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Does Anything Come After the Collapse of Democratic Centrism? [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-04
Carl Sagan quote.
Democratic Centrism and its bipartisanship with the Republicans have dominated Party politics since the days of FDR with two hard right leaning interludes, one known as McCarthyism, the other racial opposition to recognizing the Civil Rights movement.
Centrism still plodded along in recent years with much the same political approach despite the final death of bipartisanship in 2016 and emergence of growing fascism and Donald Trump.
Stop Sugar Coating the Current Situation
The more or less Centrist approach, despite Biden’s movement in some areas to the left, failed badly in stopping Trump and fascism in the November 2024 election. Losing all three branches of government in addition to having a Trump packed Supreme Court!
The appointment of Merrick Garland as Attorney General was perhaps Biden’s greatest mistake, considered by many as a fatal act of appeasement to the Republicans and considered by the latter as a sure sign of weakness in the years to come. Many believe it was largely responsible for the failure to bring Trump to justice and set the table for the 2024 election losses.
The Centrists have not yet demonstrated that they’ve fully appreciated their own serious failures or the deadly messages of revenge being sent by the Trump, the Republicans and their mega rich backers. They simply don’t have a clue as to how to conceive of a strategy outside the box.
The Political Destruction of Truth
Politics alone cannot stop fascism.
But perhaps the most damaging weapons of all wielded by Trump and the Republicans have been the never ending procession of deception, hate politics and lies that has weaponized fascism and destroyed the masses ability to figure out truths from lies.
They have slain what’s left of perhaps the most important secret weapon of humanity that government can bring to the table, which is the ability to tell the complete, unadulterated, honest to a fault version of the truth to its people.
Why Centrism Doesn’t Work Against Fascism
Former House head and key Centrist voice Nancy Pelosi.
Centrism, frequently defined as “having moderate political views or policies” was never envisioned by its leadership circle as a way of transforming or reforming society in any fundamental way. It was seen as a vote getting mechanism to achieve power and control over government and Congress.
Reform and change were never the primary goal and only employed at levels deemed necessary to get enough votes. In fairness to President Biden, while he would still call himself a moderate, many of his policies could be called progressive ones. This threw a monkey wrench into the Party’s national image. The problem was the inconsistency of his policies and the unwillingness of the leadership and inability of Biden to sell the more progressive side of the Party to the country at large outside of the voting base.
The results of the 2024 election should not be sugar coated. Trump, with the help of his massive media advantages, had succeeded beyond even his own wildest dreams in moving parts of the country towards his maniacal and cynical world view. So by being in the middle politically, while further left in some areas, Biden satisfied neither side enough for Harris, a late replacement forced to run on the same platform, to carry the day.
Almost . . .
. . 50 years of popular struggle succeeded in pushing through the most important reforms and changes our society has ever seen, which the Centrists came to accept and recognize for voting purposes, but did not lead. And have now lost the political battle to defend those gains with the disastrous 2024 election results.
Centrism Required Bipartisanship
A hand full of corporations own all major media.
To have electoral validity under Centrism also assumed that a certain level of bipartisanship existed with the Republicans. This was certainly true at one time and for an extended period.
But it long ignored the steady drift of the Republicans and at least 1/3 of the country further and further to the right along with their not paying attention to the creeping role big money played in taking over politics.
In fact they supported evolving monopoly-capitalist conditions and policies that actively led to massive wealth concentrations for many in the upper class elites that have financed fascism.
Nor did they counter the massive advantages Republicans were developing in corporate owned, right leaning media and radio market control.
We’re in an Advanced Stage of Monopoly Capitalism
FDR definition of fascism.
In a very real sense, an increasingly monopoly capitalist society was developing which saw the Republicans as a way to achieve corporate control over government policy, which turns out to historically favor fascist control over democratic government.
One industry after another has developed into a huge national series of monopolies, and those are the economic forces backing Trump and the Republicans.
Their primary goal, which has become crystal clear to all of us here at KOS, is dictatorship and the destruction of liberal democracy with billionaires such as Eton Musk vying for a seat at the political policy table.
Poorly or Unregulated Capitalism often Becomes Hostile to Democracy
The Centrists, as loyal professed capitalists, never appreciated the system’s overt and often violent historical hostility in opposing labor rights and unions, national health insurance, regulations, aid to the underclasses and the poor, social justice principles, wealth sharing taxation and involvement in almost constant wars. Traits that made it increasingly vulnerable today to developing authoritarian tendencies and a fascist perspective on government. And which has, in fact occurred.
Eight things a Revamped Democratic Party Needs to Consider
Always tell the American people the unvarnished truth, both good and bad. Trump seeks to destroy you. Fight back, even if jail is feared, rather than hide. By falling to fight for the next two years it will be much too late to stop fascism. Go grass roots, make alliances with progressive and antifascist groups as much as possible. Anti-fascism must also arouse the mass movement Another reason to go grass roots is that anti-fascists, progressives and the Democrats currently have an insufficient media voice and can’t count on the corporate media that backed or surrendered to Trump. Make substantial economic and tax reform a top priority. Attack corporate and mega billionaire encroachment over independent government and recognize the centrality of regulating capitalist excesses. Admit, at least to yourselves, that your centrist campaign strategy was weak and too dependent on not upsetting your privileged mega donors. Moving right is capitulation Bill Clinton style, and is not the answer.
The tombstone of partisanship
Bipartisanship is Dead
A bipartisan Republican Party as had existed prior to 2016 is dead. Only the voting name remains.
That truth, in my opinion, must be fully recognized before winning strategies against fascism can be developed by the Democratic leadership.
To the bitter end, President Biden and the Centrists foolishly held out hope there was still more than a handful of anti-fascist allies to find in the Republican Party leadership. []
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