On the Essential Vacuity--and, Sometimes, Tactical Value--of the Label "Centrism"

    Warning: This is an abstract post, not light reading (do I ever do light reading?).  Alternative Title: On One Way to Let Them Have Our Way.  Short version: Before trashing and running away from using the label "centrist", consider that may not in a particular situation, or even perhaps as a general matter, be a helpful thing to do to advance a liberal/progressive political agenda.  Example of what I am talking about is Paul Begala here:
    we are stardust's picture

    ONE BEAR TEACHES ANOTHER: QUANTITATIVE EASING

    "But my plumber also has a nice beard."  "You must be shit-ting me!"

    Barth's picture

    Lost

    They knew he had never
    Been on their T.V.
    So they passed his music by

    we are stardust's picture

    A Bill to Indemnify MERS Retroactively?

                                                                          

    A report from CNBC yesterday, November. 2010, announced that the Obama Administration and Congress are working on, and ‘may consider’ a bill for the Lame Duck session to ratify MERS as a legally credible entity and limit its liability in major parts of the foreclosure fraud debacle.

    LOVE SANDWICH FOR OBAMA

    Mr. President, you are the most intelligent and classy political figure I've seen in my lifetime.

    Mr. President, if you squander this opportunity to reform the banks and Wall St. I will join in a primary challenge to your re-election.

    Mr. President, you can seize an historic moment.

    The populace is feeling two emotions which are related but separate. One is a sense of unfairness. The other is the gut knowledge that the system is rigged. The sense of fairness is relative: a moderately well off person thinks his taxes are unfair, but so do the poor and the wealthy.

    SleepinJeezus's picture

    Dem Manifesto: Catfood Commission Report Underscores Need for Health Care Reform

    The trial balloon floated by The Obama Deficit Commission co-chairs Simpson and Bowles has been afforded all the respect it deserves. In a statement following the release of the "chairman's mark," Dean Baker does as good a job as anyone in dismantling the report. Baker is perhaps most critical of the ludicrous timing of such a counter-intuitive, anti-stimulative initiative smack dab in the middle of the greatest recession in modern history.

    Time Out

    When I was unemployed, I would sometimes stay up all night, chatting or blogging or just listening to music. Eventually I'd end up alone after other chatters went to bed, and after other bloggers stopped commenting and posting, and I'd turn off the music and just sit and stare out the windows of my attic apartment and watch the sky lighten.

    There's this pause in the early morning just before the sun breaks over the horizon. This long pause while the sky brightens from black to deep dark blue to a slightly paler hue. It's a lovely thing to watch, to witness. To feel.

    MrSmith1's picture

    Since this ...

    Since this:

    Barth's picture

    On Veteran's Day

    Or, as it used to be known, Armistice Day, celebrating, as really Americans do best, a truce--the end of hostilities, with a mess all around, and one that still causes us trouble from Persia, and almost every other place beaten up by the war to end all wars, but did not.

    So, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month and some of us get a day off to work from home.

    And, of course, there is always a quote from some president or another that is worth noting:


    cmaukonen's picture

    Greed...It's Not Just For Wall Street Any More

    This is an old piece but I think needs resurrection to illustrate some points. 

    The Drippy Hippy's picture

    Bullies in the Yard

    We all dealt with Bullies in school, unless of course you WERE a Bully... And the best way to deal with a Bully is to ignore them because all they are really looking for is attention to feed their weak ego. And most of the time that works and they go away or quiet down.

    Every once in a while you come across one who just does not give up and does everything in their power to break you down. At some point you NEED to stand up to them and face them toe to toe and tell them to "bring it"...

    Michael Maiello's picture

    The President Owns Everything

    I keep seeing "President Obama's Bipartisan Deficit Reduction Committee" references in headlines and news articles.  I also see left leaning commenters lament the political disaster this is.  On one hand, I can see this from Obama's point of view.  Sure, he formed the committee and picked its members so it is, in that sense, "his."  But he formed the committee and chose the members so that they could put together a proposal for the rest of us to contend with.  It's "Obama's" in the sense that he hired these people.  But it's their work.  That's a subtle but reasonable distincting.  Those of

    MrSmith1's picture

    FDR's skull will be put on a spike ...

     ... and paraded through the streets of Republican districts, where jeering tea-partiers will pelt it with rotten tomatoes and curse it for "Destroying America" ...

    tmccarthy0's picture

    PHILOSOPHY CORNER: Our Anti-Listening Milieu

    A friend of mine posted a question on Facebook today,

    we are stardust's picture

    These Things Suck. And a link to the livestreaming of the Catfood Commission Presser

    Unsurprising news comes that Obama is about to start running back his targeted date for beginning to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan.  He is, also unsurprisingly, going with a 2014 date to assess things…again.  Seems Petraeus was right all along, and I am shocked to discover what power he wields for the MICC.

    Michael Maiello's picture

    Oh, Capitalism!

    You are, my dear capitalism, the best method we have for allocating resources to productive use, for creating wealth and for helping people meet most of their needs, most of the time.

    But, seriously?

    A restaurant for dogs?

    And this just after I saw a cooking show about private chefs making dog food for rich people's pets?

    FINANCIAL REFORM--THE SPECTACLE

    Watching Elizabeth Warren on Maddow last night I was uplifted by the power of her demeanor and her spectacular delivery--"they lost". She showed more backbone in those two words than the whole Obama team did in two years of pontificating.

    Watt Childress's picture

    Building a bridge to earmark reform

    Now that Republicans have regained some of the clout they enjoyed under President Bush, what will become of talk about balanced budgets and spending reform?  Will leaders model fiscal responsibility in fresh and innovative ways that broaden public support?  Or will they merely try to entertain partisans while repackaging the status quo?

    cmaukonen's picture

    Eleanor Roosevelt - Activist First Lady

    Most people don't remember who the First Ladies of the White House were. There were a few that stood out. Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton. I myself cannot remember President Eisenhower's wife name. And I wonder how many remember that Bess Truman was the wife of Harry S Truman.

    tmccarthy0's picture

    Confucian Me: Regaining my Center In a World Gone Mad

    From the Desk of tmac... to the World

    Long ago, in the 1990's while I was in graduate school the first time I wrote my thesis on Confucianism and  Post-Modern Environmental Philosophy, especially in conjunction the musings of Aldo Leopold in The Land Ethic.

    Three guys who seem to "get it"

    I've been a big fan of The Young Turk's Cenk Uygur for a while now, and this confirms for me exactly why.  I never agree with anyone all the time, but his world view is pretty close to mine on a lot of stuff. Ratigan and Greenwald tend to be more hit and miss.  But this segment ... the three of 'em together ... pure awesome.

     

    IS IT MEA CULPAS OR MEA CULPAE

    Should a President admit mistakes?

    Maybe if Obama could admit a mistake he would be able to turn the tables on this Republican Congress. Recently he kind of admitted a mistake, remember the "too much policy, not enough politics" gambit? Only in this case, I'm thinking too much "politics."

    The Reps can't defund Obamacare

    by itself.

    We know what Gingrich did. They won't repeat that.

    They could try and do a mini version of that by eliminating the funding for  a specific department but I think they'd get a mini version of the Gingrich reaction

    Otherwise the House,by itself,can't reach down within a department and order some specific action.

    cmaukonen's picture

    A lesson from LBJ in courtesy

    I found this particular entry by Sam Smith to be especially moving to me.

    tmccarthy0's picture

    INDIAGATE and Other Musings- The RNC Congressional Investigations Road Map

    For: IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    From: Darryl Issa, Chairman, House Oversight and Government Reforms Committee

    To: AMERICA

    America,

    Pages