I just read a New York Times article, dated October 22, 2018 that almost made me wonder if the author Paul Starr was a Russian bot. The problem with gridlock in the US Congress is that there are those within both the Republican and the Democratic Parties who want to work only with those who think in one lock step.

I want elected officials to get something done on behalf of the American peoples for a change. I’m sick of observing cases like in Flint, Michigan where Moms have been still suffering from water with lead poisoning after 4 years, after this outrage was made public. This devastating problem has been ongoing under both democratic and republican led administrations. While folks like Paul Starr push for purity of thought within the Democratic Party, we’ll just let Rome burn where nothing substantial gets done.

We can all just jump into the losing pool together because some of us place a high priority on all members thinking in lock step with the likes of a Paul Starr.

Does Mr. Starr not get that the existence of our US democracy has been under attack and that it is crucial for decent folks of all stripes to get out to vote for Democratic candidates as we, as Americans, are all fighting for the very soul of this country?

There is that coalition of the decent out there, comprised of citizens from the left to the right who are non-Trumpians. I define this as anyone who respects the rule of law; freedom of the press; a truly non-partisan judicial system; NATO, a trust/ or not trust but verify position with totalitarian governed countries’ leaders; those who do not have a need to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us.

This coalition of the decent includes those who aren’t racist, misogynistic, Xenophobic, anti-LGBTQ, but those who embrace diversity,  policies and decisions being made based on facts, credible scientific data, truth and consensus.

This coalition of folks are from the  Democratic Party, grass roots organizations like Women’s March, Indivisible, Independents, Republicans. Even well known conservatives like Tom Nichols, Max Boot, Jennifer Rubin, Nicole Wallace, Joe Scarborough, Steve Schmidt, David Jolly and many others are recommending for everyone to vote solely for Democratic candidates in this upcoming election in November 2018.

This is literally the most important election of our lifetimes. It is a time for ALL non-Trumpian folks to save this US democracy from those who want to take us backwards to the 1950s, and even worse, into a world of fascism.

Whoever is not against us is with us. Dear Democrats, Please thank and be grateful to all those who vote solely for Democratic candidates whether they’re from the right or the left. We are all Americans. This is a War we all have to win!

Or does the Democratic Party want a group in the US Congress like its far right ‘Freedom Caucus” republican far-right members who are notorious for blocking just about everything that would help the average Joe Americans.

Paul Starr even admits knowing that a democrat in WVA who thinks like him WOULD LOSE. We need to embrace a wider tent that appreciates the diversity in opinions while electing folks who are willing to work and to listen to each other.

Progressives will win the day because their policies are popular and because they will truly help Americans have a better quality of life. Persuasion and building consensus is how to move these ideas along; whereas, this demand for purity of thinking within the party is just an omen for more gridlock, partisan implemented laws that are fought for years in the courts and elsewhere, where the needs of the American peoples for real help and relief end up being secondary considerations. We are already witnessing great Democratic candidates doing just this, like Mayor Andrew Gilum who is running to be Florida’s next governor, Stacey Abrams for Georgia’s governorship and Beto O’Rourke who is challenging Senator Ted Cruz’s for his US Senate seat.

It’s time for folks like Paul Starr to listen to the American peoples that they are tired of words, political speak, ideologues. They want government to work competently and to actually accomplish some good things on their behalf.

Here is the rest of the story…

On October 22, 2018, Paul Starr, a sociologist at Princeton and a founder of a liberal magazine, The American Prospect, penned the following opinion piece for the New York Times, “What Happened to Center-Right America?” (“If moderate Republicans vote for Democrats, it may not change the Democratic Party for the better.”)

Excerpts:

“Ten years ago, during the 2008 election campaign, a number of prominent commentators, including Jon Meacham and Karl Rove, repeated the claim that America is a “center-right country.” That view was plausible when George W. Bush was still president, but since then the center right has lost ground even within the party that has been its traditional home. The past decade’s developments raise the question of what place the center right has in the nation’s politics and what its decline says about America.”

“Barack Obama’s presidency set back the center right, but Donald Trump’s victory has had a far more devastating impact. As right-wing populist and nationalist leaders have risen around the world, one of their first priorities has been to clear the field of their right-of-center rivals. Mr. Trump has done exactly that by seizing control of the Republican Party and relentlessly attacking the few congressional Republicans who have defied him.”

“Mr. Trump’s purges continue the Republican march to the right that began in the 1980s. At that time, many leading Republicans were economically conservative but socially liberal or moderate. Often from elite backgrounds, they called for balanced budgets, free trade and other pro-business policies, while also supporting abortion rights, racial inclusiveness, immigration reform and environmental protection. Republicans had little hope of congressional majorities without them. But as the center of gravity in the party shifted south and west, the moderates became a dwindling and dispensable minority.”

“In the Senate, for example, the group of Republican moderates in the Wednesday Club, which had nearly 2 dozen members in the 1980s, had shrunk to five by 2008. Three of them — Lincoln Chafee, Jim Jeffords and Arlen Specter — became Democrats or caucused with them. Olympia Snowe retired, and Susan Collins, the last one in the Senate, may just have sacrificed her reputation as a moderate with her speech endorsing Brett Kavanaugh.”

“Like the Republican Party as a whole, the center right has been moving right. Fifty years ago, it would have been identified with the Rockefeller wing of the party, more recently with the Bush wing, and now even with traditional conservatives and neoconservatives who oppose Trump. John McCain was the center right’s hero; Chief Justice John Roberts is now its most powerful figure. Robert Corker and Jeff Flake are retiring prematurely because they ran afoul of President Trump. The center right has not disappeared, but it has had its home in electoral politics taken from it.”

“As a result of the Republicans’ rightward shift, the Democrats are attracting some donors who formerly gave only to Republicans and some candidates who in the past would have run as moderate Republicans. Michael Bloomberg, who has committed $100 million to Democratic candidates in this election, is the best-known example.”

“This influx of Republican refugees into the Democratic Party is 1 reason the party has not seen a movement to the left comparable with the Republican movement to the right. Democrats have seen a burst of progressive anger and energy, but heightened passion isn’t the same as a major ideological shift, especially among the Democrats elected to public office. In this year’s Democratic primaries, a few insurgent progressives won primaries in urban districts, but nearly all the winners, particularly in races for Senate and governor, came from the party’s mainstream.”

“Republican crossovers are going to be crucial for Democrats running in suburban districts and red states. But a substantial move of the center right toward the Democrats would be a mixed blessing. A new Bloomberg wing of the Democratic Party, made up of the remains of the Rockefeller wing of the Republicans, would clash with progressive Democrats over economic policy and undermine their efforts to rebuild the party’s working-class support.”

‘The root of the problem of the center right is that it lacks a base in popular politics. The combination of economically conservative and socially moderate views does not match up today with the large blocs of voters who identify with either the Democratic or the Republican Party. The support for that hybrid position lies mainly among the affluent and especially the leaders of corporate America.”

“That’s why America today is not a center-right country. It’s a country with a center-right economic elite and a polarized electorate torn between parties on the far right and center left.  Where it puts its money and its influence will have an enormous impact.”

“When the US went from Mr. Obama to Mr. Trump, it leapfrogged over the center right, and it may leapfrog over it again in the other direction. Before Mr. Trump, the center right was a restraining influence on the Republican Party, and to some extent it still is.”

“Increasingly, though, the center right may become a restraining influence on the Democratic Party. Center-right support may help Democrats win elections, while also making it difficult for progressives, even when they do win, to move the country much to the left.”