January 15, 2020

Stop With the Silly ‘Centrist’ Labels for Democrats

The most abused adjective in political reporting is the label “centrist.” It should tell you everything about the politician.

The most abused adjective in political reporting is the label “centrist.” It should tell you everything about the politician. Unfortunately, it tells us far more about those applying the label. The American Conservative Union ratings system has been widely accepted as the voting compass from the perspective of the right. According to the ACU, a centrist would look like Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who has a lifetime ACU score of 44.8%. Reporters could call her a “liberal Republican,” and they should, except that term simply doesn’t exist. (Don’t believe us? Check it out.)

Or take Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who is considered a “conservative Democrat,” but that animal doesn’t exist in the Senate. His lifetime ACU rating is 26.7%, putting him in lockstep with the left almost three-quarters of the time.

Where this all gets ridiculous is the presidential field. In 2016, Hillary Clinton was regularly pitched as a centrist by the press. Her ACU score from her Senate years, ending in 2009, was 8.1%. But that wasn’t the worst of it. When she picked Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate, even The Wall Street Journal oozed that Kaine’s “centrist policies” could help Clinton. His ACU score at the time was 1%. (He’s now up to 2.2%.)

It’s happening again in this cycle, to the point of absurdity. With extreme socialists like Sen. Bernie Sanders in the race, anyone who isn’t endorsing a socialist position — like redistributing wealth, abolishing private health insurance and shredding the fossil fuel industry — is categorized as a centrist. Defending the leftist lurch that was Obamacare is now the centrist position in this daffy media dictionary.

When Joe Biden left the Senate in 2008 to be then-presidential candidate Barack Obama’s running mate, his lifetime ACU score was 12.7%. He’s only lurched further left ever since. But now, suddenly, he’s a “centrist” candidate.

Take Ed O'Keefe at CBS News. This election cycle, he has touted “the national front-runner Joe Biden, a moderate, sandwiched between two liberals, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.” There you have it. Socialists are liberals, and semi-socialists are moderates.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is perpetually labeled as a centrist because she’s not tap-dancing with Sanders on socialist single-payer health care or free college or the Green New Deal.

The New York Times warned last year, “While her approach may appeal to centrists and moderate Republicans in her home state, her breaks with liberal orthodoxy risk alienating the ascendant progressive wing of her party.” Her lifetime ACU rating — i.e., votes, not rhetoric — is 4.7%.

Most of the Senate Democrats who showed up for the presidential run live right around Klobuchar’s leftist percentage. Sen. Kamala Harris’ rating is 4.6%; Warren’s is 4.2%; Sen. Michael Bennet’s is 5.5%; Sen. Cory Booker’s is 5.1%. How leftist are they? Their voting record has them to the left of Sanders! He has 6.8%.

Candidates such as Mayor Pete Buttigieg who have no ACU rating can be 100% pro-choice and 1,000% LGBTQ Nation and be “centrist.” “The View” co-host Joy Behar calls him a moderate. Enough said.

Michael Bloomberg can proclaim the urge to confiscate your guns and give away millions to Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club, but he’s a “centrist” because he’s a billionaire. ABC’s Mary Bruce described Bloomberg as “a centrist who has become an active proponent of gun reform.”

All this nonsense defines for everyone where our political journalists are located on the political spectrum. They think they represent the mainstream. They never have, and this cockeyed labeling shows they’re only getting worse.

COPYRIGHT 2020 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.