“Extreme partisanship is the problem; Centrism is the solution. ”
A Different Perspective
Centrists Need a Coherent Message
August 31st, 2010
The biggest threat to America’s short term success and long term survival is partisanship. It is ravaging our country from the inside. Partisanship divides us into rival factions, makes our public policies less effective, and increases the power of special interests. We as voters need to demand better. But what should we demand?
A majority of Americans are independents or moderates, but our political system is dominated by the extremes of both parties and their supporting special interests which only increases partisanship. These politicians’ first priority is the short term gains of their party not the long term success of our country. We should demand less party servants and more public servants. We should demand less ideologues pushing party agendas and more Americans advancing the national interest. However, we will never get that if we keep electing ideologues and extremists. We need to elect more centrists.
Centrists (Independents, Moderate Democrats, and Moderate Republicans) are the only candidates and elected officials who have enough independence from their party’s leadership, political base, and special interests to offer innovative reforms and promote common sense solutions. Centrists offer a third option which combines the best ideas of both parties with innovative reforms for the 21st century. Instead of adhering to the outdated ideologies of the two parties, centrists focus on finding new ideas and pragmatic solutions. But because their ideas are new they do not have a constituency that supports them and the special interests that will be affected by them fight to save the status quo.
In addition, the political system is rigged against centrists. Primaries need to be reformed so that the political parties, their extreme activists, and their supporting special interests no longer control them. And the design of congressional districts which are created by the parties to favor themselves needs to be assigned to nonpartisan commissions. All of which would help to level the playing field so that moderates and centrists have more of a chance to be elected. Thus making our political system and government more representative of its people.
But there remains one problem that will continue to marginalize centrists. Centrists cannot compete politically with ideologues. Ideologues have a specific set of principles and policies which they market themselves on. For Republicans it is conservatism and the principles of small government, less taxes, and free trade. Voters know what they are voting for. But centrists do not have that luxury. What does it mean to be a centrist? It cannot just be consistent message of taking the middle course between the two parties. It has to be a message that differentiates us from the extremists and ideologues. It also has to be a message that unites centrists around common objectives. Centrists need a coherent message to campaign on.
One of the main objectives of The Pragmatic Center is to determine what that message should be. I believe that we cannot promote an ideology that will straightjacket us into party servants as progressivism does for Democrats and conservatism does for Republicans. I also believe that we need to promote an ideology or set of principles of our own. Groups such as the New Democrats and the Democratic Leadership Council promote a moderated progressivism that is hard to differentiate from the special interests dominated far left. We need our own coherent message that is flexible enough to change with the times and on the issues while at the same time direct enough to guide us towards common objectives.
What should that message be?
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I like your "straightjacket" analogy. Perhaps it could be used to describe how only the two options of "left" and "right" can restrict our search for the optimal choice.
Also, there is nothing quite like a pithy, catchy "bumper-sticker" slogan.
Perhaps we could have a contest to select one (with online voting?) to select one.
And that (i.e., seeking the optimal) would be like modeling the behavior that we are talking about.
Thoughts?
Steve Buckley
http://twitter.com/transpartisan
Steve,
That's a great idea, we should have a poll to choose the best message and slogan. I have the capability to post polls on here so I may do that very soon.
Thanks for the comment and the great idea.
"Here I am, stuck in the middle with you"
The message is frighteningly simple, conveying that message is certainly the hard part. Most people are already here, they just don't know it because they've been encoded by the two party system as a D or an R. When I was a kid I thought I was an R, because that's what my parents were. When I was a teen, thought I might be a D, because I knew I wasn't an R. By the time I could vote, I registered as no party to avoid calls from either party. Now, I'm independent by choice and will stay that way.
The real problem is that people don't even know that they're centrist. A lot of the people I encounter describe themselves as "socially liberal and fiscally conservative" (which is it's own oxymoron), but in reality, they are centrists. They want to make sure that government is sustainable but they don't want to eliminate the good things that government does to accomplish that sustainability.
The center is the ultimate big tent, a place where all views are represented, discussed and consensus can be reached through civil discourse.
I completely agree with you once again. Most centrists don't even realize that they are a centrist. I think the more popular groups like ours gets, the more people will realize that the duopoly that they are faced with is not what they want. Unfortunately, centrists are so marginzalized and unorganized right now that most people don't understand that they have another option if they wanted to work for it.
I would go with something like...
"The time has come to break out of the two party system by reforming our elections."
Until we find a way to break out of having to pick between only the two choices the party offer us, we will be stuck with...
-Having to choose "the lesser of two evils".
-Politicians who don't worry about their own behavior, but how bad they can make "the other guy look".
-Politics where you would rather not compromise and leave things to fail rather than give an inch on your position.
>I would go with something like...
>
>"The time has come to break out of the two party system by reforming our elections."
Or maybe...
"The time has come for choices you believe in, not the 'lesser of two evils'"
Being A Centrist, Moderate Or Any Other Name We Are Given Or Choose For Ourselves Already Dictates Where We Stand As A Group.
It Means That Politically We Favor Nothing Extreme Only Common Sense.
The GOP Want The Poor To Pay
The Democrat's Want The Rich To Pay
In The End It Is The Middle Class Who Pays For Everything.
Centrists Wants EVERYONE Pay Their Fair Share.
The Problem Is That Politically We Have No "Big Wigs" Who Are Willing To Support Our Cause's, Because Our Pockets Aren't Deep Enough Because The Poor And The Rich Are Deeply Entrenched In Getting What They Want As Opposed To Getting What We Need.
Our Slogan Should Be; " We ARE The People."
Thanks for the comment! I especially like the slogan. "We ARE The People."
Pragmatism.
It sums it up well. Looking at all options, from the right and left; conservative and liberal and deciding on the most pragmatic way to move forward. Sometimes, it does require adopting a more progressive viewpt, other times it requires adopting more conservative...then there's the third option: adopting a whole new approach altogether.
I don't know if anyone is still following this post from last August, but I think it is worth a lot more discussion. First, I don't agree with the statement that "Centrists cannot compete politically with ideologues. Ideologues have a specific set of principles and policies which they market themselves on."
I think we can compete VERY successfully with ideologues, especially in reaching those who are uncomfortable with ideological ways of approaching reality.
An ideologue is, by definition, someone who filters all incoming data through a lens of sacrosanct a priori assumptions, and rejects any that don't support those assumptions. His or her policies reflect uncritical acceptance of those assumptions. Whatever you call that kind of intellectual framework, it has nothing to do with a coherent philosophy, and even less to do with principles.
NON-ideologues are just as capable of marketing themselves on a specific set of principles and policies as are ideologues, in fact more so. We have a coherent philosophy. It's called pragmatism. And starting with the belief that critical thinking, unfiltered by sacrosanct assumptions, must be the basis for public policies, we have consistent principles.
Why not start with this?
How about "Whatever Works!" as a message?
"Pragmatism" is my personal favorite so far. It says "we want to take the politics out of decision making". It says that we put the importance of addressing national issues well before our partisan desires and that our focus is on the needs of the people. We don't approach each issue with a predisposed prejudice and there's no "my way or the highway".
That's why it's the central slogan for the National Centrist Party. It's simply "what works" in this process and what we need right now.
http://nationalcentristparty.org/
How about "pay the bills" ?
"Pay the Bills"
or
"Government within our means"