New Republic
Radical Centrists On The March!
* _
Alec MacGillis
_ (http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-stump/97667/radical-centrists-the-march#)
Alec MacGillis
* November 21, 2011
In the past day or two, I've seen a few disparate data points to suggest
that the movement to create a new third choice on the 2012 presidential
ballot led by people who one might rationally expect to be with President
Obama
is gaining momentum. It turns out that _these guys_
(http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/96730/third-party-americans-elect)
-- who are
working to nominate a bipartisan ticket in an online convention with the
blessing
of Tom Friedman and the backing of some very wealthy people -- are not the
only ones who believe that all Washington needs is a new breed of leader
who can swoop in and transcend all our divides.
1. You might think that Jeffrey Sachs -- the influential Columbia
economist, founder of the Earth Institute and advocate for global development
aid
-- would be foursquare behind the established political party that is trying
to hold the line against Republicans who are calling man-made climate
change into question and demanding deep cuts in foreign aid. You would be
wrong.
In his new book, "The Price of Civilization," Sachs is arguing for the
creation of a third political party, the "Alliance for the Radical Center,"
which, the Economist's _review of the book _ (http://www.economist.
com/node/21538088) reports, would be "left of the Democrats." In this venture,
Sachs
will have distinguished company: Matt Miller, the former Clinton
Administration official and Washington Post columnist, recently penned a
_possible
stump speech _
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-third-party-stump-speech-we-need/2011/09/22/gIQAjzx8wK_story.html)
for a radical centrist third
party in which nearly all of the proposed stances were to the left of what
President Obama has managed to achieve. Let's leave comment to the
characteristically understated Economist: "This seems naive: a new party of
the
left, if it ever came into being, might split the Democratic vote and thus
elect more Republicans." Uh-huh.
2. Sachs apparently places great hope in the Occupy movement, and lo and
behold, its instigators are also sounding the third-party chime, except in
even more bizarre fashion. In Sunday's Washington Post, _Kalle Lasn and Micah
White_
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-occupy-wall-street-will-keep-up-the-fight/2011/11/17/gIQAn5RJZN_story.html)
, the editors of
Adbusters magazine, which issued the initial call for Occupy Wall Street,
envision "with a bit of luck, perhaps even the birth of a new, left-right
hybrid
political party that moves America beyond the Coke vs. Pepsi choices of the
past." Wha?? What, exactly, would be the "right" element of this new party?
In the same paragraph the authors list the concrete reforms they would like
to see:
...a _“Robin Hood tax” _ (http://robinhoodtax.org/) on all financial
transactions and currency trades; a ban on high-frequency “flash” trading; the
reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act to again separate investment
banking from commercial banking; a constitutional amendment to revoke
corporate
personhood and overrule _Citizens United _
(http://www.tnr.com/sites/all/modules/fckeditor/fckeditor/editor/) ; a move
toward a “true cost” market
regime in which the price of every product reflects the ecological cost of its
production, distribution and use...
Sorry, I'm not seeing much "hybrid" there. And the Adbusters crew better
be careful where this left-right hybrid talk will lead them, because that's
the same lingo employed by the Americans Elect people referred to above,
and the dream candidate that many of them have in mind is none other than one
Michael Bloomberg -- the person who rousted the Occupiers in what the
Adbusters editors call a "shock-troop assault."
3. Last but never least are the "Democratic" duo of Doug Schoen and
Patrick Caddell, who today make another appearance on their _favorite newspaper
op-ed page_
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203611404577041950781477944.html?mod=googlenews_wsj)
to argue not for a third-party per se --
though Schoen is on the leadership team of Americans Elect -- but that
Barack Obama ought simply to step aside and hand the 2012 Democratic baton
to...Hillary Clinton. "Never before has there been such an obvious potential
successor...who is the only leader capable of uniting the country around a
bipartisan economic and foreign policy," they write. And lest you suspect
Schoen and Caddell of anything less than noble motives in seeking to
undermine Obama, they assure readers that they "write as patriots and
Democrats --
concerned about the fate of our party and, most of all, our country."
So many noble-minded people, all on record saying they have no interest in
participating in the actual, you know, election that will happen next
year. Now all they need to do is get themselves in one room to discuss their
grand visions. I suspect that a mere half hour or so with Mssrs. Schoen,
Caddell, Sachs, Lasn and White all in each others' company should cure a few of
these notions.
--
Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
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Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
