The following narrative is derived from examples of the preferred narratives or Leftists and Rightists as developed by Jonathan Haidt and shown on Youtube with nicely done short films. This said, (1) there should be a much shorter version , or an altogether different version -modeled after the Parables in the Bible, which are all classics of moral literature. However, that is for some other time. For now the objective was to write out a brief historical narrative along lines suggested by Haidt. (2) This is still rough and needs some work before it is ready for prime time. But it may be of interest as is and I am wide open to criticisms and suggestions. BR ----------------------------------------------- Radical Centrist Narrative: The Story of Radical Centrism . During the 1990s we had a political system which could be described as one body with two heads. Concerning issue after issue there was little difference between Republicans and Democrats; not because everyone shared good ideas but because of the opposite. Hence the two major parties agreed to gut the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 which had, until then, kept the brakes on finance capital, making it next-to-impossible for the abuses that allowed the crash of 2008 to happen in the first place. . The two parties also agreed to revise communications law not only to regulate new technologies, which was needed, but to stimulate competition in the marketplace so that consumers would have greater choices and pay better rates for services. Instead, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 gave us increased consolidation of media empires with fewer and fewer owners of communications companies, an effect sometimes called "corporate welfare." . Then there was the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 which did absolutely nothing that mattered to actually balance the budget. . There was also the unnecessary Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act which increased penalties for crimes motivated by bias of different kinds. While there may be little question about prejudice in a small percentage of crimes, this law presumed that judges and juries consist of people trained in psychology who make inerrant decisions about inner motivation, a conclusion that is ludicrous on the face of it. But both Democrats and Republicans decided that this was a good idea. . Meanwhile leaders of both parties looked on passively as illegal immigration primarily from Mexico accelerated throughout the decade, swamping some American cities with huge numbers of illegal aliens. . The election of 2000 changed the picture, with Democrats unable to reconcile themselves to the 'rube' in the White House, George W Bush, who was promptly demonized -along with demonization of religious views associated with his version of conservatism. Republicans in turn, decided that deficit spending was the ideal way to finance government, that is, borrow trillions of dollars, especially from the Chinese. . The came 9/11 and a temporary meeting of the minds on the need to enhance security and fight terrorism -never named for what it was and is, Islamic terrorism, a function of Muslim religion per se. But this led to a complete breech between the parties after 2003 when the administration hopelessly mismanaged the occupation of Iraq because of its laissez faire philosophy and unwillingness to face on-the-ground realities The solution to this problem proposed by many Democrats was retreat, abandonment of the country and, along with that, increasing expressions of anti-Zionist sentiment which , of course, gave support to a rising tide of anti-Semitism on the American political Left. The mainstream media continued to blame the Right for anti-Semitism. . The economic meltdown of 2008 completed the process of complete separation of the two parties into deadly enemies. The Republican ticket, which was ahead in polls by as much as 5% before the crash, fell behind by 7% afterward, and lost. . The stage was set for the rise of reverse racist politics led by demagogues like Al Sharpton, it was set for appeasement of Muslims around the world and in the United States -at the expense of Jews and Christians- and it was set for the 2011 abandonment of Iraq to the forces of the Islamic State within approximately two years. Meanwhile almost nothing was done to bring the economic criminals who were responsible for the 2008 meltdown to justice, none of whom were punished in any meaningful way except, in a few cases, with fines they had no trouble paying. . Simultaneously, both Democrats and establishment Republicans were busy capitulating to homosexual demands, no-one doing the least research into to psychopathological character of homosexuality, on the grounds that the only conceivable way to deal with the issue was in terms of "justice" -as if vast quantities of empirical research findings to the effect that homosexuality is a deleterious personality disorder did not exist.. Republican opposition was almost exclusively confined to religious argument based on the Bible -a book that believers had not researched in any depth either, most Christians and Jews blissfully unaware of the many passages in the Holy Book that unequivocally condemn same sex sexuality. In any case, such argument has almost no weight in matters of public policy. . This state of affairs was made possible on the Republican side by infiltration of the party and of conservatism more generally by libertarians, people who are the ultimate reductionists and who see all issues in terms of the hopelessly simplistic view that freedom is a universal solvent for all problems. What this does, of course, is to excuse people from actually making themselves informed on any subject that is important. . There is more, this is only a sketch, but it must be added that both parties, as much as possible, ignored or deflected major protest movements that broke out in 2010 and after, the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. Both parties also tried to ignore the rise in numbers of Independent voters, by some estimates now 40% of the electorate. Nearly all of these people are shut out of the political process. . All of which should tell you that, as things are, we have had no real choice but to acquiesce in duopoly politics, a system that is dysfunctional at its core. This must end. . It has been more than 50 years since we have lived in a political system that gave Americans good alternatives in their ballot choices, speaking of the Eisenhower / Stevenson showdowns in the 1950s. After JFK there were no good choices for either major party. This means all the national elections from 1964 onwards. . It is not at all mysterious why, in the past decades, the numbers of Independent voters has steadily increased from about 20% in the 'sixties to twice that today. . Thinking people began to search for an alternative as soon as the breakdown in the political system became unmistakably clear. And with the 1980 publication of Marilyn Ferguson's The Aquarian Conspiracy, we had the first expression of a new political philosophy that would come to be known as Radical Centrism. . There were similar problems in Europe in the 1990s and out of that came a political philosophy known as the Third Way -which, for a time, was made use of by Tony Blair and the British Labour Party. However, while various Third Way views would continue to be relevant, such as the need to borrow ideas from your opposition to ensure that your party always advances the best available programs, this kind of politics was closely associated with the political establishment and could not shake the need to compromise with monied special interests. . Late in the decade there were two important developments in the USA that took the concept of Radical Centrism further, the rise of what may be called rancher / business environmentalism that led to the creation of the Quivira Coalition mostly in the America West, which now has approximately 50,000 members, and the establishment of the New America Foundation -in affiliation with The Atlantic magazine. New America is lavishly funded, among others by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, but is closely related to the now more-or-less defunct Third Way in Europe. Although New America has produced some superlative scholarship it remains what it was from its beginning, the Democratic Party Lite. Its main contribution to actual Radical Centrist philosophy has been to spotlight the need to "think outside the box," to be creative, work with original ideas and rethink the issues we most need to solve. . One other development of note was the rise of several unaffiliated RC websites, the most important of which was Radical Middle Newsletter founded by Mark Satin, whose views were a direct continuation of the concepts that Marilyn Ferguson had conceived. . By 2004 a new group was founded, originally designated as RadicalCentrism.org. Commonly known as Centroids, it is this is kind of Radical Centrism which can claim to be genuinely Radical Centrist in ways that none of the others that use the phrase can be. Centroids -sometimes called West Coast Radical Centrists- mix hard Right and hard Left positions together to try and find the very best ideas available to solve our most important political problems. This is not a matter of compromise or half steps toward a moderate middle. . For Centroids it is a virtue of the highest order to mix and match strong ideas chosen from Left and Right to invent a new kind of politics that does not care about ideological purity. This is cafeteria politics as virtuous politics because we need the best ideas of Right and Left -we certainly do when they are combined in a balance that does not favor liberal views more than conservative views or vice versa. . However, Centroids Radical Centrists also regard it as essential to think creatively, to try and develop new and original ideas that defy classification as Right or Left. And for this reason Centroids also feel free to borrow as needed from third parties of almost any description, from the Greens to the Constitution Party. . What is Radical Centrism all about? The whole concept can be thought of very simply: Our objective is to reanimate the spirit of Teddy Roosevelt and his independent politics of 1912 -everything brought up-to-date and rethought for the 21st century. Our focus, like that of Teddy Roosevelt, is on the future. Today's existing parties are obsolete and if they do not completely remake themselves our goal is to create a new movement that will result in the revival of Teddy Roosevelt's politics for modern-day America. We need nothing less. . We need honesty in politics, intelligence in politics, and decent values that are based on the best that America has been in its history. Most of all we need to have a clear idea of the kind of future we most need as exceptional among the nations. American needs to lead the world, but for that we need to re-educate ourselves in just about every area of life. We need to create the best future we can possibly build for ourselves as a beacon to the world -starting now. . . . Billy Rojas . May 31, 2016
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