Politics of the Centrifuge

Commentary by F.T. Rea

It wasn’t so long ago that we the people still believed in the wisdom that could be found in America’s melting pot. Ideas from all over the world simmered in that gumbo. It was generally understood by voters and politicians, alike, that compromising and consensus-building were integral to the process of governing the United States of America at all levels.

Yet, in recent years, we the chumps have willingly walked away from the notion that finding common ground is useful, or even possible. Somehow we’ve lost our faith in the simple idea that sometimes there’s more to a situation than meets our own eyes. 

Instead, we live in a time of rampant certitude. Of certitude, philosopher/mathematician Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) made a timeless observation:

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser men so full of doubts.

So, a modern political debate, whether it’s on television or at happy hour, usually amounts to people slinging harsh and practiced talking points back and forth, without either side reacting to what is actually being said.  

Today, instead of politics of the melting pot, we have politics of the centrifuge.

The spin has been pushing our two major political parties steadily toward their edges. The middle ground of a moderate Republican, or Democrat, is frequently portrayed in political commentary as hopelessly sold-out and utterly passionless. Perhaps the biggest irony of the so-called Information Age is that the truth seems to matter to everyday people less and less.

The constant whirl of conflicting political messages seems mostly to inflame our grievances, which distances us from even wanting to foster cooperation. Meanwhile, the truth is being systematically drowned out by relentless slogans and strident blather ... aggressive promos and shrill demands for apologies … seeping disinformation  and bogus apologies … constant accusations and constant denials.

It seems our collective consciousness has stayed locked in crisis mode since 9/11. Whether it was anthrax, or orange alerts, or weapons of mass destruction, or defending torture, or the banking meltdown, or the massive bailouts, or health care reform, or the debt ceiling, it didn't matter. Each episode was presented to the public as if the doomsday machine in director Stanley Kubrick’s satirical masterpiece, “Dr. Strangelove” (1964), would be triggered by making the wrong choice.

Ironically, a change in the political process 40 years ago that was supposed to make the parties more inclusive and responsive to the will of the people has backfired. In the late-1960s and early-1970s both parties embraced the staging of primaries as a better way to nominate candidates, especially presidential candidates. Now we know that primaries have played a significant role in pulling both parties away from the middle. 

Now the Republican Party has adopted a no-compromise stance that once only suited those on the rightwing fringe, beyond the pale. In its endless-loop effort to shift the center further to the right the modern GOP has stripped its gears with purity tests and pledges.

On the other side of the aisle there are plenty of impatient progressives who see the Obama administration as being Republican-Lite, a sell-out, when it comes to traditional liberal positions. Some see the president as being way too cozy with Wall Street. Others just see him as weak and naïve, when he negotiates with Republicans.

Making matters worse, too many Americans routinely choose to filter their exposure reality. Then, via Fox News or MSNBC, they stoke their anger at the fools across the aisle by consuming a news-like product that has been processed to validate their preconceived notions. 

Hopefully, my grandchildren -- Emily (15) and Sam (13) -- will grow up to be smart enough to see through the propaganda-created fogs of wars on women, on drugs, on poverty, on terror, on science, on religion, on job creators, and so forth.

If they are smart enough, maybe Emily and Sam will understand better than the adults running the show today that no matter how much they think they are right, cooperation is essential in a crowded world ... politics of the centrifuge will never produce genuine solutions with any staying power.

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