Unless, of course, “centrist” is referencing some concept like how your asshole is in the center of your two buttocks or something. Because I could get behind that.

mikey

mikey

This isn’t entirely true. The religious right wields a lot of its influence on the GOP through the power of churches and PACs to combine lots of small donations into identifiable large chunks of donation. Without that, many of the theologues would be in the same position relative to their party as you argue the Greens are.

Learning involves changing either outlook or behavior based on the observation of new evidence. Lefties do that all the time — witness how often commenters here at Sadly, No! post comments like “hadn’t thought of that” or “thanks for clearing that up.” How often do we see similar examples of broadened horizons among right-wing comment threads?

Learning is, by its nature, uncomfortable. It’s messy. It makes people vulnerable in many ways, including leaving them open to accusations of flip-flopping (the single most asinine complaint I’ve ever heard — it’s like saying “You mean you examined the available data and modified your original position accordingly? You evil bastard!”)

Republicans have neither the time nor the inclination to consider carefully the reality around them in order to come to sound conclusions, so busy are they gripping the reins of power. No wonder they’re Machiavellian: they work so hard getting into power, of course they feel entitled to say that the prince can do no wrong. He’s the prince, dammit! Who cares what his policies are? He earned the top spot and now gets to make the rules. And if his followers want to continue to wield power, they’ll shut up and agree with him. Learning is for the weak.

ahem. Wow. I really got my republican on in that last section. Sorry.

As an outsider looking in, it seems rather self-evident that the most crucial hindrance to political change in the US nowadays is not the media, nor the evil corporates, nor AIPAC or even The Terrorist-cuddling Left, but the electoral system itself. Abandoning the electoral college and replacing it with a genuinely popular vote for the presidency with some sort of runoff system (Irish-ish preferential, Frenchified second ballot, or whatever), and proportional, national rather than single district, first-past-the-goalpost elections for congress would make it possible to field viable alternatives to the two major parties with less risk of damaging “the cause”.
Under the current system, I don’t think a third party is possible, which may be part of the reason the incumbent parties aren’t too keen on changing the rules of the game.

But then again, we still have monarchy and state religion, so who am I to talk?

The central problem those on the left face is the logic of the two party system, which constantly forces voters who represent even large minorities — and sometimes on individual issues like withdrawing from Iraq actual majorities — of the electorate to settle for the lesser evil.

Passing electoral reform measures is of course difficult. But as Retardo correctly points out, the left’s capturing the Democratic Party is essentially impossible.

Third parties plus electoral reform are an eminently sensible strategy. Indeed, the nice thing about IRV is that it is in the self-interest of major parties threatened by third parties that might, under our current first-past-the post system, throw the election to the rival major party. At the end of the day, the U.S. might replace its two-party system (an accidental outcome of our political history that was certainly not intended by the founders) with a modern, multiparty one that provides much more effective ways for minority opinions to express themselves politically.

It’s almost spooky, man, you plucked these words right outta my head from just a few hours ago. Nicely done.

In any event, aught-six seems to be sizing up to be a year of change. Many of the senate candidates are left-er than their predecessors (e.g. Sanders-VT, Tester-MT). That will hopefully change (in time) what is considered “center”, and we can pull back from the brink of far-right wing hysteria.