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Politics is more about arithmetic than it is geometry. Trying to plot a line and to determine what is left or right or center is a meaningless exercise that satisfies primarily pundits whose life it makes easier and politicians seeking to ostracize their enemies.
The real secret is figuring out where the majority is, understanding why they are there and addressing their needs. That is where victory lies...and it is also where we find unifying common ground. That's the implicit goal of democracy, the driving idea that makes it work.
On issue after issue--ensuring access to health care for all, a decent job for all who want it, protecting the environment, ensuring affordable education for all, tax policies that are fair and place the needs of society above those of the very few, fighting corruption...
...ensuring our security, ensuring equal protection under the law for all, granting a woman the right to control her own body, fighting racism and sexism, honoring our military, honoring our global legacy of leadership, respecting our allies and alliances...
...promoting trade policies that work for everyone and that take care of those who are dislocated by progress, investing in research and development so we can lead into the future and so many other issues, the majority view is the best view and one that confounds labels.
The champions of the so-called center seek to promote compromise with GOP leaders whose scorched earth, radical policy ideas serve their own narrow interests, preserving their jobs and answering to their rich and corporate sponsors.
Not only have they made such compromise impossible but every step in their direction takes us away from what the majority wants--see the tax cuts, see their reckless deregulation, see their attacks on access to health care, etc.
That said, Democrats do themselves no favors by playing purely partisan games. The majority agenda incorporates the commitment to equality of Lincoln, the commitment to fight concentrated corporate power of Teddy Roosevelt, the tax policies of Eisenhower...
...the efforts to protect the environment of Nixon, the Main Street patriotism of Reagan, the respect for diplomacy of George H.W. Bush, and the willingness to seek reasonable immigration policies of George W. Bush--all Republican presidents.
(That's not, of course, to say that somehow GOP leaders captured the market in good ideas. Democrats have many to their credit, of course. Great ones that made America great. Dems are actually better at budget management, strong defense, government reforms...
...and a host of other issues their competitors claim credit for. Those and many other important concepts.) The point is that the geometry and the labels are meaningless. We need to listen to our majority...there is profound wisdom and common sense in their beliefs...
...and great motivators to drive future growth in their shared aspirations. Where they are is not however in some notional "center." It is with a host of ideas that some might call progressive but are actually deeply, profoundly, essentially American...
the ideas that have made us great, helped us fix what is broken in our society and drove progress. Teddy Roosevelt understood. He spoke of achieving "the greatest good for the greatest number."
Or, as someone said in response to my earlier thread today, he said, “A great democracy has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy." That's not the modern day label "progressive" he was speaking of. It is the ideal of seeking progress together.
