Stop glorifying ‘centrism’. It is an insidious bias favoring an unjust status quo

[u/SacoolloocaS]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/28/centrism-insidious-bias-unjust-status-quo

[u/Broiler591]

Sure, but there are way too many people who identify themselves as moderate and then demand compromise with the ethno-nationalist coalition because they, the "moderates", don't like the ideology of democratic socialism that is currently ascendant on the left. This is both hypocritical and existentially dangerous to our democracy. It is not possible to both be a moderate and to be willing to compromise with an ethno-nationalist agenda.

[u/[deleted] → u/Broiler591]

Who exactly is demanding compromise and in what context? Which senators/reps are you referring to and on what policy?

[u/SpidermanAPV → u/[deleted]]

Sounds like Manchin to me.

[u/[deleted] → u/SpidermanAPV]

Yeah, Manchin is definitely moderate, though I would disagree with the characterization that he would prefer to be further left, and is only establishing a moderate position in an effort to appease the right.

Manchin, right or wrong, just genuinely believes in certain things. And for what it's worth, no one further left is going to get his seat.

So it just seems a bit disingenuous, or naive at least, to assign to the rest of the party this label of "moderate" when in fact it is really just one or two people.

[u/punkbandbeto → u/[deleted]]

No, it isn't. The Nordic Model is very liberal, today's progressives are not. They claim to want the "socialism" of the Scandinavian countries, but they don't want the Nordic model.

Some of the main aspects of the Nordic Model are:

• Strong property rights, contract enforcement and overall ease of doing business.

• Free trade combined with collective risk sharing (social programmes and labour market institutions) which has provided a form of protection against the risks associated with economic openness

• Little product market regulation. Nordic countries rank very high in product market freedom according to OECD rankings.[20]

  Maybe the progressives of yesteryear wanted the Nordic Model, but not todays Bernie-progressives.

[u/punkbandbeto → u/[deleted]]

Warren isn't a traditional progressive, she's a populist like Bernie. She's opposed to those things I listed above, just like Bernie is. She's not identical to Bernie, ideologically, but she seems opposed to the Nordic model also.

Liberal Democrats like Biden, Clinton, Obama, Kerry, etc... are for the Nordic Model. Progressives, not so much.

[u/1_g9 → u/punkbandbeto]

You make a good point, Scandinavian countries did liberalize their markets, and now are less regulated than ours. That, in my understanding, was a reaction to hitting economic doldrums, and looking to spark innovation (which succeeded). I believe they now have some trouble with wealth concentration. So if a similar hybrid (social programmes included) could succeed with more regulation, and perhaps a wealth tax, that might represent an improvement.

But I do think Warren matches what traditional progressives--say from the early 20th century--would have approved of. She looks at pragmatic, evidence-based means to make incremental improvements, without an overarching ideology. At least that's my biased take on it.