Change will only come when the "Center" is shifted back to the left.

The problem is that when clinton was in office, the concept of what is left and what is center was so recalbirated to the right, that we will never achieve what we want by moving to the center now. We must recalibrate back to the left and big time.
We must make the common sense position, i.e. the one that MOST people accept, further to the left and this can only be done by strong advocacy for the leftw-ing position, not by a wimpy pandering to the right by going center.

Don't you get it, centrists? When we go center, they scream that it's the left wing anyway. And when that happens, that's when the recalibration takes place. People in general, and especially in a 2 party ssytem, are programmed to view things dualistically. A right and a left. So whatever is there will be viewed as our side vs. their side. So we might as well put at our true values and have them opposed rather than put out this luke-warm puke and have it opposed, gaining us nothing even when we manage to gain a rare "victory" like this sickeningly lame "Troop budget/timeline" bill...

That's my rant.

but the crowd inside the I-495 beltway around DC studiously ignore that fact.

When our politicians adopt the conceit of leading the rest of us, that's when we always run into trouble, and that's what's happened now.

The center is where it's always been, but the crowd inside the...(B)eltway...studiously ignore that fact.

Even in the face of November's election results!

That's why I can't understand the whining that goes on about how the left must strive to appease right-leaning moderates by avoiding pro-choice/pro-gay marriage/anti-Iraq candidates. More to the point, the center didn't SHIFT left--it was PUSHED there by the corruption, lawlessness, and moral bankruptcy of the right.

:headbang:
rocknation

have permitted a Center Right, a Center Right--not even right of
center--Center Right Government for so long--Heck we would probably
thing they had gone left if they just really acted--like Center.

The situation has gotten so bad, because of the corporate lobbyist/Republican/"D"LC/media/advertising consultant alliance, that even the most ordinary, common-sense opinions, accepted as commonsnese for generations, is now suddenly treated as some wild-eyed, hare-brained, "unproven scheme," endorsed only by the "fringe." The ordinary, majority attitudes that corporations need to be heavily regulated, and workers, consumers, pensions, safety of products, etc., need to be protected and guaranteed, is now treated as a "roadblock" to capitalists "finding their dreams" and "being able to find markets." The ordinary attitude that rich people should pay heavy taxes since they have it and wuill never notice the loss, that this is their country too, not just to tkae from but to serve like everyone else, is treated as "theft" and "class war." The idea that we should have government services at all, a Government that serves people--at all--is treated as "socialism." The idea that the guarantee of the Federal Government that something--your savings in a bank, etc.--is protected, once understood as a legal fact, is now treated as false propaganda, and not just an ordinary statement! The majority, once so clear on morals--you break the law, make the workplace unsafe for workers just to increase your profits, bust unions, raid pensions, violate the Constiution, sell your Office for corporate lobbyists instead of the People, lie to the American people and the world, etc.--then you are guilty and should be removed and sent to prison! There didn't used to be this corporate moral equivocation about every single thing, until finally there is no law at all anymore, only power and money getting away with everything.

So it is no surprise that "centrist" means "supports George Bush** in all things",
while the 65-70% of us who disapprove are considered "leftists".

It has been this way ever since Reagan did away with the Fairness Doctrine.