The Rump Left: Proudly Half-Assed

[Cross-posted on The Yellow Line]

The Radical Centrist muses over why the Left is so much more intolerant of centrists than the Right, as he welcomes a new member of that beleaguered species, the center-left, to the blogosphere -- a group blog with the appropriately awkward name of Donklephant. (By the way, Donklephant has the best post I've seen on the murder of journalist Steven Vincent in Basra.) Quoting Michael J. Totten's report on the Left blogosphere's savaging of Donklephant, The Radical Centrist uses a pungent metaphor:

We certainly do need to see some former and current Democrats openly speaking as centrist, in the same way we need to hear from the moderate Muslims. The extremists are getting way too much air time. . . .

That the Left seems the more intolerant of centrist is because at the moment, the Left is intolerant of everyone. They have become dangerously paranoid and it shows. The Right has been abusing its part of the center for decades, so the level of rancor has mellowed a bit. The conservatives also have been winning lately, with the help of centrists, so things are a bit easier on that flank. I can personally attest . . . that conservatives who are very supporting of former liberals becoming centrist, have a very different response to centrist leanings within the Republican ranks. All in all, though, we've been trading barbs for all my adult life and have evolved a more comfortable relationship.

I've been waiting for the sensible Democrats to show up and be counted. . . . but the more vocal Democrats these days are unable to see any nuance in their opponents . . .

The unbalanced Republicanism of our government right now may be due to the Left's intransigence, bordering on irrelevance. A one-legged person may be lame, but can at least get around with a crutch. A leg that hops off by itself may have a leg to stand on, but what does it stand for?

(Hat tip: CommonSenseDesk.)

- amba

UPDATE: David Schraub of The Debate Link, a student at Carleton College in Northfield, MN (he calls it the "best college you've never heard of," but I've heard of it; my cousin went there in the '60s, and loved it), gently takes issue:

I think what is obviously true is that the left is more tolerant of rightwingers turned centrist (for example, Andrew Sullivan and John Cole) than they are of liberals who appear to be drifting off to the center (for example, the DLC). For example, I've seen The Daily Kos link approvingly to John Cole on several occasions, while bashing the DLC on, well, more than several occasions (despite the fact that the DLC is probably more liberal than Mr. Cole). The reverse is also true--Republican partisans are far more kind [to] supposed moderate Democrats than they are to moderate Republicans. This makes perfect sense, after all: we like people who seem to be moving in our direction, and are upset with those who appear to be moving away from us. But I don't see any partisan slant to the phenomen[on].

Having said that, he goes on to say he thinks more Democrats than Republicans are tolerant of centrists:

[W]hile I've seen bona fide liberals praising Bush (for specific policies, of course) on several occasions, I have yet to see any comparable praise from a mainline Republican commentator of a mainline Democrat. The moderate wing of the Democratic party is far more powerful than [its] equivalent within the Republicans (DLC stomps Rockefeller Republicans). How else do you explain pro-life Harry Reid (and his predecessor for that matter, Tom Daschle)? Neither of them are all that liberal, objectively. Nancy Pelosi certainly is, but Steny Hoyer isn't. What you have for Democrats seems to be a fair mix between the left and center of the party. The big Republicans in congress, by contrast, are Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt, Rick Santorum, Jon Kyl, and Bill Frist--all toward the right edge of the party . . . Moderate Republicans never even see the light of leadership day".

A post well worth reading.

Comments

[Marc Schneider]

What's amazing is how the left savages people who are on their side, but just not enough on their side. I have stopped going to the left blogs because they just cannot even rationally discuss centrism. They seem to have a unique electoral strategy--anyone that isn't liberal enough for our taste should go vote Republican.

Much of what I call the hard left seems to function on alienation and anger--partly because of Republican domination, but partly because that is what the post-modern left feeds off. It used to be the opposite--the right was bitter and angry and the left was optimistic. The problem is people don't vote for alienation and anger. So, this attitude seems to be more a therapeutic exercise than any serious attempt at winning elections.

[karen]

I took a simple test Spud sent me about being a centrist. I always thought I was way Right of Center, but not of the hard Right. According to this test, I'm a Centrist :) I felt a bit guilty. But, now I think Center means open to discussion and able to try to get the truth from all the facts surrounding it (with less arm-flailing and name calling and more patience and listening).

What happens if Centrists disagree w/each other? Majority rules? All this sounds like how our government is supposed to work and used to work and still could work if the $$$$ interests didn't rule the world.

[amba]

Marc: in a sense, you're saying that the party in power feels good, and the party out of power feels bad, and that feeling bad can perpetuate being out of power!

More and more one comes to wryly appreciate the probably sexually-driven joie de vivre of Bubba . . .

[amba]

Karen: Yes!! You are a centrist, because you are willing to exchange views and listen! I'd have to do a lot of retracing of steps to find out which centrist blogger it was who said a month or two ago -- Joe Gandelman? -- that centrism is about open-mindedness and civility (which leads to both agreeing to disagree and hammering out compromises that don't make everyone feel diminished) more than it is about the content of one's views. Oh, here it is! No, it was Michael. Perfect!

[Justin Gardner]

Wow. You all really get it. Seriously.

This is exactly why I created Donklephant. It's about open-mindedness and civility, something both sides seem to be lacking right now.

On launching, I was very surprised by the lack of enthusiasm from the left, but I can understand it. Up until recently, I had a very "either you're with us or against us" attitude about politics. I can only blame myself for this, but I'll definitely say that Bush + Co didn't exactly help matters.

However, I saw the inherent flaws in my logic, so I changed it. I hope, for my party's sake, they see the same flaws.

By the way, thanks for the link to the Steven Vincent story. Callimachus is a fantastic writer and we're lucky to have him.

[wavemaker]

Amba, if you/Michael are correct about the Centrist being open-minded and civil, I suppose John Roberts would qualify, yes? No -- he is surely open-minded and civil (quite emphatically), but surely a conservative as well. So I think a Centrist has to have some degree of moderation in his/her political ideology. Can a Centrist, for instance, be in favor of a Constitutional Amendment banning all abortions? For overturning Roe v. Wade? I don't think so, because those are not positions that are held by the vast middle ground; but I know plenty of conservatives that will engage in civil and open discussion about them, and affably so.

[karen]

Seth mentioned a BullMoose Party? That's the emblem of the Progressive Party in VT, a Bull Moose. Not Centrist at all, excepting when they are on the election path... go ahead, spud. Tell me again how I get my facts misconstrewed.

[amba]

Wavemaker -- you're right, of course. On the other hand, there are centrists who lean more pro-life and others who lean more pro-choice.

I guess it is bigoted to assume that no conservatives and no liberals can have civil discussions. Word on the street is that conservatives are better at it than liberals. I'm not so sure, I think they're pretty rare birds on both sides. But they do exist . . . like moderate Muslims (LOL).