Reply #88: Lieberman wants the Dems to be the party of the "center"

[0rganism]

And hey, from what the DLC's polls tell me, that's a way to win both campaign contributions and elections. The Democrats are a large enough organization to attract all manner of support from the American Center, if that's where Democrats choose to place their bets.

However, I wonder if he sees that such a stance gives a lot of slack to the GOP to drift further rightward (is that even possible?) Because moderation in American winner-take-all politics is dependent on a compromise position of two adversaries, Sen. Lieberman is setting us up for compromises drifting ever further to the right wing's liking. This strategy of "catch the center" is a reactive one that cannot succeed, in the long run.

At some point, one has to take a stand on policy and shift the center. This is what the GOP has done since the Reagan era, with mixed success to be sure. The Democrats are forced into a rather uncomfortable position because of insufficient agitprop at the level of individual citizens, not because Democratic policies were inherently flawed compared to republican ones.

The notion of a party representing an American center is a good one, and if it attracted as many moderate republicans as it lost left Democrats to third parties or, even worse, apathy, then it could be a winner. If there were room in American politics for a vibrant third party, then Joe would be doing a service by asking the Democrats to stand in the middle. As it is, he's carving out a stretch of turf in a barren policy wasteland and demanding that all the relatives move in.