Centrists Don’t Understand Reality

Centrists. What are we gonna do with them? Today I want to talk about something that has been really annoying me about them recently. Namely, the title of this piece.

As some of you might be aware, we’re in the midst of the 2020 election cycle. We started with roughly 5 million candidates on the Democrat side and on the Republican side we have the toddler-in-chief.

Now we’re down to 6 candidates that you could argue are still viable (sorry Delaney, you didn’t make the cut bro), fighting it out amongst themselves to see who gets to go up against Trump for the “Thrilla’ in Manilla” aka: the general election.

It’s a battle of ideas. Of policies. Of finding out which candidate best represents the will of the people.

Or it would be, if centrists weren’t such idiots.

Battle of Ideas? More Like Get Rid of Trump, Bro

This is really the cornerstone of the “Vote Blue No Matter Who” movement that centrists have glued themselves to like that starfish on the aquarium glass in Finding Nemo.

The logic goes like this: Trump is bad. Anyone not Trump is good. So any Democrat is good, no matter who wins the primary.

The problem is this is flawed logic, with no basis in reality. All it takes to disprove this is to look at what happened in 2016.

Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump. I know that phrase still triggers certain people but, as the kids say, sorry not sorry. That’s what happened.

The problem usually comes in when we start asking why she lost. It’s here that centrists and actual thinking humans start to diverge.

Why’d She Lose?

Let me head off the “sexism made her lose” people here. Yes, no one is denying that sexism played a role in Hillary losing. That was definitely a factor. But it was nowhere near the only one, nor was it even the most important one.

Hillary lost because she was – and is – the living avatar of the neoliberal status quo bullshit that is responsible for getting us into our current misfortunes.

If you want a comprehensive analysis on neoliberalism, read this book by Noam Chomsky. Suffice to say, however, that the failures of the Democratic Party paved the way for the rise of Donald Trump. This isn’t just me saying this. Multiple articles have been written talking about it.

Under neoliberalism, ordinary people have suffered. NAFTA gave their jobs away. An unregulated housing market stole their homes. Predatory college loan programs have stolen their futures. Corporate oligarchy, which has thrived under neoliberalism, has reaped all the benefits of labor and left crumbs, or nothing, for everyone else.

Then Trump comes along and goes to these places ravaged by neoliberalism. He tells people he’ll bring jobs back, and make better trade deals, etc. We’ve all heard his rambling speeches. Even his campaign slogan represented how the system had failed. “Make America Great Again!” A nebulous concept, to be sure (when, exactly was it great?), but one that resonated with many people.

Opposite Trump you had Hillary. Remember her retort to Trump’s slogan? No? It’s ok, I do. It was “America Is Already Great”.

Think about how out of touch you have to be to believe that. Sure, maybe if you’re rich and living in the lap of luxury with servants and 5 cars and 3 yachts, then America might be great. But for the vast majority of the country? Let me remind you that 78% of people in this country are living paycheck-to-paycheck. One unexpected emergency and BAM! They’re fucked. Homeless. Destitute. How is America great for them?

Is it any wonder that Trump’s message resonated while Hillary’s fell flat?

Vote Blue No Matter Who Is Stupid and Self-Defeating

So here we are now in 2020 and we’ve got a field of Democrats to put against Trump. The problem is, we have 1 person who would actually be beneficial for the country and a bunch of neoliberals. And centrists can’t seem to figure out that that’s a problem.

I’m sure you can work it out. Neoliberalism lost to Trump in 2016. Why the fuck does anyone think it will work this time? Ever hear that quote about insanity? Yea.

It gets worse, though. Let’s say that the centrists are right and a neoliberal can beat Trump this time around, despite all evidence to the contrary. What happens then? Is everything going to be ok forever now that the orange troll is gone from office, and hopefully in prison?

Absolutely not. A Joe Biden victory (or Warren, or Buttigieg, etc.) would simply return us to where we were during the Obama years. Which sounds good, when you think about some of the really horrific shit Trump has been doing in his short 4 years as the most powerful man on earth.

But then you remember that the ideology they all represent, to one degree or another, is neoliberalism. And what did we just learn about neoliberalism? That’s right: it got us Trump.

So let’s take it a step further. What happens if we go back to neoliberalism? That’s right. We get a new Trump in 4 to 8 years. Maybe an even worse one, because conditions will not improve under more neoliberalism. They’ll get worse.

What Neoliberal “Resistance” Looks Like

Here’s an example of the kind of things that neoliberals are responsible for in the “fight” against Trump.

Yesterday, the ACLU reported this story about ICE. Basically, they’re continuing to move towards just flat-out being the Gestapo. Now you may say “Well Trump did it, how are the ‘neolib Dems’ involved?”

The answer is that Nancy Pelosi, Queen of the Neoliberals, had the opportunity months and months ago to freeze ICE’s budget and stop funding them, essentially preventing them from continuing their atrocities.

But instead, she voted to fund them. She greenlit their concentration camps and paved the way for this to happen.

But certainly she must have gotten something for her vote, right? Some guarantee that ICE wouldn’t be as terrible? She’s a 4D Chessmaster, isn’t she?

Yea she got something. This is what she got:

Isn’t that great resistance? You can do what you want just as long as you tell me when a child dies in your custody. Neoliberal resistance in a nutshell, folks.

Two Houses? Nah Bro, One House with Different Color Curtains

When you have a Democratic Party that has largely abandoned its base of working, ordinary people and fully embraced the principles of neoliberalism, how are they any different than Republicans?

Social issues, mostly. But only when it’s politically expedient and doesn’t threaten business. That’s why you see so many soulless corporations now embracing the LGBTQ+ movement, and other social movements. It doesn’t cost them anything and they realize gay people can buy things too.

For decades that’s been the attitude of the Democrats. Say you don’t hate the gays and people somehow think you’re better than the Republicans on everything, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Part of the problem is that people have been very effectively propagandized to believe that the Democratic Party is somehow “far left”. Fox News often lambasts Nancy Pelosi as being a crazy radical leftist, despite her giving Trump everything he’s asked for, and more. And don’t even get me started on how they cover Bernie Sanders.

The trouble is this idea is an illusion. The below image illustrates the schism between the perception of the political spectrum and the reality.

The reason Bernie is so close to the center on this image is because, when you compare his stances to the rest of the world, everything he stands for is very basic. These are things other countries just take as the “no duh” position. It’s only here in America that his ideas are thought of as “radical”.

The same is true of the “Democrats”. Go ahead and look up their individual records and you’ll see that they are more closely aligned with the Republicans than you think. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

The Shade of Blue Matters

This is why the “type” of blue matters when you’re electing someone. Any ole’ Dem isn’t good enough. You may as well be voting for the GOP. But the centrists by and large won’t understand this.

I’ve experienced it personally. You lay out all the facts and evidence and at the end of it they just go back to some variation of “but we have to get rid of Trump.” And then you strangle them and bury their body behind the shed.

Just kidding.

A neoliberal will not get rid of Trump. They will lose in the general, and even if they manage to win somehow, all we can hope for is 4 – 8 years of relative calm before another hurricane of atrocities wins the POTUS seat. Mark my words, this is what will happen if Bernie Sanders is not the Democratic nominee.

Facts Are Not Attacks

So because we have this idea that Trump is the be-all, end-all of horrifying shit – and by extension the Republican party – all the centrists are laser-focused on removing him. So much so that they get really upset whenever someone – usually a Bernie supporter – points out their chosen candidate’s terrible record. They start yelling about “being attacked” because they can’t defend their candidate’s indefensible positions.

Take the recent debacle over Joe Biden wanting to cut Social Security. Records exist of him wanting to cut it since like the 80s. Video evidence. His own words. And yet when Bernie people point this out, suddenly we’re “toxic” and “smearing”. For pointing out facts. This is the insanity that America has devolved into in 2020. You can’t even point out someone’s bad record without being accused of all sorts of things. Usually “being divisive.”

This is a joke, as the most divisive figure in politics right now is Hillary Clinton herself. Still bitter over being denied her coronation as god-empress in 2016, she pops back into politics now and then to attack Bernie and his supporters, among other candidates she doesn’t like. Then she turns around and accuses us of “being divisive” and “hurting the party”.

She has learned nothing from 2016. Fortunately, the people have, if this Twitter-backlash is any indication.

But the POTUS seat is not the only place where centrist idiocy rears its stupid, stupid head. It also pops up in down ballot elections. Let’s take a look at some interesting testimonials from Berniecrat candidates currently running for office.

Centrists Don’t Want Change

So we move to the down ballot races. While Trump dominates the thoughts and dreams of neoliberal centrists as the root of all evil in the White House, there is another spectre that keeps them up at night. That spectre is of course the Republican Party. To them, we live in a world with two very different parties. One of them wants to kill everyone and destroy the planet and the other is super cuddly and doing just the best they can, darn it.

Of course the reality is far different, as anyone paying attention should realize by now. The truth is we really have 1 party with different decorations. They’re both ultimately controlled by the same people: billionaire oligarchs.

But as already stated above, centrists either don’t understand this or are being willfully ignorant to preserve their own fragile bubble of safety. As you might imagine, this causes them to become quite irate when progressive, Bernie-style people “dare” to challenge incumbent Democrats.

Testimonials

Take this example of the push-back one candidate has received since declaring his intention to run for office:

“I’ve had people follow me since announcing. Strange calls from Washington warning us about running/trying to convince us not to. Pretty sure someone has gone through our mail. Nothing I have any proof of yet, but I’m sure as we build momentum things will probably escalate.”

-Salem Snow, Congressional Candidate in PA-02

That’s some scary shit. And it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Take this other example, from candidate Melanie D’Arrigo:

“One of my supporters was attacked at a town hall meeting the other night for daring to ask a question about corporate money to my opponent. [He] just smirked and joked about it.”

-Melanie D’Arrigo, Congressional Candidate in NY-03

This one comes with video evidence. This is some disgusting shit, and I don’t know how anyone can defend behavior like this. They are so angry about being challenged by “fellow Democrats” (gag), that they resort to violence. I’m just glad those other men intervened before things got even worse.

It’s not all violence and stalking, though. This example is comical. Though it does still betray a certain lack of awareness of things that are happening in our country:

“I had one woman come up to me and tell me ‘how dare you run against a woman!’ I just looked at her and was like, ‘last time I checked, I’m a woman.'”

-Lauren Ashcraft, Congressional Candidate for NY-12

Imagine being so devoted to the idea that your party is superior that you accuse a woman of undermining the advancement of women by running against a woman. It’s mind-boggling.

Incidentally, Lauren has a series of short clips where she reads a bunch of “mean tweets” she gets and reacts to them. It’s quite entertaining.

The Time of the Centrists Is Over

You can see how these centrists just don’t get it. The point of a primary – any primary – is to compare ideas and solutions to problems. It doesn’t matter if the incumbent is “your team” or not. But all of that seems to have been forgotten in the Age of Trump.

All of this brings us to the obvious conclusion. The era of neoliberalism is over. Trump’s election was its death knell and it’s been going through its death throes ever since he was inaugurated. All the attacks, and the smears, and the ridiculous accusations of sexism, etc. are all just the last gasps of a dying animal trying desperately to save itself.

But there is no saving it, nor should it be saved. Neoliberal philosophy and economics have ravaged our country, our planet, and our lives for long enough. Far too long, actually. It’s time to do something different.

We can’t let “party loyalty” blind us to doing what must be done to preserve the planet. The new adage of the Berniecrat-era will be “People Over Party” to go along with “Not Me, Us”.

Centrists now have 3 options: join us, get out of the way, or be bowled over. As much as they want to deny it, their time is over. As Bob Dylan once famously said, “The Times They Are A-Changin.”