace, poverty in the name of prosperity, slavery in the name of freedom, and insanity in the name of sanity.
The problem with his analysis is that Americans Elect has not been designed to be a party at all. It is only a conduit for a third candidate to arrive on the scene. AE has no agenda of its own, beyond what the extremely diverse delegates end up choosing. Those who have signed up so far (almost half-a-million) include dyed-in-the-wool libertarians, life-long Democrats (like myself), people who have registered as Independents and Republicans of various stripes. Whoever survives the primary process will need, above all, to be someone who can "play well with others" -- not a blinkered ideologue. A breath of fresh air is the phrase that comes to my mind...
The idea that a consensus candidate who "plays well with others" is needed, and that "blinkered ideologues" are the problem, is not supportable in any way that I can see.
The problem is not that people "don't play well with others." There are contradictory and mutually antagonistic forces at play in politics. Denying that, seeking to avoid that, always supports those who are already in power.
Anytime anyone tells me that they have "no agenda," I get suspicious. Why would "no agenda" be a good thing, anyway?
There was a similar movement in the 1850s. People claimed that the problem was not so much slavery, but rather the battle over slavery, and that "we" needed to stop the fighting by suppressing the "fringe" - the Abolitionists and the slavery advocates, both seen as "blinkered ideologues" who were not "playing nice" - and find some "middle ground." Of course, if people stopped fighting then things would remain as they were and slavery would have continued.
It is not a matter of denying that there are "antagonistic forces at play." But governance needs to happen even when people disagree. For example, now we have "pro-choice" and "pro-life" forces and nothing in between. Reasonable people can see that no one actually wants more abortions, and very few want to see women disempowered, but no one in leadership positions seems ready to look for middle ground. Similarly, we can be strong militarily and not use our strength in an ill-advised way, but currently everyone "must" be either hawk or dove. Differences there will always be, but gridlock is not acceptable.
You are talking about Obama's agenda now.
I agree with Alex, Americans Elect is not a party but a ballot access organization. In addition, if the board that runs Americans Elect actually denies whomever is nominated by the delegates then they will loose all credibility and obviously all support as well. Anyone is free to nominate anyone they want at americanselect.org, so don't think only certain people will be considered. If you or you nominee is 35 years old, a natural born US citizen and reasonably appealing to enough delegates...it could be you.
"We already have a centrist party. It's called the Democrats. "
Yes, if you consider trillion dollar gifts to Wall Street centrist. Or if you think of imperial wars as centrist. Or if you think of the NDAA as centrist. Or if you think of targeted assassinations of citizens as centrist. Or if you consider drone warfare around the world centrist. Or if you consider thousands of drones over the USA centrist. Or if you consider refusing to sign the treaty banning land mines centrist. Or if you consider wars against innocent Muslim children centrist? Or if you consider a war for Libya's oil centrist.
Mr. Kuttner supports Obama and to my mind that means he supports all of the evil listed above. Rather than try to help Obama win, Kuttner should condemn him and call for his impeachment.
Sounds like you endorse Ron Paul's platform then.
No, he is a racist who wants to end welfare. I'm sure that's true and that makes it a deal breaker.
When it comes to life and death--war and peace--Ron Paul is on the right side of the issue. All other issues can be negotiated, but not murder.
By the way, what makes you think Obama doesn't want to end "welfare?"
Agreed.
Obama does not care about Welfare except as a way of keeping the whole right-left lesser of two evils concept alive.
He will become as "progressive" as he dares as we approach the election and then jettison everything he can afterwards.
Besides after the country goes bankrupt by maintaining the state of endless wars, there will be no welfare state, just bread lines.
I remember when David Walker fist became head of the Government Accountability Office. He himself wondered if he had the brains for the job. He didn't.
Obama, the lesser evil, we will have to abide by until capitalism fails: (see below)
Let's face it, we've (so called free-market capitalism,USA flavor) peaked. After WW2 our economy was gung ho--no competition, Europe was down and out, and we were numero uno, Great jobs, great benefits, great society. Then manufacturing went down the tubes--no longer a profit center, it moved to other countries--we started to center our economy around the financial sector--finances, insurance,real estate --FIRE, for short. That sector now provides 50% of corporate profits. But it's a dead end. Nothing is made and papers,like mortgage securities, exchange hands and suddenly people get rich or get poor. In this way previous empires--the Dutch,Spanish,England collapsed. Hasta la vista free market capitalism!
Obama is left of center? What is considered center now, John Birchers?
LOL, Goldman ( men with sacks) of Gold is the new center.
And in 2000, of course, Al Gore helped throw the election to Wanker Bush.
Illusion upon illusion. For the Dem-voting faithful, the ugly must be pointed out to rebuild fealty. And it truly is ugly. In our times, we see hedge fund managers openly running for president, without shame. Others are just backed by hedge funds, secretly or not. Clearly, the public is set for another fleecing.
And so it's necessary to have opinion makers in such an environment. Just a few words, and, like frightened children, stalwart Dem voters are brought back into the Obama corporate fold. Safe, warm, nurtured by the corporate agenda.
To accomplish that feat of propaganda, it takes minders, like Robert Kuttner. The first tactic is to make a concession - the Dem Party is "centrist." But the concession is way off. Kuttner has created a new center for the Democratic Party by staking it out on the far right and then redefining the terms. It's a classic propaganda technique. Kuttner is equally as culpable as Thomas Friedman.
On other important points, a good propagandist tells half-truths that make the frightened feel good. Thus, Kuttner writes:
"If Democrats had not joined Republicans in financial deregulation, we never would have had the economic collapse of 2008."
Unfortunately, elected Dems were more than just going along with the program. They were the ones initiating the deregulation, such as the Clinton administration with killing the Glass-Steagle Act and deregulating the derivatives markets, or Obama with the bankster bailouts. Sure, the Repugs didn't miss a beat as followers and exponents of this agenda. It's two parties marching to the same corporate beat. This is important to understand, despite Kuttner's essay, which misleads.
Fear seems to work every election. We'll see many more such essays like Kuttner's as election 2012 approaches. They still want your votes, but you have the power to not give it to them and to vote third party. Remember the betrayal. Act accordingly.
This type of stuff is nonsense, no one takes it seriously. The center and the right have had their way for decades (and Mr. Friedman knows this), look where were are. Was the left, like Mr. Friedman, in favor of the damn Iraq War? Well, that was a three trillion dollar mistake by Mr. Friedman. No worries though, you can always take that back from the poor, elderly, and children. "Free trade" has worked so damn well for working people, and the domestic industrial economy, hasn't it? Less good paying jobs, decades of stagnating wages, the financialization of the economy, massive wealth and income inequality. More please. Just silly, again things are too bad for anyone not a millionaire like Mr. Friedman and Walker to take this seriously. It worked more in years past when people didn't have to pay so dearly for being so deluded.
What is going to happen with Walker? We're going to hear that we should cut "entitlements", deregulate maybe, more wonderful "free trade". Wow, what a breath of fresh air. We surely haven't seen any candidate say THOSE things in decades. How innovate, forward thinking and brave of Walker and Friedman! He might even dazzle us further and declare gay people human beings. Surely the work of a Renaissance man. Another empty suit, backed by the money of rich folk, wanting to further enrich those rich folk and cut back vital social programs when the economy is imploding for working people. Do the capitalists WANT to create more radical opinions amongst the public? Do they want people to question the capitalist system itself, cause they are? Maybe they think that, if it all fails (it is and will) they can resort to force.
Yup, Kuttner revealed his true intent when he claimed that "Nader helped throw the election to George W. Bush." I suspect he is right about Americans Elect - but his throwing that Nader canard in there is the proof he just wants to kill 3rd parties period ... "lesser evil" all the way .... why have a "radical" center when you can have a BS one?
Center of what, BTW?
I'll stick with Stein - http://www.jillstein.org/
I couldn't be bothered reading this article today, because I know from experience that Kuttner is prone to generating progressive-liberal swill.
And why should I vex my beautiful mind by getting pissed off at a proven pissant?
So I just now belatedly checked out the comments. And when I saw what you wrote about Kuttner's Nader reference, I assumed that you were referring to something Kuttner had written or said in the past-- maybe during the hysteria following the 2000 election, when anti-Nader sentiment and scapegoating was peaking in the disgruntled Democratic lesser-evil ranks.
My curiosity piqued, I skimmed the article. And damned if the Nader nonsense isn't right there after all.
I tend to feel sorry for poor Kuttner, who seems a decent sort even if his retro liberal-lite political perspective can only be explained by progressive cranio-rectal inversion. (Which is arguably a tautology, I realize.)
It's truly pathetic. And what's worse, as Amerika settles into the campaign-season rut, we can look forward to more of the same from Kuttner and his fellow travelers in the months to come.
Well, OS, you were way ahead of me :), i as actually reading along, thinking he was making some sense, until i saw that crap. If he doesn't realize that it IS crap, then the guy ain't too bright - if he does, and spouts it anyway, then he ain't too honest. Either way his credibility, whatever there is of it, is shot, IMO ..
Aquifer..I Agree. It is amazing how that old "Nader Myth" lives on. Anyone who has a grasp of the facts knows better.
NADER 2012 or more of the same. The voters have a choice, but they still don't get it. Join the W.I.N. campaign. WRITE IN NADER.
Good article!
Ro,
I voted for Nader 4 times, but he's not running this time - I think he realizes that for the movement to continue, we have to move on (no, not Move-On) and there must be more to this than just him. So I am supporting someone who I think is a worthy successor - Jill Stein. Check her out:
http://www.jillstein.org/
This article makes sense because less choices means more democracy. Right? Wait what?
On economic policy you wouldn't have a choice. This Walker guy is so alike to the major party candidates that his candidacy would make no logical sense. If this Walker cat got in there you'd have three people who think roughly alike, no one offering a real alternative to the others. The alternatives are the currently existing third parties, who do offer a fundamental break with the status quo and get next to no support. Maybe I am naive anyway, but I kinda thought we had a democracy. If we do have a democracy does the public not define what the center is? If we went by what the public thought on the issues we'd call Walker and Friedman what they are, right wing. At the very least conservative. What Friedman calls "centrist" is well to the right of the public on most of the issues themselves. Semantics matter. It is only because Friedman and people like him are cut off from the struggle that is modern working class America that he thinks this nonsense would win people over. We hear these policy proposals endlessly. They don't work, they have failed working people, who are a majority of the country. I don't think Friedman is deluded or cut off enough to even buy this nonsense. He's just trying to move the conversation in a direction, back towards where it has been for decades. Ugh, a boring, vision less, absolute failure.
Thanks for that whole "free trade" thing Mr. Friedman. Thanks too for your work, helping to lie us into a horrible, costly war. Surely we should give a damn what you think.
"In 2000, of course, Nader helped throw the election to George W. Bush."
Nader voters are the only voters with any dignity left today.
I'm not sure if the author is a highly enthusiastic Demok or only a moderately enthusiastic Demok but the point is moot as are almost all his points, because if one is not radically left today, one is basically "with the terrorists".
Exciting times for the people! On with the task of localizing our economies! Better join the party, everyone!
Robert utters "Americans Elect is the creature of multi-millionaires and billionaires, who now have the ability to spend infinite money putting their thumbs on the scales of American democracy thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision." However I think Mr. Kuttner hasn't considered that Americans Elect is gaining popularity because we are tired of all the partisan BS, both Democrats and Republicans, and all the money that the Citizen's United decision has dumped into the game has silenced the majority of us. If Mr. Kuttner thinks that 22 million is so much money consider the length of time it took to get that money, then count all the money Obama, or Romney have THEN include their Super PACs as well. Suddenly 22 million isn't much. And that is to run the ballot access campaign, not the campaign of the nominee. Robert is putting words into the mouth of Americans Elect. Shame on him.
MY ASS IS FAT- Thomas Friedman
While at the White Tiger Country Club in Kuala Lampur last Wednesday sitting under the shade of a four hundred year old Balboa tree I listened intently to Shaga Rhienheif the minister of trade for Indonesia. Shaga is educated in the west and so he thinks as I do. This is very comforting. While enjoying our bar Iced Teas and relaxing to the soothing strokes of a foot massage, Shaga and I were commiserating at the lack of initiative on the part of American workers. Poobah, the masseur that was attending to me was more than thrilled to have the opportunity to earn $6.00 a day (if tips are good) kneeling at the feet of those of us more fortunate than him.
We talked and drank and drank and talked for what seemed like hours. And in fact several hours (I think nine in all) went passed before we noticed that the sun was leaving and it was time to change out of my Khaki’s into something more formal for the evening cocktail reception prior to the seven-course dinner that we were to share with a group of leading global industrialists.
“If only the American worker would show some drive,” I mused. I thought about my own ambition, how hard I worked graduating from Oxford with a degree in Middle Eastern studies and then marrying a billionaire. How difficult it was for me to secure a first class seat on occasion. How the NYT pressures me to file my expense report on a timely basis and how I almost always rise to the occasion, seldom missing a deadline.
I realized as the evening wore on that my chair was becoming slightly and ever more uncomfortable. So I asked for a more cushioned seat and was immediately serviced. Then I thought how I would have likely had to wait fifteen or twenty minutes for a surly busboy to provide me with the same relief if I were back home in Bethesda.
The differences are striking. Here in the third world, among the most impoverished, the desire to serve and for upward mobility is why the American economy is being hurled into the abyss. Americans have yet to come to terms with the fact that the rest of the world is willing to provide goods and services at a fraction of the cost to do the same in the U.S.
So what if many of the countries that are competing with us do so with sweatshops, prison and child labor. I never said that the world was perfect. Only that it is flat.
I would like to wax more on this subject but I am getting a bit more uncomfortable even in this nice cushy chair that was provided.. I think need to have my pants let out a bit. Something that would likely take weeks in the States but I can have done as I write this without the inconvenience of even leaving my chair.
Just as I was ready to wind this column down and an innovative and amazing idea came to me. Precisely the kind of uniquely American born initiative nourished on democracy that I still maintain results in our wonderful country providing the inspiration for the developing world, and envy from our competitors in Europe.
The idea is this: instead of having my pants let out, we can re-train the tailor to use the tools of liposuction. Sure this will have a short-term impact on his earning ability and his family may lose their home while he learns the new trade, but that is the price of progress.
Then, the fat removed from my thighs, waist and ass can be melted down and used as fuel for my car. If I have enough of my excess fat and that of my family removed we may even be able to heat our $9.5 MM home for several winter months.
What a great way to continue to enjoy all of the food we have come to love, and recycle our excess into something that creates jobs and helps to reduce our carbon footprint. Positively brilliant.
I have to go now, my drink needs stirring.
Thanks michael429,
And this Thomas Friedman article was included as a positive stance for americanselect.org no doubt. Thanks for your support!
Your Welcome,
i wrote this about two years ago, sent it to the NYT online as a comment, they wouldn't post it and neither would the Huffington Post.....Thank You Common Dreams...am donating tomorrow morning.