For most things in life, there is an ultimate ...a destination that when reached marks the highest level of achievement for an individual ...for an organization. Typically, utopia is characterized by an environment that perfectly matches all your personal desires. Ever element of the environment, every action is exactly as you would have it.
How many utopias are available? Seldom is one person's utopia the same as another's. Each of us being unique, treasure one thing over another. We reach our respective personal utopias from many different paths, a plethora of experiences, a variety of circumstances that we accept ...many that we respect, some that we must tolerate. The oft repeated different strokes for different folks comes to mind. So how do we form a movement, put together or reform a political party that is cohesive and broad enough to gain significance (votes, ballot relevance) in the broader American community, yet narrow enough in must haves to attract a spectrum of similarly inclined people?
From the left, the progressive UTOPIA may include the human rights of all people to enjoy the individual (unabridged) freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution while on the right, the polar-opposite conservative would prefer a set of norms that force all people to live by their (conservative) strictures ...religion, moral, guns, and/or otherwise ...their kind of AIPOTU (read from right to center).
In the past, we have had this continuum UTOPIA ... AIPOTU. The right-most "A" of the left's utopia was not the left-most "A" of the right's aipotu but the "A's" were close enough together that on occasion interests were very similar, compromises could be made. In bygone days, what may have been a small gap between the utopias of the left and right has today blossomed into UTOPIA ................................. AIPOTU. Unfortunately, in today's climate the "A's" will never match-up, never touch or even come close together. The wide policy, philosophy chasm between the A's renders the inner boundaries of the extremes between the left and right far too wide, unbridgeable. There is little or no hope for compromise.
Potentially, this ............................... by default is the next dominating political party. Ross Perot saw this opportunity in the last century. He acted on the opportunity with a half-assed campaign for president with some vote gathering success.
Today, others see the widening of this gap. The gap is potential gold for big money interests (corporation, foreign, other) to take advantage of our political weaknesses. Soon an opportunistic group will coalesce and resurrect the power behind this unsettled middle, organize into a manageable voting block and blow away the right and the left.
In today's political circles, the middle may be the enemy of the left and the right, but it just may be the pathway to a vastly different future in the governance of our country. It can be mined for good or for evil. Whichever, an engaged, empowered center will be sufficient in numbers to govern as the left and the right rot on the vine in pursuit of respective minority agendas. Don't kid yourself into believing that only zealots of the left or right can push forward an agenda. Money is its own form of zealotry.
The times, they are a changing. Hopefully, the scenario of big money interests usurping the power of the people by using the power of people between the political poles will never come to pass ...but, I worry.
I realize that this website is an advocacy for the progressive left. As a centrist, I am not in friendly territory. Many here would view my position as principle-less ...passive ...alien; maybe even as repulsive as the hated right wingers. Though my tendencies have me leaning left in policies, my lack of rabid advocacy for all that is progressive labels me, in the view of some, untrustworthy, undependable in the progressive struggle. And, I suppose that my independence of thought means that I am a poor progressive.
For progressives, the current Democratic administration is stained with this same centrist taint. In an attempt to eliminate the perceived centrist bent of the Administration, progressives have chosen a path of condemnation rather than cooperation. When water, in a glass half full, is offered to help in quenching thirst, the glass is slapped away while the people thirst.
Should the current split in the Democratic Party continue through the fall election, the Republican right will take back the House and render the Senate even more ineffective than it is today. Centrist (and progressives) will have been crushed for another election season. Obama will limp into the 2012 election and most likely be defeated. The right will ride again. The country will suffer more deeply and the results will be that the seeds of a responsible third party will be germinated and nurtured into a viable centrist party with a membership of fifty percent or more of Americans.
Yeah! I am a centrist, but I want to be a member of a broader progressive big tent party. Will you accept me? By the way, what ever happened to the big tent standard in the Democratic Party?