Legal Commentary

Defining The Middle

By Big Tent Democrat

Jon Meacham, the Editor of Newsweek, is catching hell from Left blogs for his typically obtuse nonsense. Meacham writes that "the nation is essentially "center-Right."

I think the reaction to Meacham is misguided. Meacham is a fool and will write foolish things. The key is the lesson of FDR:

[T]hat is FDR's lesson for Obama. Politics is not a battle for the middle. It is a battle for defining the terms of the political debate. It is a battle to be able to say what is the middle.

Consider Meacham's description of the New Deal:

FDR had a longish run (from 1933 to 1937), but he lost significant ground in the 1938 midterm elections and again in the largely forgotten wartime midterms of 1942.

Well sure, if you put it that way, FDR was "Center Right." What a load of nonsense. But consider the advantages of having The New Deal defined as "Center Right." (Besides driving the "Constitition in Exile" people nuts.) We are talking about a truly progressive and virtually revolutionary period. And consider the fact that a Democrat won 4 consecutive Presidential elections and dominated the Congress for 5 decades. For Meacham this was the sign of the limits of Progressivism. Heck, if that defines "Center Right" for Meacham, then give me some "Center Right."

Embrace the term "Centrism." OWN IT. DEFINE IT. Do not get mad at about it.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on October 19, 2008 (boomark / email).