The Two Words that Explain Clinton’s maddening “Extreme Centrism”.
I recently had an online back and forth with an ardent Sanders supporter. Referring to Clinton and her supporters he asked: “Why did the Dems choose extreme centrism?” An oxymoron to be sure, but still a valid question.
Like Sanders supporters I also pine for the day when we had an uncompromising progressive President and Congress; a government similar to FDR’s. We didn’t have it with Bill Clinton (I voted for him twice because voting Republican would be against everything FDR or any Progressive stood for) and probably won’t get it with Hillary though I think we might be surprised. We have had some solidly progressive policies in the Obama era but due to Republican obstruction, a corrosively powerful conservative media (that didn’t exist in FDR’s day), and a conservative, activist SCOTUS, President Obama knew very quickly that he wouldn’t be able to push policies he believed in such as single payer health care, significant tax reform, and meaningful gun control.
The Sanders supporter has a point. I agree that HRC is not as liberal as Sanders. Setting aside the concept of being a fundamentally reserved person, what might have pushed her to the exasperating “extreme center”?
Two words: Reagan Revolution.
I was in high school during the Watergate years and started following politics because of that event. When Reagan came around I distinctly remember how car dealerships and mom and pops all along main street began posting American flags on their buildings. Reagan lit a pander-fueled, faux-patriotic fire in the political and cultural belly of millions of Americans. That event isn’t ancient history. Reagan’s anti-government fervor burns and destroys Progressivism to this day. You can dislike his policies, as I do, but those of us around at the time can’t ignore the fact that he steered the ocean liner of the USA in a fundamentally different direction.
Many Sanders supporters were too young (or not even born) in 1980 to appreciate the power of Reagans’ influence on American politics. They never felt the heat of that fire. The Reagan years are when “Liberal” became the pejorative “Librul”. The 1980’s were the you-can-have-it-all decade. Most Americans were fat, happy and financially secure and took Reagan’s bait that tax and spend libruls were taking hard earned money away from God fearing Americans. Those same Americans forgot that their financial security was due to progressive polices including a strong labor movement. Restrictions keeping the financial industry in check also helped. Reagan redefined conservatism and thus centrism. His influence was pervasive throughout the 1990’s. The proof of this is in the pudding. Look who won twice: uber-centrist Bill Clinton. Who had the best front row seat for this? Hillary Clinton.
We are all products of our times. Hillary Clinton has seen individuals, cities, and states move from a solid, old-school (post-FDR) Democratic ethos to a mindless, self-defeating post-Reagan conservatism. Everyone my age has seen the same thing. We have seen countless good politicians, Democratic and Republican, lose their political lives because of the radioactive fallout from the Reagan Revolution. It was Reagan’s message that set the stage for the anti-Democratic, anti-American poison-pill policies of the Newt Gingrichs and Grover Norquists of this world.
To win politically on a national level in the 80’s and 90’s, you had to recognize this fact and move closer to where the overwhelming majority of the voters were. Under the spell of Reaganism a clear majority of voting Americans were in a different universe than FDR Democrats. Many Sanders supporters cannot appreciate this.
Hillary Clinton is not a perfect candidate. Her development as a politician has been in the environment of extreme conservatism; a redundant but accurate phrase in today’s world. She survived the Reagan Revolution by doing what survivors must do, adapt. The Obama era has seen the beginnings of a course correction for America. Hillary might not turn the ship’s wheel as far left as many want but at least she will keep the ship on a port bearing.