Centrist Democrats Can’t Get Past TDS and the Left

Centrist Democrats and Republicans should be able to work together. In the Senate, they do, particularly on international issues. But, not often enough and elsewhere, not so much. There are two principal reasons – fear of being vilified by the left, and Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Polls show broad agreement among Republicans and centrist Democrats on many issues. Though 90% of self-described liberals voted for Harris, and 90% of conservatives voted for Donald Trump, moderates split about 59%-41% in favor of Harris.

Centrist Democrats oppose Soros-funded pro-criminal district attorneys and would like to put criminals in jail. They want to close the border to illegal migrants, though they are quick to express support for legal immigration. They generally favor deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, though there is a wide range of views about other deportations. They refer to illegal immigrants as illegal. Not undocumented, and never as non-citizens.

Most centrist Democrats believe DEI has gone way too far, though there remains sympathy for some DEI in admissions, hiring and contracting. This sympathy misses the principle that even a little discrimination on the basis of race, sex or sexual orientation is unconstitutional, unlawful and unethical, but it is a large step in the right direction. By and large, centrists would keep trans people out of girls’ sports and bathrooms, and prohibit child mutilation without parental consent, though they might insist that decorum requires the use of grammatically faulty pronouns, and that bakers should make cakes with messages they abhor. They object to describing body dysphoria as mental illness. They agree that it is; they just think it is impolite to say so.

Centrists support Israel and reject that its war of defense is genocide. Most centrists don’t buy into the progressive left’s oppressor-victim pathology, aside from a soft spot for so-called disadvantaged minorities. Almost all centrist Democrats oppose reparations.

Centrist Democrats are capitalists, and often are fiscally conservative. They believe in a strong military.

So, where do centrist Democrats and most Republicans differ?

Centrists are very concerned about climate change, though they might slow the phase out of gas stoves and internal combustion engines. They are usually pro-choice, while most Republicans are pro-life. Where most Republicans are First Amendment absolutists, centrist Democrats with whom I speak appear increasingly open to the progressive position that information the left believes to be false is harmful and unprotected by the First Amendment.

The left’s willingness to censor dissent plays a key role in keeping centrists under control. There is little pushback when progressives pillory Seth Moulton or John Fetterman for endorsing rational ideas, or Joe Scarborough for meeting with Trump. The vindictive cancel culture seeks to destroy any Democrat who might express support, let alone collaborate with, Republicans. For not endorsing Kamala Harris, the Washington Post lost 250,000 subscribers, and for visiting with Trump, Scarborough’s MSNBC Morning Joe has lost at least 100,000 viewers. Few centrist Democrats will volunteer for this battle.

Second, and more difficult to overcome, centrist Democrats see politics through a Trump lens. They believe – or must pretend to believe – that Trump is an existential threat to democracy, and that he is mean, vile, and narcissistic. He is a friend to dictators. He tried to overthrow the government. He lied about the 2020 election. He steamrolled over George Floyd protestors in Lafayette Park. He said there are good Nazis.

Anyone Trump supports is bad. Anyone who supports Trump is bad.

By contrast, Joe Biden is a good man. Despite certainty that the Steele Dossier was Clinton disinformation, and irrefutable evidence of the Biden family’s corruption and Biden’s role in that corruption, Russiagate is real, Hunter is a troubled man who deserves our sympathy, and Joe is a concerned dad. Centrists don’t believe (or don’t care) that Joe lied about his cognitive decline, or that he pursued radical left policies with which they disagree. He isn’t Trump. Other Democrats also are not Trump.

More working class and minority Democrats voted for Trump than for any other recent Republican. If centrist Democrats in Congress worked with Republicans, a bipartisan consensus could resolve many issues. In the House, doing so could threaten Mike Johnson’s speakership from the right. In both houses, as well as among the chattering classes, it could threaten Democrats with retaliation from the left.

Most centrists don’t have to reach the issue of retaliation. They either share a revulsion for Trump and his supporters, or a belief that they must pretend that they do. A return to mainstream, traditional values is under way in corporate America. There has been modest movement in some media, such as CNN. So far, however, there is little evidence that academics, most of the media, or Democrat members of Congress are on that train.