Democrats OWN the Center: I'm Not Giving It Back Without a Fight [View all]

[McCamy Taylor]

Ok, my two cents worth. Carter did not lose because he moved to the center. Carter lost, because some very bad people made a deal with the Iranians to exchange Hostages for Votes. McGovern lost by a landslide in 1972, because the GOP was able to portray him as the “Abortion, Acid and Amnesty” candidate—he had spent so much time courting the left wing of his own party in the primary, there was really no time for him to move back to the center for the general. And right now, with the Tea Baggers jettisoning their own semi-sane Republican incumbents in a rite of Calvinist slash and burn frenzy that would make the Salem Witch Hunters proud and replacing them with GOP candidates who are so crazy, so extreme, so far out in far out right field that Goldwater of 1964 would have said “What’s up with these guys?”---

Now is the time for the Democratic Party to proclaim “Hey, America, who are you gonna trust? Those crazy extremists who want to take away your Mom’s Medicare and Social Security? The ones who want to arm kindergarten teachers? The ones who want to privatize your fire department? The ones who would rather see your wife die from being pregnant than allow her to get an abortion? The ones who think that Blacks had it better under slavery? The ones who think that children born to undocumented immigrants should be allowed to stay---as indentured servants, not subject to ordinary labor laws? The ones who want to criminalize sex? The ones who want the Bible---their version of the Bible—taught to your kids in school? The ones who want to wage holy war against Muslims? The ones who want to cut taxes on the rich while raising them on the working class? The ones who think you should get your health care in the Emergency Room? The ones who think that corporations are citizens and that the more money a citizen has, the more influence he should have in a democracy?”

Now is the time for Democrats to remind Americans that our party stands for equality for all before the law---a good old fashioned American value, straight out of the Bill of Rights. Democrats stand for freedom of religion. We stand for the right to privacy. We stand for one person, one vote. We stand for marriage---for all. We stand for children---including children’s safety and health. We stand for a country where no child should go to bed hungry at night. We stand for families---and we won’t stand for having families split apart, so that Dad can be sent to fight a war of choice for oil or that Mom can be sent “back” to a country she never knew where she could be killed.

Citizens United gave some rich folks the right to buy a party. They bought the Republican Party. They filled it with a bunch of kooks who are so far right that only a well-paid media whore could love---no, no one can love them---only a well-paid media whore can stomach them. And now, their party full of kooky, crazy Tea Baggers is having a very hard time trying to connect with ordinary Americans, because they say the kinds of things that only 1% of Americans want to hear. Imagine that.

Since this is politics and not a game of golf or darts, there is no reason why the Democrats have to offer to accept a handicap in order to make the upcoming elections more “sporting.” We do not have to say “Oh, you poor Republicans. Your corporate masters have saddled you with a lot of brainless, right wing zombies. Here, we’ll move on over to the far left, so that it will be a better contest.” We would be fools to make such an offer. Since the GOP has abandoned the Center of the Road as if the Center of the Road has a horrible infestation of cooties, I suggest---no, I demand that we stake a claim to the Center of the Road. We are supposed to be the Big Umbrella. We are supposed to be the party that represents as many people as possible. Seems to me that the Big Umbrella will catch more folks in its shade if we set it up right in the middle of the road where all the traffic will be going. And then, if I may stretch the metaphor, maybe we can gently nudge the traffic and get it moving in a direction that will benefit all of us, economically, socially, emotionally, culturally---

The trick will be resisting those within our own party who look at the Tea Baggers way, way off in right field and then look at us in the center of the road and then look at the Tea Baggers, so very, very far away with their "Privatize Medicare Now!" and "No Gay Marriage ever" and then look at us and then look at the Tea Baggers who call children on food stamps "feral" and then look at Hillary Clinton and proclaim "Hillary is the same as Ted Cruz! Eeek!" Just like all those folks back in 2000 who said "Gore is the same as Bush" though they could not have told you a single thing that Bush did as governor of Texas, because if they could, they would have known that Bush was never the same as Gore. They just liked the way that sounded "Gore is the same as Bush. Yeah, that sounds like something a political rebel would say. I'm a rebel. I wear white shoes after Labor Day!"

The Center of the Road is not a bad place. The Center of the Road is where most of the people who need our help---working class Americans of all colors, religions, ethnicities who are struggling to keep their jobs, their homes, their retirement savings---live in a democracy. It is Nancy Reagan's Morning in America, and while her campaign was a bunch of lies, if the Democrats promise the same thing, we can deliver. Oh, and if I remember 1984 (which I do) all of my liberal friends were absolutely delighted with the Democratic ticket--that got trounced by Reagan. Proving that going "center" was not what did us in.