Moving America Back to the Center

The political left and right have been around in various forms since the dawn of modern politics in North America and Europe, in 1776 and 1789.

Traditionally, the values embodied by the French and American Revolutions are known as the values of the left (so called because the revolutionary and reformist factions sat to the left of the speaker’s podium in the French National Assembly), and they are the values of reform, based on the vision of a perfect society – one in which tradition has given way to reason, in which the unfortunate are cared for, where brutal competition for economic resources gives way to social security and equality, and where brutal military competition between nations has given way to the international brotherhood of mankind.

The values opposed to these Revolutions are known as the values of the right. These are based on two premises: first, that not everything should be reformed because tradition is itself valuable, and second, that not all reform is realistic. The right defends our heritage and our identity against the onslaught of “reform.” A society based solely on reason with no irrational traditions is a sterilized nightmare, a world of clockwork and cleanliness, an outrage against human nature – like the soulless dystopias of Zamyatin’s We or Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

The right also asserts that reform can be counter-productive. It reminds us that equality is impossible and economic competition is necessary for society to prosper. It reminds us that foreign nations cannot always be trusted and avoiding conflicts at all costs can be foolish – sometimes even contributing to the bloodshed (for instance, when France and Britain refused to confront Adolph Hitler early in the 1930s).

Of course, without the creative energies of the left, humanity would never move forward. We would still have divine dictators instead of parliaments, religious witch-hunts instead of justice, workers would still be paid starvation wages and women and homosexuals would enjoy the same rights that they currently have in much of the Muslim world.

The struggle between left and right is the struggle between our roots and our hopes, between reason and reality. A healthy society has a strong left and a strong right – one strives to change society, while the other fights to keep it firmly anchored. The fact that the most extreme forms of left and right – Communism and Fascism – have created nightmares so similar is a potent message that neither side holds a monopoly on truth and extremism itself – shifting too far in either direction – is the true danger.

Does it matter, then, that at the dawn of the 21st century, the United States, the biggest military and economic power in the world, has shifted so far to the right?

In America, the economic ideology of conservatism – the doctrine of personal responsibility – has become so strong that even Hillary Clinton has backed away from the common-sense dream of universal public health care, and the U.S. president has used his veto power to prevent working class children from having access to basic medical services that they “don’t deserve” because their parents’ skills aren’t “valuable” in a free market.

The nationalistic foreign policy doctrines of the American right have become so strong while only one of next year’s 18 presidential candidates, left-wing “radical” Mike Gravel, is suggesting that the solution to America’s problems is to begin treating other democratic nations in the world as equals.

Is it healthy that an American politician suggesting an idea commonly accepted in other democratic nations – that it’s up to the entire international community, not just one country, to decide what happens in the world – is lampooned by the national press?

American politics has become so hostile towards the values of the left, that two leading Democratic politicians, Bill and Hillary Clinton, have built their entire careers on trying to move their party towards more conservative principles – in the name of getting elected.

Bill Clinton’s accomplishments as president were twofold – first, he was the only Democrat since FDR to serve two terms in the White House (in other words, he was good at getting elected). Secondly, he signed many major policies like NAFTA, welfare reform, The Effective Death Penalty Act, and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which were considered “common-sense,” but were, in fact, ideologically conservative.

The Rev. James Dobson, a prominent leader in the Christian right, recently said: “Polls don’t measure right and wrong; voting according to the possibility of winning or losing can lead directly to the compromise of one’s principles. In the present political climate, it could result in the abandonment of cherished beliefs that [we] have promoted and defended for decades. Winning the presidential election is vitally important, but not at the expense of what we hold most dear.”

The day the Democratic Party stops allowing Republicans to drag it to the right and begins sticking to its principles, will be the day that America begins its long and painful return from the precipice of extremism.

The rest of the democratic world is waiting for that day.