Posted on 03/05/2019 11:09:04 AM PST by DFG
DO YOU KNOW what really annoys me about the medias coverage of U.S. politics, and especially the Democratic Party?
Google the words moderate or centrist and a small group of names will instantly appear: Michael Bloomberg, Amy Klobuchar, Joe Biden, and, yes, Howard Schultz.
Bloomberg is considered a centrist thought leader (Vanity Fair). Klobuchar is the straight-shooting pragmatist (Time). Biden is the quintessential centrist (CNN) and the last hurrah for moderate Democrats (New York magazine). Shultz is gifted with high-profile interview slots to make his centrist independent pitch to voters.
Now Google the freshman House Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Shes been dubbed a member of the loony left (Washington Post), a progressive firebrand (Reuters), and a liberal bomb thrower (New York Times).
(Excerpt) Read more at theintercept.com ...
The writer has a point.
Like it or not.
This guy must be smoking crack.
AOC says they’re centrist? I got a bridge to sell her!
Note:
You may be a Commie if you think America's Own Commie and The Burn are centrists. Central Government controlling fascists, yes
Warren can’t crack 10% in the polls.
AOC and BS truly give me the creeps. Never expected America to produce such political monsters but I also never expected Americans to vote for these monsters. When they take over, expect gulags and mass deportations/executions like in the early soviet union.
Everyone has 'a point', whether valid or not. AOC is in no way centrist, unless one believes that the Earth is doomed to end in 12 years and that replacing airplanes with trains that travel across the ocean are 'centrist' ideas. First, addressing a fundamental point, what is an American? Does citizenship make you an American? I would argue, no. It makes you a citizen of the USA, but it doesn't make you an American.
An American, it can be legitimately argued, is someone who identifies with the basic fundamental underpinnings of what has defined 'America' since its inception as a nation. These fundamental underpinnings, undeniably apparent in our founding documents and the Constitution, include freedom/liberty/self-determinism, unfettered pursuit of happiness, equality of opportunity (not outcome), equal protection under the law, freedom of speech, the right to private property, and more.. If one doesn't truly believe in these American fundamentals (let's say, for example, you want Sharia Law to supersede our Constitution and case law), are you truly an American, or just someone who wants to live here and try to change America into something else? That the good-heartedness of Americans, and the goodness of America has led to the importation/admission of many who don't love America doesn't mean that the beliefs and prejudices of those admitted actually represent 'mainstream' America. When the Goths inundated the Roman Empire, it didn't make them 'Romans'.
So, ask yourself what exactly an American is, and then rethink what you think is 'centrist' in this context.
Further, even the term 'centrist' is extremely misleading - referring back to the false concept of a linear political spectrum. To believe the simple divisions of Fascism and Communism as opposites on a linear political spectrum is a huge mistake. Fascism and Communism are buddies, both totalitarian, and the only nominal difference is that Communism falsely claims to put the reigns of power into the hands of the people. It clearly doesn't. The Politburo and the Reich are essentially the same thing, and under both pathetic ideologies the people are oppressed.
(D)’s and liberals continually need to define themselves: moderate, progressive, centrist, left leaning, right leaning where conservatives are, well, conservative.
No... These radicals speak for urban dwellers and do not speak for those who do not live in mega-cities. Remove California from the equation and Trump wins the popular vote by 1.4 million people and wins 30 of 49 States.
Trump speaks for the majority...
You do not specify what "that" point is, so one is left with a "say what?" moment.
Having said that, what point I know is The Intercept is owned by Pierre Omidyar (founder of ebay), Pierre has invested hundreds of millions of dollars for an "agenda" which I assure you is not in our best interests. Secondly, the writer in the first paragraph uses data from "Google" owned by Larry Page and Sregey Brin who I am pretty sure does not have our best intrests in mind. They too have an agenda.
Pierre, Larry and Sergey and all the other Silicon Technocrats distribute data and information (seemingly valid) with algorithims I am pretty sure does not have our best interests (TRUTH) in mind.
So its plain to see the writer uses circular logic to make whatever point that you say he makes whether I like it or not.
The author obviously knows no one who would vote for Klobucher or Biden or Schultz - let alone a republican.
If being a centrist means aligning with an ideological center point of advocacy of human individual liberty with zero to minimal government, then AOC et al are of course definitely not centrists.
But if being a centrists means aligning with roughly 50 percent support from our voting American neighbors, and 99 percent of the several big media networks and news wires, and 90 percent of their feeding outlets, and 80 percent of the public affairs departments of Fortune 500 companies, and most of the state departments of (secondary school) education, and a chunk of the big federal social service agencies, and 99 percent of collegiate academia, and the active agencies of several Christian denominations, then I’d say AOC and Bernie are within striking distance of the American center.
The Marxists in academia, politics, news, etc. are American. They are not GOOD Americans, but sadly, they are our neighbors and they are American. To say otherwise is semantic gamesmanship, and an avoidance of reality.
The question is not “is AOC a centrist” but is instead “what do we do with our neighbors who are sympathetic with her and Bernie and Hillary (whether by ignorance or maliciousness) and vote for these monsters.”
Half of our neighbors, more or less, like AOC. Or if not AOC, then Bernie or Hillary or the next Marxist smooth talker. And half of our neighbors, more or less, LIKE THEIR IDEAS.
Our problem isn’t with AOC and Bernie, IT IS WITH OUR IGNORANT, HOWARD ZINN FOLLOWING NEIGHBORS.
If half the nation votes for Hillary and Obama, she is pretty much a centrist. Let’s stop deluding ourselves that things are better than they actually are.
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