Lately there’s been a lot of talk about the growing need for the “centre” to rise as a political force in America. The story goes that American politics have become so polarised between the far left and the far right that we need to find candidates who will be ‘middle of road’ candidates, thoughtful arbiters who can sift through partisanship and provide reasonable, centrist solutions to appeal to the centre yada yada yada.
The problem with this notion is that it’s entirely false in its premise. Washington is not divided between the far right and the far left. I’d even go as far as to say that other than a handful of politicians in Washington, there is no “left.” What we have in government is the far far right of Republican party which has shifted severely to the right since the days of Reagan, and the centre-right corporatism of the Democratic party which also has moved severely to the right since the days of Reagan. In fact, the Democratic party is now about right where the Republican party was in the 70s and early 80s. Are they less right than the Republicans now? Of course, but they’re still rightwing.
The reality is that the “centre” between the far far right of the Republicans and the centre right of the Democrats is still far right. The middle between Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz is basically John Kasich who is still a very conservative, far right Republican. Predictably, throughout Trump’s time in office, John Kasich has on multiple occasions been highlighted by the media as a sort of “voice of reason” in the age of Trump. There is no “left” in Washington today.
One of the best examples of this is the healthcare debate. Obamacare is Romneycare. Plain and simple, the Affordable Care Act is a rightwing, Republican plan that was made up by the Heritage Foundation in the late 80s and championed by folks such as Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, and Chuck Grassley in the mid 90s and ultimately implemented in Massachusetts by Mitt Romney in 2006. This is how the Republicans win even if they lose. By running to the hard right, Republicans got Obama down to their own proposal from the 90s. If they won, they got their even more rightwing plan, and if they lost, they still got their rightwing plan from a decade ago that they would then pretend to oppose. Flash forward and today we are once again debating healthcare as the Republicans propose a repeal and replacement of their own plan from the 90s. Paul Ryan spearheaded the House bill, the American Healthcare Act, and now the senate is working on it’s own version of the House bill. Think about that. Our current healthcare debate is basically between Romneycare and Ryancare. Both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan were on the Republican ticket in 2012. They lost that election, and yet here we are deciding which of their healthcare bills we are going to have. Even worse, it’s the Democrats who are defending Romneycare. Rather than propose an actually progressive or liberal plan, the Democrats opt instead to just defend Romneycare.
Rightwing Democrat, Tim Kaine, recently started tweeting that he wants to ‘work with the Republicans to create a bi-partisan’ deal on Obamacare. In other words, he wants to meet them half way. Now think about the ramifications of that. From a progressive viewpoint, there isn’t a “middle” or “centre” between people dying and going bankrupt because they don’t have healthcare and people not dying and going bankrupt because they don’t have healthcare. Even under the ACA there are still 30 million Americans without health insurance. Under the House bill, Ryancare, that number would go up to about 50 million. So what the Democrats are basically saying is that, ’50 million Americans without healthcare is unacceptable (true) but 30 million Americans without healthcare is just fine’ ?? How about zero Americans without healthcare?
Elizabeth Warren recently made the case that Democrats need to abandon their centre-right approach and embrace a progressive option on healthcare. Warren told the Wall Street Journal,
President Obama tried to move us forward with health-care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts. Now it’s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer.
So Democrats have two paths, they can either take the Tim Kaine route and do a “bi-paritsan” bill with the Republicans that blends Obamacare, an already rightwing plan, with Ryancare, a very rightwing plan and we end up with a rightwing plan, OR they can take the Warren route and provide an actual alternative and campaign on medicare for all. The second route is by far the best path forward. A recent Q poll found that 60% of Americans support medicare for all including 60% of independent voters.
Taking the “centrist” approach is not a winning strategy and it only ensure that our politics stay rightwing.
Though technically, since the Democrats are centre-right that means if they truly want to move back toward the centre, they should move to the left. Just a suggestions.
Progressives: Everyone should have healthcare as a right.
Republicans: No they shouldn’t.
Tim Kaine: Come on guys, let’s meet in the middle.
–M
The Max Blog 