Not really; there is a phenomenon of MAGA Conservatives who don’t want to call themselves “conservative” so they call themselves “centrists”, but that doesn’t mean they are actually centrist. People like Tim Pool who like the term “centrist” are not at all on the political center.
Which, to be fair, is yet another reason to reject the term. It’s too bad faith and poisoned as it is currently used.
When the vast majority of Americans believe that, say, getting a health care system like 31 out of the 32 developed nations in the world have is “extreme left” and the “centrist” option is to prop up some sort of market based system (which is what the ACA did, and that was considered left of center), the idea of what constitutes “centrist” in America is significantly different in almost every part of the world you’d want to live in. It’s not just conservatives falsely calling themselves centrists. It’s a programmed perception by our entire political and media dynamic that has put the “center” in what most of the world would consider to be pretty far right. Our center is right of the right mainstream parties in almost every other rich and developed country.
Which 1 of 32 countries are you thinking of as the counterexample there?
The US
…you do know that this:
Is precisely what many “developed countries” do, right?
Unless you don’t consider Germany, France, Austria, Japan, Belgium, Switzerland , Australia, and so on to be “developed”, for example.
The UK and the NHS are the exception, not the rule.
My wife’s side of the family is full of MAGA’s. My wife is as nearly anti-Trump as I am. I know it breaks her heart to know that she is related to a bunch of Trumpers.
The weird thing is, is that they are not idiots. We are talking service (Navy, Coast Guard, National Guard) members, nurse partitioner, CEO, and at least one Vice President of a bank.
I like all of them a lot. It’s when you find out what they really think that it gets troubling.
I don’t know if her people are coming around or not. Some I think sort of are. I would never let them wear a Trump hat on my property though.
It’s true that not all of those countries use single payer systems, but they’re all far more regulated with far greater consumer protections than the US. The prices and providers are often so regulated that it’s almost the same as a single payer system but with a few token payers who are following strict regulation and prices.
The point is that the US is a complete outlier in almost every way compared to all the other rich and developed countries in the world, and yet a proposal to run a healthcare system like theirs would be considered “extreme leftist” in the US.
Maybe ‘fulcrum balancing’?
That’s right, but that’s also how the ACA should have played out (and would have if Republicans weren’t fundamentally opposed to governance).
Look how you phrased this a moment ago:
A system very much like the intention for the ACA is exactly what most of the 31 countries countries have - a “propped up market based system”.
The ACA was a proposal to run a healthcare system like theirs. And it wasn’t considered extreme left, it passed.
Note that this last time around some of the Democrats were throwing around ideas like “Medicare for All”, which would be significantly further to the “left” than almost all of those 31 nations you mention (the UK being just about the only exception). And currently 50% of House Democrats are signed on to sponsor a M4A bill. I don’t see them as “extreme Left” and I don’t think most Americans do, either.
Moderating:
You’re both getting too far afield of the thread topic. Please be mindful of it and take more involved discussions elsewhere. Thanks.
Or fulcrum normalization?
There’s no contradiction between centering the generals and enacting universal health care.
Whatever you call the undoing of Trump policies and appointments, that has to be presented as only a small part of the Democratic platform. Otherwise if looks like we are obsessed with the past.
Or fulcrum reset.
You make me think of “renormalization” which made me think of “rerealization”.
There’s a Russian propaganda principle whereby rather than making someone believe that your side is right and the other side is wrong, it’s better to make the people believe that nothing is real. You just spew so much bullshit out there on every side of every issue that people just tune ALL of it out.
In Psychology, there’s the idea of “derealization” where the real world and real events start feeling unreal or dreamlike.
Apparently the two terms are not connected, but I think I learned about them both at the same time or something, because in my head they feel like they should be linked.
Even with the link only existing in my head, I still think it’s a decent analogy. The Russian propaganda technique (which has also become a MAGA favorite) almost seems to engineer derealization in the populace.
So putting those two ideas together, maybe what we need is RErealization.
Perhaps I hang out with good people, because none of them believe Trumps BS.
This isn’t a serious suggestion, but after waking up each morning to check the news and think, “What fresh hell today?” my slogan lately is MABA - Make America Boring Again. (Really, “Make Politics Boring Again,” but that doesn’t make a good acronym.)
I want the country to go back to being run efficiently, undramatically, and sanely. I want at least a few years where our leaders are not all about the drama.
Amen to that.
I would suggest keeping it simple.
The suggestions about returning to the rule of law or normalcy are pretty good but too many Americans won’t understand those terms.
I think any successful slogan should employ the word Revival. Revival of Democracy. Freedom Revival. Revival of the Law. Constitutional Revival. Anything along those lines.
Using the word “Revival” will flip the wigs of the White Christian Nationalists since it is so loaded with meaning for Evangelical Christians. Finding the perfect phrase would be crucial to seeing this work.
Off the top of my head, you could propose something called Reconstruction Amendments.
Nah. Reconstruction would have too much baggage.