I have a new piece over at LRC about the trouble with the centrists. An excerpt:
Both parties advance legislation to win over the middle and most politicians govern from the center. The actual difference in policy between a Bill Clinton and a George W. Bush is smaller than many might assume, and, in any event, not the ideological chasm between left and right that some suspect it is. Both parties support foreign intervention, war, public education, forced retirement programs, government funding for health care, arts, science, and the needy, gun control, the war on drugs, the Federal Reserve, and so forth. To some degree, the particular nefariousness of the Bush administration can be attributed to his party, but much of it has been a result of the post-9/11 political atmosphere and the warmongering ideologues who have their tentacles on the levers of influence in both parties.
Although both parties govern from the center, there still persists the bizarre perception that what is needed is yet more centrism and less rightwing and leftwing ideology. Unfortunately, it is most often the libertarian inclinations of both extremes that are condemned.
Centrism appears to have become a synonym for statism. A collection of all the evils that the rulers desire and the ruled are willing to tolerate
Excellent article by Gregory. Truth appears only to be found on the fringes. Three cheers for gridlock. Note to Cous Cous – I’m personally opposed to the death penalty, but I have to be honest and say I don’t believe it is Unconstitutional. I don’t have my pocket constitution on me (sorry) but I believe is says the Go’vt cannot deny a person Life or property w/o due process of law. The implication (commonsense though not a valid syllogism) is that with due process the state may deny property or life. That seems pretty clear. However, you might argue that the death penalty – AS PRESENTLY APPLIED – violates other parts of the constitution (say the 14th Amendment – Equal Protection clause. You guys make me work too much. Gotta run to Judo practice.
…By and large I think the Center amounts to a kind of intelligent or cynical apathy…This brings to mind Plato’s Maxim regarding the refusal to participate in Politics, to do so he said renders you to being ruled by your inferiors—And look who’s presently ruling you in The US? Uh huh yes…Wise man that Plato.
Not a dime’s difference. Remembering GW ‘s famous and true quote….George Wallace that is!!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/sept98/wallace.htm
Killer article kiddo!
I made a sticker like that back in ’04
I get the impression that under the current version of “corporate liberal / social democracy”, as practiced in the US and most places throughout the west we really have a “three ringed circus”.
Think of each ring as concentric circles…
the three ringed circus…
In the middle is a common core of big government – big business consensus, usually a broad agreement on the role of taxes, regulation, welfare, bureaucracy, immigration, general foreign policy consensus etc. There is virtually no chance of changing these policies by normal means, any push to do so earns the full blast response from the political establishment and it’s various left and right wing errand boys.
Then there is a middle ring of disputed territory, 95% of the time this is mainly tweaks on the welfare and regulatory regime, and sometimes (say 5%) a tweak on foreign policy tactics (tactics not strategy). These are points where different elite factions often have disputing views and they are willing to ally or engage with non-elite groups and interests here to win their points.
Then there is an “outer ring” of Show Biz politics. These are simple politically and economically irrelevant issues of no true import to the core elite. All the “culture wars”, green, pro- & anti-immigration, even minor tax and welfare issues, belong in this band. This is the territory where elections are fought.
what politics is, and is not, fought over…
The fundamental conflict in politics is never over issues or philosophy. It’s about “who’s in” and “who’s out”. Different factions competing to be “in”, need to generate issues and conflicts, in effect “product differentiation” to give them the numbers. The greater the consensus over core issues, the greater the need for product differentiation over non-core issues.
how the left and right merged….
We have seen the world wide rapproachment between corporate conservatism (‘the right”) and statist social democracy (“the left”) in the past 30 years. The core and middle ring disputes that remain between these groups are mainly “load shifting” issues (i.e. the right may favour token deregulation in some sectors, the left may favour token public spending tax & expenditure shifts in other sectors).
The rapproachment was historically a two step process. Firstly we saw the collapse of the Keynesian order in the 1970s. This lead to the discovery by the left that their former alliance with increasingly obvious incompetence of state socialism was counterproductive to their ‘social engineering’ agenda. Leftists everwhere dumped formal state socialism in favour of mixed economy corporate capitalism and activist government. The neoconservative thinker Irving Kristol in the 1980s called this “The Tragic Death of Socialism”. Secondly, we saw the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Disputes between “hawks” and “doves” as to how to handle the Cold War became obsolete. With the reds defeated the left & right both had to drop their cold war foreign policy rationalizations and develop a common world management strategy. Neither left or right was willing to “retreat to isolationism”. Both had a desire and interest in managing the affairs of foreigners.
Murray Rothbard has characterised this left / right centrist merger, as the “triumph of the Mensheviks”. He saw the “anti-communist leftists” as the true victors of both the Cold War and the century long struggle between “capitalism” and “socialism”. In the US, the conservative right had been taken over by rebadged Mensheviks (the neocons) and, despite a McGovernite “New Left” moment in the 1960s-1970s, the new left turned themselves into “new class”. The “new class” were middle class bureaucrats once they left college, despite affected social bohemianism they were really the ultra-cautious ultra-conservative wing of the bourgeoisie. More comfortable as water carriers and “inside the system” drones within big government and big business than any entrepreneurial activity. Indeed they are incredibly hostile to any blue collar or working class populism especially on non-economic or cultural issues.
The rapproachment has solidified the “core” forcing a greater emphasis on “outer ring” politics, hence the absurd preoccupation in contemporary politics with irrelevancies like gay marriage (in US), fox hunting (in UK), “illegal” immigration (in US, Australia), etc. etc.
…You guys are starting to make me work too, and I’m essentially a lazy bastard
I
I don’t like the Death Penalty but I don’t see it as Unconstitutional. Clearly the death penalty was a prospective punishment for heinous crimes at the time of the framers and they didn’t expressly prohibit it, nor a I aware of any text by the framers in their personal correspondence opposing the death penalty per se. It is not “unusual” (which I don’t imply makes it right). And it might not be considered cruel (in the sense of disproportionate punishment to the crime) provided it was applied exclusively for particularly heinous crimes (certain murders, etc….). They also specifically said that people may not be deprived of life w/o due process of law, implying that if due process was followed that a party could be deprived of life. If I’m going to reference the Constition when it serves my purpose, I wouldn’t be consistent in ignoring it when it doesn’t.
…You mean you wouldn’t ignore The Constitution, or for that matter Protocols and Laws themselves when it doesn’t serve your Political and personal purposes?—Well congratulations; you’ll never hold any significant Public Office or manipulate the Futures Market in this Country. As Honore de Balazc wrote: “Behind every great fortune there lies a crime.” …And probably 2 or 3 thousand…Just ask Fat Jack Abramoff…and Slick Jeffery Skilling, who incidentally reported to Federal Prison this morning.
The death penalty is constitutional. So are suspensions of habeas corpus, taxation, and compulsory testimony. So was slavery. The Constitution is far from an ideal model for a free and just society.
…So is the expropriation of Private Property for the common benefit, [Revenue increase was the deciding Justice's rationale, Stevens if I'm not mistaken] Public Domain, National Security and on and on and on…Like the Law and The State, The Constitution is nothing less than an instrument…and as such it is subject to the interpretations of those in power to do so, and it has been my experience that men are seldom as just or strong as their ideals, laws, theories, and most notably their professions of benevolence…While Mr. Gregory is a first rate Political Journalist; he’ll never cut it at TIME…Because unlike the neutered shit ladled out week after week by a precious Michael Duffy, Libertarians have the very bad, if not reckless habit of telling the unvarnished truth as they see it which more often than not is deadly accurate, and I needn’t remind you that such behavior flies in the face of every Political acumen I can think of…In other words: You fucker’s need to develop some guile…and the capacity for mass dissemination…So go figure…I have to go stick my nose in a book…Research…
I don’t disagree w/ much of what you say A.G. However, our best defense is to simply point out that many actions taken by GWB subvert and undermine the Constitution and the framework of a limited Republic. If we says that this framework is itself flawed (which any human enterprise will inevitably be) were cutting off are strongest support. We can look this Unholy Rep/Dem coalition straight in the eye and say with truth – What you are doing is Unconstitutional! If we then add in the footnotes, but we’d rather they stopped with the Artcles of Confederation, we undermine our own footing.
I disagree Steve. The constitution supposedly created their authority, so they should be bound by it. The fact that it was Hamilton’s pro-British plot is beside the point.
It’s better than what we have now.
…Even if their intellectual nucleus is intact and more or less functional, The LP needs less Woolly Headed theorizing, fewer eccentrics who want to take cutting torches to traffic signals, and more MONEY for Radio Programs if not Stations…Then give one to an experienced Snortin’ Horton… To reinforce a critical point, I recall an earlier observation by Angela Keaton to the effect of “Most Libertarian leaders are too fucking weird to make in The Republican Party.” And I think this exemplifies that which I’ve posted; i.e. you cannot accomplish anything Politically with the truth by scaring and alienating people with it, which I’m a master at, but rather by seducing them with it. Which I am not. I also recall telling Scott Horton last spring that after monitoring a Leftist blog I had the feeling I’d just taken a tour through a Madhouse. He said “…welcome back to reality.” Perception is the better part of reality, particularly in American Politics…and despite AG’s skilled—Yet what would nonetheless be looked upon as once again “Sophomoric” by LP detractors—Attempts to rectify these same perceptions…The stigma of Radical remains…and it’s a Goddamn bad one…
I would suggest pushing the Constitution as though it were authored by the Almighty by having the Holy Ghost work through the Framers. To say, the Consitution, it aint perfect but its better than what we got aint gonna sell on Main Street.
FeebleHumor Attempt: Idea to hasten the Revolution……. False flag libertarian state terror……… Go to a small town with megaphones (outside Austin) warning residents of the excessive/intrusive government, the warfare/welfare state. Wait 24 – 48 hours. Then go back dressed as cops and/or DYFUS agents and what not and harass/harange the townies and solicit bribes. Be sure that you get in your face and have “Gov’t Badges” front and center. If questioned scream, “I’m from the Government, How Dare You Question Me, Remember that Old Lady in Georgia? You want some too!!! NOTE: All bribes must be turned in to finance future false flag ops. Perhaps we could coordinate these black ops in close elections where Libertarians stand a chance just a few days out.
“I would suggest pushing the Constitution as though it were authored by the Almighty by having the Holy Ghost work through the Framers. To say, the Consitution, it aint perfect but its better than what we got ain’t gonna sell on Main Street.”
I’ve found that nobody gives a shit about the constitution and that playing it down is much more effective.
FeebleHumor Attempt:
Heh.
Mace: Libertarianism is radical. That’s just the deal. Self ownership, private property, guns. Jefferson, not Hamilton or Jackson.
Scott…Dude…Self Ownership, Autonomy of Reason, The Right to Private Property, Self Defense, Guns, The Freedom to demand that 2+2 is always 4, and Jeffersonian thought should not impress anyone as Radical…That it does however, acquits you on a plethora of issues…i.e. that’s what it’s come down to. But the fact remains some Libertarian ideas, and Libertarians are off the fuckin’ Reservation and thus compromise the efficacy of the movement…Which reminds me: Did you know Hitler and the National Socialists took the concept of Concentration Camps from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs?…The first on, Dachau, was founded on Indian Reservations. As Shakey said: “Our faults lie not in our stars Dear Brutus, but in ourselves”…I say it ain’t the gun, its the fuck with his finger on the trigger.
Did you know that when the Nazis tied a woman down and cut out her ovaries they called it the “Indiana Procedure”?
Your story checks………[The below quote is copies and pasted per due diligence on Internet - too lazy to site source]
Did the abstract and rather arcane discipline of Bionomics have any effect on real life? Well, consider this: the first formal legislation making forced sterilization a legal act on planet Earth was passed, not in Germany or Japan, but in the American state of Indiana, a law which became official in the famous 1927 Supreme Court test case Buck vs. Bell. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote the majority opinion allowing seventeen-year-old Carrie Buck to be sterilized against her will to prevent her “degenerate offspring,” in Holmes
My story always checks.
…The German Luftwaffe took the idea of Airborne Infantry, i.e., Paratroops, from the US Forrest Service deployment of Airborne fire fighters, better know as “Smoke Jumpers.”
The crosspollination went both ways. FDR apparently loved the idea of rounding up easily recognized scapegoats and sending them off to the camps.
The Mises institute had a whole series on why they considered the New Deal to be Fascism. http://www.mises.org/upcomingstory.aspx?control=75
…Excellent reference, also consider if you will, the infamous Dr. Walter “The Ice Pick” Freeman and his rampage of pre-frontal lobotomies preformed on school children with, Yes…Goddamn Ice Picks and Rubber Mallets over the tops of their eyeballs in the 40′s 50′s and early 60′s…Given my behavior as a kid in The Pubic School System I sometimes wonder how he missed me—There was a true fuckin’ Fascist in any man’s book!—And post WW 2 to boot!…A Low Mother Fucker Gentlemen
Didn’t Joe Kennedy Sr. have this produce performed on his mildly retarded daughter upon hitting puberty?
…He sure did. The procedure performed in 1938 was botched however, and as a result her condition degenerated from mild or borderline, to one of profound retardation and she thus remained institutionalized the rest of her long life…That and if I’m not entirely mistaken, it was Freeman who performed the operation. Freeman continued the leading advocate of and the eager practitioner of Lobotomizing mental deficients, deviates, behaviorally disordered, sexual psychopaths, and I’m certain then undiagnosed ADHD cases—This for the purpose of Social Hygiene/Engineering through the 40′s and 50′s until he was finally refuted by the AMA, and The American Psychiatric Association in the early 1960′s, performing his last lobotomy, by Court Order I believe in 1967…Someone may want to check my facts, but I believe they are generally correct—and particularly so for the purposes of commentary
…To resume the original topic: Politics is the art of persuasion through favoritism and mendacity; we’re out…they’re in…it’s that bitterly simple…I nonetheless want to offer a protracted example on AG’s superb analysis of The Center and Tim’s more than cogent comment[s] on the same
…Ah the hell with a protracted comment, AG’s right….So’s Tim…To cut to the chase: It’s a 3 ring circus of smoke and mirrors and a one party system delineated by well defined, and hostile class boundaries…Merry Xmas to all, and don’t get shit faced and drive