I am talking about the bipartisan center of US politics, you know the one "serious people" say is important, the adults in the room as it were. I am not talking about people who call themselves politically moderate, the mushy middle as it were. I would say these "centrists" are a pretty radical bunch and are pretty far to the right when compared to other industrialized democracies. These are the people the corporations and the one percent go out of their way to support on both sides of the aisle because they know no matter which "side" wins they will benefit and be able to drive through the legislation they want.
So you don't believe me when I say they are a long way from being moderates? Just look how they have voted.
These are the people who helped build the MIC
These are the people that voted for preemptive war
These are the people who have moved on from torture
These are the people who allow Guantanamo to keep on going.
These are the people who vote after vote have promoted the surveillance state.
These are the people who vote after vote fund the largest military and security complex the world has ever seen.
These are the people who impose sanctions to cripple any country that doesn't do what we say and pressurizes its "friends" to do the same.
These are the people who gave the corporations the "key to the city" via globalization and "free trade", so as to let nothing stand in the way of asset stripping the planet for the few.
These are the people who stand in the way of getting anything meaningful done with respect to climate change and pollution.
These are the people who passed legislation securing and underwriting the for profit health care system.
These are the people who ensured your debts for education.
These are the people who have driven the boom bust cycle of our economy via corporate mandated legislation.
These are the people who first enabled the banks to run riot then bailed them out when it went horribly wrong.
These are the people that have ensured that economic inequality continues to grow
I could go on and on, they are as far from the mushy middle as you can get, and rather than being in any way moderate they are hardcore plutocrats and corporatists.
How could I say such things? Well it takes a majority to ensure that these things get done and the bipartisanship bandwagon has ensured they have been done. Recently we had the sequestration fiasco when both parties first designed the mess then held up their hands denying they had any responsibility for the mess whatsoever, beautiful in its simplicity.
The biggest complaint by the "serious people" when they wail about the lack of bipartisanship and how we should all come together so that they can keep on going in the same direction as before.
The extreme right wing with all their racism, bigotry and craziness have profited from this so called centrism and have managed to throw a spanner in the works from time to time, but the beat goes on.
The moderate progressive left has been ridiculed as some form of lefty conspiracy for decades now, to such an extent that anyone to the left of Ronald Reagan is a commie.
I regard the centrists as the real radicals, and a very long way from being the mushy middle. If they really didn't like what they have done before, it would have changed it by now; the tea party/talibangelicals be damned.