attackerman.firedoglake.com
_“Radical centrism”, like the tooth fairy or Detox, is a myth_
(http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2010/04/26/radical-centrism-like-the-tooth-fairy-or
-detox-is-a-myth/)
_Radical centrism”, like the tooth fairy or Detox, is a myth_
(http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2010/04/26/radical-centrism-like-the-tooth-fairy-or-d
etox-is-a-myth/)
By: _Jamelle Bouie_ (http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/author/jbouie/)
Monday April 26, 2010
By: _Jamelle Bouie_ (http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/author/jbouie/)
Monday April 26, 2010
Hello Attackerman readers, and thanks to Spencer for letting me hang out
here for a few days. It’s always a pleasure.
While Tom Friedman’s reading of the Tea Party Movement is hilariously wrong
— a movement of GOP stalwarts isn’t going to embrace anything “green” —
it isn’t the worst thing about _his column_
(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/opinion/25friedman.html) today in the New
York Times. Those honors
belong to this passage, where he extolls the “radical centrism” of Senators
Kerry, Graham and Lieberman:
Yes, I know, dream on. The Tea Party is heading to the hard libertarian
right and would never support an energy bill that puts a fee on carbon.
So if there is going to be a Green Tea Party, it will have to emerge from a
different place — the radical center, a center committed to a radical
departure from business as usual. Acting on that impulse, Senators John Kerry,
Lindsey Graham and Joseph Lieberman had forged a bipartisan
climate/energy/jobs bill that deserves an energetic centrist Green Tea Party
to support
it.
This critical piece of energy legislation was supposed to be unveiled by
the three senators on Monday, but it was suddenly postponed late Saturday
because of Senator Graham’s fury that the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid
of Nevada, and the White House were planning to take up a highly
controversial immigration measure before the energy bill.
The term “radical centrism” is absolutely incoherent. The New Oxford
American Dictionary _defines radical_
(http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/SEARCH_RESULTS.html?y=0&q=radical&category=t183&x=0&ssid=785776012&scope=book&ti
me=0.930407100268489) as “relating to or affecting the fundamental nature
of something; far-reaching or thorough.” Which, incidentally, is the
precise opposite of “centrism.” For centrists, public policy is only “good”
when it offers a concrete benefits to existing stakeholders and entrenched
interests. By and large, centrism is an ideology of the status quo, and
centrists are most concerned with maintaining existing institutional
arrangements. Reform is rarely pursued, and then, only when it can be achieved
through
tepid incrementalism (the exception, of course, being wars and defense
spending).
But even if “radical centrism” were a real thing and not nonsense prettied
up by the gloss of a New York Times column, it’s still the case that
Friedman’s praise is completely misplaced. Senators Kerry, Graham and
Lieberman
are consummate insiders. Indeed, this is why its even possible for a
climate bill to move forward; each has intimate knowledge of the players
involved and the experience necessary to navigate their concerns. Pace
Friedman,
there is absolutely _nothing radical_
(http://views.washingtonpost.com/climate-change/post-carbon/2010/04/by_juliet_eilperin_the_nations.html)
about
the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman proposal; it provides $10 billion to the coal
industry for “clean coal technology” and has garnered support from “the nation’
s largest electric utilities association and three of the country’s
biggest oil companies.” Of course, that’s not to say that the bill isn’t good
—
tepid incrementalism is the only real option we have for moving the ball
forward — but radical it isn’t.
Like I said at the beginning of this post though, “radical centrism” is a
complete contradiction in terms, and it would please me to no end to see
the phrase mocked, denounced and completely excised from political dialogue.
--
Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
<[email protected]>
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism
Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
