Poor David Brooks, still out of touch with the reality that is America. You see, he thinks that with the election of Donald Trump, and the mere existence of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, this will happen:
The most important caucus formation will be in the ideological center. There’s a lot of room between the alt-right and the alt-left, between Trumpian authoritarianism and Sanders socialism
White supremacists are totally analogous to Bernie Sanders’ market-based “socialism”! Two exact opposites!
For example, Bill Kristol and Bill Galston have worked in the White Houses of different parties and had voted for the opposite presidential candidates in every election for four decades. But Donald Trump has reminded them how much they agree on the fundamentals.
The two Bills have now issued a joint statement calling for “a New Center.”
Bill Kristol is the center now! And what does this “center” stand for?
It’s a defense of the basic institutions and practices of our constitutional order, which now seem under assault. It’s an attempt to learn from the election results and craft a governing philosophy that people of different parties can rally around.
Any of you find anything of substance in there? Because last time I checked, Bernie Sanders wasn’t attacking our basic institutions or constitutional order. The lessons from this election are that racism and xenophobia trump individual economic security. And “craft a governing philosophy that people can rally around” is exactly what parties do. And the one that rallies the most people theoretically wins. (Though not in practice, unfortunately. Thanks, Electoral College.)
That’s in the realm of ideas. In the realm of organization there’s also a flurry of activity. David Burstein’s group, Run for America, is recruiting a new generation of political candidates
So did No Labels and all their stupid copycat organizations. Problem is, they can recruit all the big dollar donors they want, there is no market need among the electorate. Hence, those efforts go nowhere. At least Brooks recognizes that “challenge”:
Third, build a mass movement of actual voters, not just financiers and think-tank johnnies.
And that’ll always be the problem, because if you think any “center” includes Bill Kristol, you are out of your fucking mind and is immediately a non-starter. That’s why none of these efforts actually lay out an agenda. It’s the problem every “independent” candidate ends up facing. It’s easy for people disenchanted with the two major parties to project their own pet agenda on that outsider candidate. But eventually, there has to be meat on those bones, and it can’t be “we’ll figure it out later.”
And if your “centrist” house of cards is predicated on pretending that Bernie Sanders is equivalent to the white supremacist right, and that Kristol resides in that “center,” then you’re in even worse shape than anyone could fathom.