If you want to get really gloomy, take a look at Europe. From the Urals to the Atlantic, it is an authoritarian mess. Russia never really established a liberal democracy. The EU may not be as evil an empire as the Soviet Union was but they are trying what with canceling elections or repeating them until they produce the "right " answer, arresting major opposition figures, banning parties and the like. And they can't even maintain the level of prosperity being completely in thrall to Big Green. If Mississippi were in Europe, it would be one of the richest countries. I am not comfortable with the pledge of the German government to build Europe's biggest army. The UK is the most depressing of all being the source of our brand of liberalism and currently arresting 30 people per day for tweets. All this without any great authoritarian figures other than Putin. Rather, it is the accomplishment of the Establishment parties of the center left and the center right. Be careful what you wish for.
"... they are trying what with canceling elections or repeating them until they produce the "right " answer, arresting major opposition figures, banning parties and the like..."
Dems attempted to do that in Maine (Laurel Libby).
The above makes some very important points, but it ignores recent history. Americans now know their previous President was mentally demented and suffering serious medical issues, even as Dems pretended, for 4 years, Joe was fit to lead the Free World, and well enough to seek reelection.
An unelected group of Dems, unbeknownst to Americans, was running the world's only remaining Superpower. Their anonymity protected our Rasputins from all consequence. They spurred the worst inflation in 40 years and purposefully sacrificed the well being of an entire generation of schools children, to sway an election. For all practical purposes, Dems also purposefully, dissolved the Southern Border.
The results will reverberate for decades and generations. Many children will never recover from the forced isolation of unnecessary school closures. US school test scores now show 2/3rds of all students unable to read at grade level. After 3rd grade students read to learn other subjects. Without adequate reading skills, Dems effectively morphed grades 4-12 into the world's most expensive babysitting service for 66% of US public school students.
Most of the 10-12 million migrants, sparsely educated and skilled, will never generate enough income to live an American lifestyle. This leaves them permanent wards of state and federal governments, a vast lower caste permanently impoverished, with a population larger than 40 US states. If only 10% of new arrivals become homeless as a result of future unemployment or welfare cuts, the US homeless population will increase by 125%, and not single Dem will acknowledge the issue.
Calls for a Center realignment cannot be serious, until those who undertook a bloodless US coup are revealed, and appropriate confession and contrition are expressed to the American people.
The thing that seems odd is that Trump's economic populism is straight out of the Democrats' playbook from 40 years ago. Guys like John Glenn, Fritz Hollings, Dick Gebhardt were advocating for very similar policies to Trump's. It makes sense - Trump was a Democrat for most of his life.
There are two types of freedom: freedoms where it doesn't require anything from someone else, like freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to bear arms. The second "freedom" is FDR's freedom from want, which does require something from someone else. That isn't "freedom" - it is merely a taking from one party and a grant to another. Whether "freedom from want" represents a freedom at all depends entirely on which side of the transaction you are on.
A good point. Former Democrat Trump liberally sampled old FDR riffs in the 2016 campaign and grafted them onto a Republican melody. Happy days are here again morphs into make America great again. As a result the working class is now largely Republican while the Democrats wonder who picked their pocket.
I totally disagree that voters feel "overlooked." This is not borne out in the massive, continual shift to one party in voter registrations. And it ain't the Democrats. PA's primary season is over, and it now appears based on the D numbers that fell off a cliff that Rs are back in stride to make PA red. Every other state observation going back a YEAR shows consistent shift to Republicans. That doesn't give the sense of anyone being overlooked.
Quite the contrary, while I think many voters (largely for reasons of failing to cut the budget yet) are upset with Rs, and some think they are timid and incompetent, the growing message is that the mainstream Democrats want to kill them. Literally. The positions of letting Hamas murderers loose on campuses, of supporting Venezuelan gangbangers (but opposing S. Africans who are white), of trying to destroy the nuclear family at each and every opportunity, of widespread support for abortion, of opposing self-defense with guns? This ALL sends the same message from Democrats: "We hate you. We do not want you alive." Believe me, that message---if not expressed as I have---is getting out. Republicans can be as inept as they choose and still win until Democrats show they don't want to kill the majority of the nation's voters. Just look at the hearings with RFK where he was trying to remove dyes and clean up food and Dems like Rosa De Lauro were OPPOSING.
It used to be said that the Republicans were the "Party of No." Today's Democrats have gone further. It's "NO! Now die!"
"liberal" is a fraught term. Economically it can mean open borders, open trade, the free movement of money, labor, and goods. Neoliberalism. Or no taxes, no government services, libertarianism.
America and most modern democracies are mixed economies. We are struggling with the hangover from too much economic liberalism. Decrepit dirty dangerous cities with homeless, criminals, and drug addicts. Prime age workers opting for disability and fentanyl.
Wages aren't a product of failing businesses, our businesses are doing great. Dividends keep rolling in no matter where my companies are manufacturing. Making our companies more successful won't do squat for wages, successful companies pay dividends. Tripling min wages would pull people out of poverty, not teachers unions. Neither party will increase wages because both our parties are financed by the wealthiest amongst us and peopled by the professional managerial class who hate workers and don't care about low income wages, may they be replaced with AI soon.
Hoping the free hand of the market will benefit wages is a pipe dream when we import millions via open borders, and send all of our manufacturing jobs overseas. Public companies exist to benefit shareholders, not workers.
"Here again," writes Halpin, "the government plays a critical role."
Many if not most Americans would argue too critical, too costly and too invasive a role, whether from the political Left or Right.
It's useful to remind ourselves that the Framers saw rights as natural and God-given, not the province of an overreaching central government failing in its enumerated responsibility of national security protection and defense against foreign intrusion.
The best and most immediate measure of a government grown too big, too imposing and mostly protective of its quest to stay in power is the current charade over an immediate past president so conspicuously incapacitated mentally and physically that his partisan handlers sought to cover-up his infirmary to advance their own sinister agenda.
A Great Simplification would be a good cause for Democrats to take up. Make government easier to understand and easier for ordinary people to benefit from.
For example, replace all current tax deductions (itemized, standard, above the line) with a big zero-percent bracket. Some people have proposed replacing all current higher ed aid and tax breaks with one grant and one loan, which would be great. Maybe combine a lot of means tested programs (SNAP, WIC, TANF, LIHEAP, WAP, housing vouchers) into a single cash payment for low income people.
We need a government that is as limited as possible, especially the Federal government. We also need to take care of those who cannot help themselves, and give assistance to those between jobs. We need affordable healthcare for all, but I'm a total pragmatist in this area. Not hung up on a specific solution, let's do whatever works with as light a hand from government as possible. I have no problem with government spending on needed infrastructure, and on programs that help people eventually become more self sufficient. We also need to rid ourselves of identity politics, and preserve our culture and history, even where flawed. I advocate center/left economics, and generally center/right policies otherwise.
The U.S Constitution and the rule of law dictate procedures for elections, ensuring they are fair, transparent, and that the results are respected. This is essential for the peaceful transfer of power, and a hallmark of a stable democratic order. The U.S. has had many episodes when it has been challenged - 1800, 1860, 1876, 1960, 2000 and 2020.
The founders of the U.S. were well aware of the attractions of illiberalism and put in place checks and balances to limit executive power. At time the Legislative Branch has acquiesced to the usurpation of powers by the President. Judicial review is also an important check on the exercise of unlimited majoritarian rule.
If one goes by the definition of liberalism it is found that a person is open to listening and practicing new ideas. But can't liberalism go too far when it starts creating riots and against others who don't agree with them and yet still enacting laws restricting the freedom of others when they express their views. I would like to see us return to a more liberal debate on issues, not a my way is better than yours. Every good thing can go too far where it cannot correct itself.
Great article! As a practical matter though, are there any influential politicians in either party that embrace the new centrism? Would love to hear people’s thoughts.
The Blue Dog Democrats are good. Jared Golden, for example, has a good proposal to replace the child tax credit with a monthly child benefit. It would increase parents’ financial security while promoting marriage (without demonizing single mothers like conservatives sometimes do).
I like Golden, although I was disappointed that he didn't vote to protect women in sports. Too bad there are so few Blue Dogs now. I think ten? Are the others socially and culturally moderate?
What desperately needs to be addressed is the overwhelming authoritarian bureaucracy which is running rampant throughout the "western world". Trump's administration is a response to the insanity of the recent decades of Democratic rule, and it looks like the Dems still refuse to address the evil they sank into. Trump also must pull out of the authoritarian mindset, which seems unlikely. So where do we go? How do we break away from what is so compelling to all leaders for all types of political ideologies? They want control, and we the people continue to suffer from it.
Although private employers and investors drive most of this action, the government plays a vital role in spearheading investments into the sources and sectors of good jobs in fields such as health care, education, technology, infrastructure, and clean energy, along with financing for scientific research and development that can fuel future economic innovation.
How about, instead of an ineffcieint and expensive government, 20% off the top to begin with, controlling money for power only, we give all that money back to the private sector to invest who does a much better job of investing.
If we want to build this common focus on national economic development to strengthen America’s workers and families, our politics must stop focusing on interminable, annoying, and unresolvable cultural battles between people.
How to do that? The more you get government out of people's lives and trying to curry favor with them based on the largess of the money the government gives out, that would be the start.
A new centrism therefore needs to be universal in outlook,
Not sure what you mean here but the one thing the founders didn't want was power in the hands of few running the federal government.
A new centrism therefore needs to be universal in outlook,
The federal government has a health care, insurance system, that right now has 220 different permutations. Had the Dems just rolled the uninsured into that system instead of trying to take control of the American health system, all those who didn't have health insurance would have had health insurance at a much lower cost for startup and continuation. It was never about the uninsured or poor.
unrestrained executive authority,
What system is there to address this claim? The judicial branch. So far, that system has gone out of it's way to restrain the current administration. That's our system and how it works and is working. There is no such thing as unrestrained authority.
On the Republican side, the traditional party of Reagan has basically discarded all its past social and economic liberal commitments in favor of Trump’s peculiar blend of command-and-control tariff and trade policies
You list all the things government has done and been and your conclusion rightfully is, it needs to change. Trump is providing that change whether you like it or not, which neither party ever even tried to do.and to be blunt, you have been part of that failure until now when you don't like the change you have a different proposal. It took you decades to come out against the current systems of our country. You expect change you like in just over a 100 days. Not a fair way to go because you base your criticism on all tings you have taken from the past failed systems and say this is what we need. All past systems have now failed so there are no good examples from the past of what needs to be done today. Just what not to do.
If you want to get really gloomy, take a look at Europe. From the Urals to the Atlantic, it is an authoritarian mess. Russia never really established a liberal democracy. The EU may not be as evil an empire as the Soviet Union was but they are trying what with canceling elections or repeating them until they produce the "right " answer, arresting major opposition figures, banning parties and the like. And they can't even maintain the level of prosperity being completely in thrall to Big Green. If Mississippi were in Europe, it would be one of the richest countries. I am not comfortable with the pledge of the German government to build Europe's biggest army. The UK is the most depressing of all being the source of our brand of liberalism and currently arresting 30 people per day for tweets. All this without any great authoritarian figures other than Putin. Rather, it is the accomplishment of the Establishment parties of the center left and the center right. Be careful what you wish for.
"... they are trying what with canceling elections or repeating them until they produce the "right " answer, arresting major opposition figures, banning parties and the like..."
Dems attempted to do that in Maine (Laurel Libby).
The above makes some very important points, but it ignores recent history. Americans now know their previous President was mentally demented and suffering serious medical issues, even as Dems pretended, for 4 years, Joe was fit to lead the Free World, and well enough to seek reelection.
An unelected group of Dems, unbeknownst to Americans, was running the world's only remaining Superpower. Their anonymity protected our Rasputins from all consequence. They spurred the worst inflation in 40 years and purposefully sacrificed the well being of an entire generation of schools children, to sway an election. For all practical purposes, Dems also purposefully, dissolved the Southern Border.
The results will reverberate for decades and generations. Many children will never recover from the forced isolation of unnecessary school closures. US school test scores now show 2/3rds of all students unable to read at grade level. After 3rd grade students read to learn other subjects. Without adequate reading skills, Dems effectively morphed grades 4-12 into the world's most expensive babysitting service for 66% of US public school students.
Most of the 10-12 million migrants, sparsely educated and skilled, will never generate enough income to live an American lifestyle. This leaves them permanent wards of state and federal governments, a vast lower caste permanently impoverished, with a population larger than 40 US states. If only 10% of new arrivals become homeless as a result of future unemployment or welfare cuts, the US homeless population will increase by 125%, and not single Dem will acknowledge the issue.
Calls for a Center realignment cannot be serious, until those who undertook a bloodless US coup are revealed, and appropriate confession and contrition are expressed to the American people.
Everything you said is spot on. By chance are you on Twitter?
The thing that seems odd is that Trump's economic populism is straight out of the Democrats' playbook from 40 years ago. Guys like John Glenn, Fritz Hollings, Dick Gebhardt were advocating for very similar policies to Trump's. It makes sense - Trump was a Democrat for most of his life.
There are two types of freedom: freedoms where it doesn't require anything from someone else, like freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to bear arms. The second "freedom" is FDR's freedom from want, which does require something from someone else. That isn't "freedom" - it is merely a taking from one party and a grant to another. Whether "freedom from want" represents a freedom at all depends entirely on which side of the transaction you are on.
A good point. Former Democrat Trump liberally sampled old FDR riffs in the 2016 campaign and grafted them onto a Republican melody. Happy days are here again morphs into make America great again. As a result the working class is now largely Republican while the Democrats wonder who picked their pocket.
I cannot believe the anti-war Democrats from the 70s morphed into the biggest defenders of the military industrial complex.
I totally disagree that voters feel "overlooked." This is not borne out in the massive, continual shift to one party in voter registrations. And it ain't the Democrats. PA's primary season is over, and it now appears based on the D numbers that fell off a cliff that Rs are back in stride to make PA red. Every other state observation going back a YEAR shows consistent shift to Republicans. That doesn't give the sense of anyone being overlooked.
Quite the contrary, while I think many voters (largely for reasons of failing to cut the budget yet) are upset with Rs, and some think they are timid and incompetent, the growing message is that the mainstream Democrats want to kill them. Literally. The positions of letting Hamas murderers loose on campuses, of supporting Venezuelan gangbangers (but opposing S. Africans who are white), of trying to destroy the nuclear family at each and every opportunity, of widespread support for abortion, of opposing self-defense with guns? This ALL sends the same message from Democrats: "We hate you. We do not want you alive." Believe me, that message---if not expressed as I have---is getting out. Republicans can be as inept as they choose and still win until Democrats show they don't want to kill the majority of the nation's voters. Just look at the hearings with RFK where he was trying to remove dyes and clean up food and Dems like Rosa De Lauro were OPPOSING.
It used to be said that the Republicans were the "Party of No." Today's Democrats have gone further. It's "NO! Now die!"
"liberal" is a fraught term. Economically it can mean open borders, open trade, the free movement of money, labor, and goods. Neoliberalism. Or no taxes, no government services, libertarianism.
America and most modern democracies are mixed economies. We are struggling with the hangover from too much economic liberalism. Decrepit dirty dangerous cities with homeless, criminals, and drug addicts. Prime age workers opting for disability and fentanyl.
Wages aren't a product of failing businesses, our businesses are doing great. Dividends keep rolling in no matter where my companies are manufacturing. Making our companies more successful won't do squat for wages, successful companies pay dividends. Tripling min wages would pull people out of poverty, not teachers unions. Neither party will increase wages because both our parties are financed by the wealthiest amongst us and peopled by the professional managerial class who hate workers and don't care about low income wages, may they be replaced with AI soon.
Hoping the free hand of the market will benefit wages is a pipe dream when we import millions via open borders, and send all of our manufacturing jobs overseas. Public companies exist to benefit shareholders, not workers.
"Here again," writes Halpin, "the government plays a critical role."
Many if not most Americans would argue too critical, too costly and too invasive a role, whether from the political Left or Right.
It's useful to remind ourselves that the Framers saw rights as natural and God-given, not the province of an overreaching central government failing in its enumerated responsibility of national security protection and defense against foreign intrusion.
The best and most immediate measure of a government grown too big, too imposing and mostly protective of its quest to stay in power is the current charade over an immediate past president so conspicuously incapacitated mentally and physically that his partisan handlers sought to cover-up his infirmary to advance their own sinister agenda.
A Great Simplification would be a good cause for Democrats to take up. Make government easier to understand and easier for ordinary people to benefit from.
For example, replace all current tax deductions (itemized, standard, above the line) with a big zero-percent bracket. Some people have proposed replacing all current higher ed aid and tax breaks with one grant and one loan, which would be great. Maybe combine a lot of means tested programs (SNAP, WIC, TANF, LIHEAP, WAP, housing vouchers) into a single cash payment for low income people.
We need a government that is as limited as possible, especially the Federal government. We also need to take care of those who cannot help themselves, and give assistance to those between jobs. We need affordable healthcare for all, but I'm a total pragmatist in this area. Not hung up on a specific solution, let's do whatever works with as light a hand from government as possible. I have no problem with government spending on needed infrastructure, and on programs that help people eventually become more self sufficient. We also need to rid ourselves of identity politics, and preserve our culture and history, even where flawed. I advocate center/left economics, and generally center/right policies otherwise.
The U.S Constitution and the rule of law dictate procedures for elections, ensuring they are fair, transparent, and that the results are respected. This is essential for the peaceful transfer of power, and a hallmark of a stable democratic order. The U.S. has had many episodes when it has been challenged - 1800, 1860, 1876, 1960, 2000 and 2020.
The founders of the U.S. were well aware of the attractions of illiberalism and put in place checks and balances to limit executive power. At time the Legislative Branch has acquiesced to the usurpation of powers by the President. Judicial review is also an important check on the exercise of unlimited majoritarian rule.
If one goes by the definition of liberalism it is found that a person is open to listening and practicing new ideas. But can't liberalism go too far when it starts creating riots and against others who don't agree with them and yet still enacting laws restricting the freedom of others when they express their views. I would like to see us return to a more liberal debate on issues, not a my way is better than yours. Every good thing can go too far where it cannot correct itself.
Great article! As a practical matter though, are there any influential politicians in either party that embrace the new centrism? Would love to hear people’s thoughts.
The Blue Dog Democrats are good. Jared Golden, for example, has a good proposal to replace the child tax credit with a monthly child benefit. It would increase parents’ financial security while promoting marriage (without demonizing single mothers like conservatives sometimes do).
I like Golden, although I was disappointed that he didn't vote to protect women in sports. Too bad there are so few Blue Dogs now. I think ten? Are the others socially and culturally moderate?
What desperately needs to be addressed is the overwhelming authoritarian bureaucracy which is running rampant throughout the "western world". Trump's administration is a response to the insanity of the recent decades of Democratic rule, and it looks like the Dems still refuse to address the evil they sank into. Trump also must pull out of the authoritarian mindset, which seems unlikely. So where do we go? How do we break away from what is so compelling to all leaders for all types of political ideologies? They want control, and we the people continue to suffer from it.
Although private employers and investors drive most of this action, the government plays a vital role in spearheading investments into the sources and sectors of good jobs in fields such as health care, education, technology, infrastructure, and clean energy, along with financing for scientific research and development that can fuel future economic innovation.
How about, instead of an ineffcieint and expensive government, 20% off the top to begin with, controlling money for power only, we give all that money back to the private sector to invest who does a much better job of investing.
If we want to build this common focus on national economic development to strengthen America’s workers and families, our politics must stop focusing on interminable, annoying, and unresolvable cultural battles between people.
How to do that? The more you get government out of people's lives and trying to curry favor with them based on the largess of the money the government gives out, that would be the start.
A new centrism therefore needs to be universal in outlook,
Not sure what you mean here but the one thing the founders didn't want was power in the hands of few running the federal government.
A new centrism therefore needs to be universal in outlook,
The federal government has a health care, insurance system, that right now has 220 different permutations. Had the Dems just rolled the uninsured into that system instead of trying to take control of the American health system, all those who didn't have health insurance would have had health insurance at a much lower cost for startup and continuation. It was never about the uninsured or poor.
unrestrained executive authority,
What system is there to address this claim? The judicial branch. So far, that system has gone out of it's way to restrain the current administration. That's our system and how it works and is working. There is no such thing as unrestrained authority.
On the Republican side, the traditional party of Reagan has basically discarded all its past social and economic liberal commitments in favor of Trump’s peculiar blend of command-and-control tariff and trade policies
You list all the things government has done and been and your conclusion rightfully is, it needs to change. Trump is providing that change whether you like it or not, which neither party ever even tried to do.and to be blunt, you have been part of that failure until now when you don't like the change you have a different proposal. It took you decades to come out against the current systems of our country. You expect change you like in just over a 100 days. Not a fair way to go because you base your criticism on all tings you have taken from the past failed systems and say this is what we need. All past systems have now failed so there are no good examples from the past of what needs to be done today. Just what not to do.