The Center of What?

David Sirota has a post up called The Center of What? that discusses what exactly centrism is in American Politics. Is Centrism defined by what the Washington insiders say or is it defined by what the majority of Americans think?

Here is part of what Sirota had to say...

That’s really the problem with the term - and with Washington’s definition of it. “Centrism” as defined in the political dialogue today means “being in the middle of elite opinion in Washington, D.C.” But if you plot this “center” on the continuum that is American public opinion, you will find that it is nowhere near the actual center of the country at large. The center of elite Washington opinion is ardently free trade, against national health care, opposed to market regulation, for continuing the Iraq War, and supportive of the flattest tax structure we’ve had in contemporary American history. That center is on the extreme fringe of the center of American public opinion, which is ardently skeptical of free trade, for universal health care, supportive of strong market regulations, insistent that the war end soon, and in favor of making the tax system more progressive.

I have written about this topic many times over the past year (1, 2, 3, 4) and it bears repeating until the Democratic Party learns that it is better to stand up for what you believe in (which is exactly what the majority of Americans believe) than to parrot your opponents beliefs.