Two Grand Slams in one day, Charlie Pierce? : "I Hate Centrism"

[bullwinkle428]

I hate goddamn centrists.

There are three kinds of people who claim to be centrists in this country today. There are embarrassed Republicans. There are lazy people. And there are liars. There is no fourth alternative. We have seen vividly the intellectual exhaustion of self-proclaimed centrists in the laughable attempts to blame both sides for the reign of the morons. We have seen vividly the intellectual dishonesty of self-proclaimed centrists demonstrated by the No Labels and Fix The Debt scams, both of which involve little more than selling out the social safety-net. We even seen the intellectual vacuity of self-proclaimed centrists in the results of this poll, in which we see some vague mumbling about the deficit that will eat us in our beds, but a strong desire to raise taxes on the very wealthiest among us, which I guarantee you none of the people who proclaim their centrism the loudest believes is a centrist position.

Kathleen Parker reacted to our poll with a column of stunningly mendacious "centrist" flim-flam. Parker is regularly cited as a "reasonable" conservative -- as mythical a beast as an intellectually honest "centrist," truth be told -- because she once wrote some columns in which she determined that Sarah Palin might not be up to the job of being vice-president. This, of course, was a stunning insight only to the comatose and to household pets. Anyway, Parker is quite comfortable in the New American Center.

Let us be clear. If the Iraq war hadn't gone so criminally bad, Kathleen Parker would still be punching hippies for being unpatriotic. If George W. Bush hadn't been a complete and utter fk-up as a president, the Kathleen Parkers of the world would still be proudly self-identifying as conservatives. If the reign of the morons hadn't come to such a garish end, the Kathleen Parker's of the world wouldn't be praising all those wonderful non-ideologues who watch Duck Dynasty and are "too sane for politics." All of a sudden, her side started to lose, and to screw everything up, and looked possible to be going the way of the Whigs, except that it was doing so out of severe public dementia. Suddenly, people like her declare themselves to be centrists. They discover that they might be "too sane for politics." Let the dickhead Christie from New Jersey get nominated, and suddenly, these same people will explain that union-busting and reckless bullying are techniques of the center. The New American Center is the same as the old American center -- the last refuge of scoundrels who still need a gig.

Read more: Response To New American Center - I Hate Centrism - Esquire
Follow us: @Esquiremag on Twitter | Esquire on Facebook
Visit us at Esquire.com

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/response-to-new-american-center-101613

[joeybee12]

1. This, of course, was a stunning insight only to the comatose and to household pets.

[pangaia]

16. Go TIGERS !

Sorry couldn't resist.
(I pick a different team every year...)
But whomever wins I love watching both those teams play.. the pitching is something to behold.
And if Boston wins. Congrats. Then GO SOX !!!!! :&gt

[joeybee12]

17. It's been a very exciting series...surprisingly for picthing duels!

[valerief]

23. Cracked me up, too!

[joeybee12]

24. Charles is always a definite read! nt

[mike_c]

2. I'm beginning to really like Charles Pierce....

Seriously.

[Scuba]

7. Seriously.

[rurallib]

3. the man is a national treasure

[Douglas Carpenter]

4. knr

[RobertEarl]

5. I hate centrists and moderates

The only way we save this country is by taking a hard left turn. The centrists and the moderates are in the way. We will have to run over them.

[rhett o rick]

6. The only thing in the center of the road is a yellow line and dead road kill.

Brilliant post. The political spectrum used to be divided into liberals and conservatives. Funny now that the Repukes have gone crazy, there are three groups, the liberals, the centrists and the crazy-clowns. The centrists have changed their name from conservative to distance themselves from the crazy-clown-conservatives. And "centrist" sounds so reasonable.

Of course the centrists have invaded the Democratic Party and DU. Just ask a so-called centrist to explain on what issues they disagree with the left. All you will get is silence, if you are lucky, or ridicule if you're not.

[Scuba]

8. Thanks to DUer RC, we can see how the spectrum is aligned in Washington ....

Thanks, RC, for this great graphic.

[rhett o rick]

20. I see that as the spectrum of Washington the DC but not of the nation. nm

[Scuba]

29. Exactly. The left half of the nation is largely without representation.

[n2doc]

21. Toon from yesterday

[KG]

27. rall rocks

[AnotherMcIntosh]

10. Interesting color. Some (other than me) may think that there is a third alternative.

With colors that are green or gold.

On the left side of the road, there many not be much in the way of green paper or gold.

The road is a long one. At the end, the ones who have picked up the most money win.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

9. Is this a slam against Obama?

1. Would you rather have had McCain? Or Romney?

2. Obama is not only smarter than McCain but he took advantage of the brain power of smart Republicans by appointing them to top-level positions in his Administration.

3. He's open to new ideas and is flexable in that regard. Whereas before his 2008 election he was opposed to NAFTA as being an agreement that was detrimental to American workers, he now understands the benefit of let's-ship-even-more-jobs-to-foreign-countries "free-trade" agreement by taking steps to sign the TPP (the NAFTA on steroids).

... And anyone can include their own additions from experience with President Obama during the last five years.


Still the questions remain. Would you rather have had McCain? Or Romney? Those are the only choices. Either a Centrist or bona fide Republicans.

[rhett o rick]

19. Either a centrist or a wackadoodle. We are being played.

When the ship is sinking, it's no time to argue over which tune the band should play.

[whistler162]

34. Nah... just a slam against using your brains

for something other than a hat stand!

[Doctor_J]

37. Holy shit

2. Obama is not only smarter than McCain but he took advantage of the brain power of smart Republicans by appointing them to top-level positions in his Administration.

What...the...hell. Clue on line 7 - REPUBLICANS ARE THE ONES WHO GOT US INTO THIS MESS. THEY WERE VOTED OUT IN 2008, BUT THE PRESIDENT BROUGHT THEM BACK TO LIFE.

3. He's open to new ideas and is flexible in that regard.

He has absolutely nothing that he stands for. There isn't a single thing he promised during campaign 2008 that he hasn't or won't give up, either to avoid confronting the Repukes, or to serve the 1%.

My God, things in this country and in this party are way, way worse than I imagined.

[DireStrike]

38. Not true, Obama stands for some things.

1) Never say mean things about Republicans.
2) You probably shouldn't let them destroy the country outright. Everything else is ok.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

40. He's not the only one holding them up like a palooka.

Nancy impeachment-is-off-the-table-no-matter-what-they-did Pelosi also helped.

As did Harry I-won't-require-real-fillibusters Reid.

[Orrex]

11. I like the sentiment, even if it's somewhat obvious. But...

We even seen the intellectual vacuity of self-proclaimed centrists in the results of this poll, in which we see some vague mumbling about the deficit that will eat us in our beds, but a strong desire to raise taxes on the very wealthiest among us, which I guarantee you none of the people who proclaim their centrism the loudest believes is a centrist position.

That is one of the worst-written pieces of text that I've read in recent memory.


Still, props for reiterating reality.

[DireStrike]

39. Yeah the guy needs an editor or two.

It's good material, just needs to be worked on a bit.

[bvar22]

12. Sensible, Pragmatic, BiPartisan, Centrism!!!

[font size=3] CENTRISM....because it is so damned EASY!
You don't have to STAND for ANYTHING,
and get to insult those who DO![/font]




"In politics the middle way is none at all."
-President John Adams



[font color=firebrick size=3][center]"The only thing in the Middle of the Road
are Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos."--Jim Hightower
[center][/center][/font]

[Phlem]

13. How beautifully written and spot on!

Me thinks centrism is a hard game to play these days because of how polarized both parties are.

Thanks Charles.

-p

[Utopian Leftist]

14. There is a remarkable and relevant biblical passage about centrism:

It actually says somewhere in there, "would that you were hot or cold, but because you are lukewarm I will spit you out of my mouth!"

God has spoken. Centrists are snotbags God coughs up after a bout of bronchitis...

[lastlib]

28. I'm borrowing that last line!

"Centrists are snotbags God coughs up after a bout of bronchitis..."

. . .

[obxhead]

15. K/R

[Blue_Tires]

18. That first line is the best goddamned thing I've read on DU in a long time

He also could have applied that to anyone calling themselves "independent"

[rhett o rick]

22. Excellent article. George Bush wasnt wrong when he said that one was either

for the terrorists or against them. But he was misleading because what he really meant was, one is either for the terrorists or is willing to kill or maim millions of Iraqis to prove you hate terrorists.

Georgie Porgie Puddin n Pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry.
And if that wasnt enough,
he invaded Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of children.

And the sociopath lives happily ever after.

[xchrom]

25. centrists can go fuck them selves -- they break everything then piss and moan they are the only ones

to fix it.

[Maven]

26. K&R for truth

[rhett o rick]

30. I never have understood centrists. The left is for decent health care for all children,

and the right is against same. WTF do centrists want?

I find that sometimes you catch centrists siding with the right. Like on domestic spying and the Patriot Act and indefinite detention and the economy and ........

Centrists are just too embarrassed to call themselves conservatives.

[Doctor_J]

36. The centrists want to retire as filthy rich lobbyists and speakers

they are without souls - as you say, unable to decide whether they want Americans to have, as rights, health care, clean air and water, decent wage, safe working conditions, safe roads and skies, and so on. they are on their own level as loathsome as the righties.

[sabrina 1]

41. They are people with zero convictions on moral issues. They are different from the Far Right only in

their attitude towards some Social Justice issues, such as Gay Rights and Women's Rights eg. They don't care one way or the other and use that to infiltrate the Dem Party by appearing to be on the 'left' on those issues. On all other issues, such as Social Programs that help minorities and vulnerable people they are far to the Right. On Foreign Policies they are far to the right also.

We have the Far Right Republican Party and now, because of these Centrists who slipped into the Big Tent over the past number of years and have gained a lot of power in our Party, we have one and a half Parties who are far Right on some very important issues.

And that was the plan. Centrists were used to get the Dem Party on board with the agenda of Wall St and the MIC and it worked, sadly.

[rhett o rick]

42. Well said. Centrists are being used by the 1% to control the Democratic Party.

We have some hope and that is via the strong progressive organizations outside and inside the Party. Where the DNC will fund DINO's the progressive organizations bring us progressives like Sen Warren and Rep Grayson.

I find it somehow ironic that the 1% money will most likely back Ms. Clinton in the Democratic Party.

[Solly Mack]

31. !!!!!!K&R!!!!!!

[dreamnightwind]

32. Excellent. The corporations own the center.

I've long believed that corporations have thoroughly co-opted the political center. They stoke the far right to keep a force pulling in that direction, and position themselves and their reps as the reasonable alternative, which most always seems to pursue corporate-friendly policies. And their media outlets make sure their positions are considered to be the sane middle ground.

We need to retake the middle. A populist center would do wonders for this country. I'll be over here on stage left, not the center, but there is no reason the corporations should own the center, their policies don't benefit the interests of the average American.

[whistler162]

33. Well just go to show.....

some magazines are desperate for writers even writers that have flunked history repeatedly.

Centerists/moderates keep the world going not the left or right. But, heck who wants that.

[Doctor_J]

35. I would add a 4th category - cowards.

There are embarrassed Republicans. There are lazy people. And there are liars.

They tremble at the thought of standing up to Fox "News" and Hate Radio. that describes the president and a big chunk of the DC Dems.

[seveneyes]

43. Centrism is relative

When you have reached your goals, you become centrist.