The Center Can Hold
The Critical Opportunity Hidden in Our Tumultuous Moment
When we last left our heroes, things were not looking good for the political middle. The age of social media has not been kind to moderates, amplifying as it does the very loudest voices in our discourse while drowning the more reasoned ones. For years now, a stark tribalism has permeated ever deeper into our culture, working its way downstream into our electoral politics. The messages of our middle are drowned in the noise, and what we are left with is two sides spewing their bile at one another — and in the middle of a pandemic, no less!
Unfortunately, the polarizing forces in play have a tendency to compound upon themselves. As left and right drift ever further apart and into their ideological bubbles, their ability to understand one another evaporates. Quickly, they lose trust, and their fervor and tactics intensify. Each escalation is met with revulsion and outcry from an Other Side unsympathetic to its justification, and the cycle worsens. Friendly disagreements turn to unpleasant conflicts turn to bitter feuds, and the very notion of compromising with mortal enemies becomes offensive.
Today, even the dust refuses to settle. As of this writing, nearly a week removed from our long-awaited Election Day, our current president has decried the official tally as fraud and several senate seats remain up in the air. Though the armed civil conflict many feared has thankfully yet to come to fruition, the situation is nonetheless chaotic.
But chaos, as we all know, is a ladder, and hidden within this partisan struggle is an incredible opportunity for those who value compromise, moderation, and reason to assert themselves firmly into the political arena. By combining ideas from third-way movements past, by understanding their strengths and their failings, we can break through the partisan stranglehold on our politics, put a fresh new way of thinking in our halls of power, and maybe, just maybe, save our democracy.
Uniters and Dividers
The moment his victory was declared, it should be noted that Joe Biden, too, called for unity. That call, however, was met with strong skepticism from his detractors, and for some good reason — his party bears a rather prominent radical faction, more likely to deride their political opponents than seek any kind of reconciliation (in fact, a few seem to be seeking quite the opposite). Even if their leadership did ostensibly want to unify — and they very well might — it is an almost impossible task to balance with pleasing the fervent base. Moreover, the ideas of the left, forged as they are from largely academic ideological bubbles, are harder than ever to coalesce around.
All this is not to say that their declaration of the Trumpian right as divisive is without merit. Whatever your opinion of Trump as president, it is difficult to deny that he has some rather vindictive tendencies. His constant desire to stick it to his enemies is not the most conducive habit to diplomacy, but it is a large part of his appeal as a sharp reaction to left-wing thought, and it has helped engrain that edge more firmly in the identity of the American right.
The sad fact of the matter is that neither of our major political tribes are able to effectively unify, and neither seems particularly inclined to try. Reaching a hand across the aisle is a tall task when the aisle has grown so wide, and when our shattered trust in one another means that hand is not likely to be warmly received. Preaching to one’s choir, on the hand, and inflaming partisan passions, is a wonderful way to get shares and likes, and to succeed in our new digital age.
That leaves the work of unifying squarely upon the shoulders of outsiders, where it has been for some years now. Theirs is a doubly daunting duty, both to craft a message of unity and reason built to succeed in our present environs, and to break through the partisan duopoly to send it. It is quite a series of hurdles, but a few have tried nonetheless.
I myself have been a part of two such efforts, working with Unite America (formerly the Centrist Project) in 2018, and with Unity2020, well, earlier in 2020. Though neither was ultimately an electoral success, each presented strength and promise in taking on the challenge before it. By combining their ideas, it is possible that a truly powerful force could be created to take on our partisan status quo, a force particularly suited to our current moment.
A Plan Comes Together
The core conceit of Unite America was and still is a notion of the fulcrum, a faction of centrists and moderates within a legislative body that, while relatively small, has enough membership to deny either major party a majority, and is able as a result to force compromise and bipartisanship, and ensure that the middle is heard. It was and still is a brilliant stratagem, requiring relatively little electoral success for major influence and impact. Unfortunately, the strategy was limited somewhat by the organization’s reliance on unaffiliated candidates (largely businessmen and political unknowns), and by its lack of prominent supporters, which greatly hindered its ability to build visibility and momentum.
Unity 2020, on the other hand, was built upon a wonderful attention-getting apparatus. Begun by Bret Weinstein, it had immediate and ample access to the popular channels of the Intellectual Dark Web, garnering airtime on some of the most listened-to podcasts in the world, while its own podcast series (the Unity Campfire) was able to host both prominent journalists and sitting members of congress. Moreover, the movement did not rely on outsiders as its champions, seeking instead to “draft” candidates from among the hippest players in the political sphere (Gabbard, Crenshaw, Yang), opting to get its third-way cred from simply having one of each of a center-left and center-right personality.
Unfortunately, the organization only deployed its powerful momentum-building for one purpose: seeking the presidency. It should go without saying that that office is a rather difficult one to attain, and one for which people may be especially cautious towards political challengers seeking votes. Its pursuit of the presidency made Unity’s groundswelling work extremely difficult, and the organization’s timing — it began, in earnest, around June — made it nearly impossible. By October, it had fizzled out.
But what if these ideas were to be combined? What if the energy and the networking apparatus of Unity2020 were to be applied to building a fulcrum? What if the organization could appeal to members of congress not to take on the ordeal of running for president, but to stay where they are to create a balancing force within the legislature, to fight not only against partisan rule but against gridlock as well, forcing compromise and innovation as the pivotal swing voters of our government?
In Unity2020 fashion, the approach might be to take on members two by two, one Republican and one Democrat, to ensure wary onlookers that they are not part of a plot by either party to undermine the other. These members could sign the Articles of Unity, vow to work together, resolve to choose country over party, appear on a Campfire, and go back to their daily work as part of a powerful new bloc.
The impact could be tremendous, and as it so happens, the setup could not be better.
Senatus Populusque
As things stand in our tumultuous 2020 election, the Senate looks to have between a 50–50 and a 52–48 (favoring Republican) split. The House has seen its Democratic majority chipped at slightly, their numbers currently only fourteen above the needed amount, with a few seats yet to be filled. The number of ‘unifiers’ needed to create a fulcrum, as a result, is incredibly small.
Moreover, there is an incredible market need that has formed for a strong center. Both parties currently face the prospect of schism, with the Democratic Old Guard facing off with the Squad-led New Left, while the Republicans reckon with Trumpism. And while moderates on both sides scour for comfort, outsiders to American politics simply look upon the whole scene with disgust, longing for a fresh alternative to tired partisan politics.
All that said, now is not the moment to jump out into the fore and proclaim the rebirth of the center. Now is the time to quietly plan, to build ideas and craft messages, to make alliances, and to prepare. However hot the iron is, the hammer is not ready. The Center has work to do.
But the time will come. When the new year rolls around, we will have a president, and we will have a congress ready to engage in the old two-party tug-of-war. If we are ready then, then we can strike, challenge the duopoly head-on, and change the face of American politics, with the spirit of reason, understanding, and collaboration front and center.
It’s where the Center belongs, after all.
