Right-Wing Populism

Justin Schwartz jkschw at hotmail.com
Sat Feb 10 14:46:48 PST 2001


"Centrist" is good; nor "extremist," so not bad. A "centrist"--what I guess used be called a "moderate"--is a liberal who doesn't believe his own views, or a conservative who won't insist on the ears and the tail when he takes the bull the centrist liberal is happy to let him have. Thus, Russ Feingold is now an official "centrist," having voted for Ashcroft. Colin Powell is a "centrist": he doesn't glaot when he right wins victories. --jks


>>On Fri, 9 Feb 2001, Kelley wrote:
>>
>> > At 08:36 PM 2/9/01 -0500, Michael Pollak wrote:
>> >
>> > >Is possible in your scheme for there to be centrist populists?
>> >
>> > what on earth could that possibly mean?
>>
>>In Jesse's case, it means someone who is pro-choice and pro-drug
>>legalization, and pro-gun and anti-big government. Centrist in the sense
>>of using strong (and cheap) emotional single issue appeals from both the
>>right and left armories, which seem naturally opposed only because current
>>party logic makes them impossible to combine in a Dem or Repub campaign,
>>and the combination of which corresponds more closely to the majority
>>opinion.
>>
>>Michael
>
>i'd say that this makes him more an American libertarian than "centrist".
>i wouldn't say that pro-drug legalization is a majority
>opinion. pro-choice-- does this mean that he's for unrestricted access to
>abortion? if so, then he's definitely nowhere near the mainstream opinion
>there. he's not "pro gun", he's pro-second amendment, btw, (particularly
>if you want to label it "pro-choice" as opposed to "pro-abortion) and,
>again, the 2A and public opinion is pretty complicated. the last time i
>looked, most people supported *some* restrictions on guns. so it depends
>on what you mean by "pro-gun".
>
>i don't see what the point of calling it "centrist" is. all that's been
>identified is something that's pretty old in polisci lit: people tend to
>be socially "liberal" and economically "conservative".
>
>the problem with centrist is that it elides historical analysis of these
>opinions and policy orientations. what would have been "centrist" in 1970
>surely isn't what is "centrist" today or what was "centrist" in 1900.
>
>all in all, however, i'm still lost as to exactly what the damn dispute is.
>
>kelley
>

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