Voter centrism versus politician centrism

After the recent elections, there has been a debate about whether the left or centre is to blame for the Democrats poor performance, despite McAuliffe himself being a centrist, many in the party are lining up to blame the left. I think that to answer this question we need to interrogate this concept of a centrist. Truth be told, there are many different ways of being centrist. The kind of centrism that appeals to the voters is very different from the kind of centrism that senior people in the Democratic party are talking about.

There's this fallacy you often see: "The voters have rejected the centrist democrats, therefore the democrats must move more towards the center to appeal to more voters". You -much more rarely- hear similar things said about the right. The fallacy here is assuming what is to be proved, viz, that the voters want centrism.

There's a grain of truth to this. A particular kind of centrist platform would beat out anything else. The problem is that both the left and the right are closer to voter centrism than voter centrism is to DNC centrism

To be clear, I actually don't fully support the politics of voter centrism. I support some parts, oppose others, and think other parts are unrealistic fantasies. Nonetheless I think it's important to be honest about the kind of centrism voters believe in, and to show how different is from wonkish DNC centrism.

To be clear, I don’t have a crystal ball. These are my best guesses, based on a lifetime of experience, about what the truly popular policies are. Some of it is informed by polling, but existing polling can often take you only so far on this stuff because the questions are often framed in a way that is alien to the voter centrist framework. Also, the voter centrist conception of what it means to say yes to an option in issue polling is probably different from your or my conception.

I would not say that these views are necessarily held by a majority of voters, more that, if you can win the voters who think this way, you’ve won the swing voters, and thus are in a good position to form a majority

1. Voter centrism wants the death penalty, but only when we are super, super sure that the guy is really a very bad guy. They want a thorough examination and reexamination of every death penalty case- only they want it to happen quickly. They would be horrified at a lot of the details of death penalty cases if they were aware of them- for example, the fact that it’s almost impossible to introduce new evidence after the first trial.

2. Voter centrism wants fewer people in prison, ultimately, but it is complex. They want tough rhetoric. At a guess, they kind of want the justice system to be like a stern teacher, who underneath their gruff exterior has a kind heart.

3. This is a common theme in voter centrism- they often want a government that talks quite aggressively and conservatively in order to express people’s frustration at wrongdoers, the lazy etc but acts quite compassionately because, in the end, people usually don’t like hurting other people.

4. Also, they want the justice system to focus on capturing “the real bad guys”- mob bosses, big-time gangsters, drug lords, murderers, rapists etc. Not Bob the local drug dealer. Unless Bob is threatening property prices, then maybe get Bob. But even then, only if they’ve never met Bob.

5. Voter centrism thinks there is probably too much gun ownership, but they don't care about the issue enough to make a culture war about it, and they're certainly not going to vote based on it.

6. Voter centrism thinks that the deficit is bad, but unlike Republican faux deficit hawks, they recognize that tax cuts for the very rich contribute to it as well as spending. They want the deficit solved by cutting "waste" and raising taxes on the very rich. Very rich is defined as people rich enough that none of them are in my friend circle. [Edit: I’ll just add they believe in almost magical levels of waste. It’s hard to even convey the magnitude of government waste they think is occurring. A bunch of them seem to think that ~50% of all government spending building bridges to nowhere and paying 20 dollars per Styrofoam coffee cup. This waste is a free and unlimited source of money that can be better allocated elsewhere. Unlike Republicans, when they say “waste” they don’t mean “spending money on poor people” they almost literally mean throwing money in the bin, which they think is happening constantly.]

7. One of the best voter centrist policies I can think of would be introducing a new tax bracket just for those who earn over 1 million dollars per year.

8. Voter centrists oppose foreign adventures in the abstract but given concentrated media bombardment, they will flip on this. If more alternative views were allowed in the media though, they would probably be pro-withdrawal.

9. Voter centrists think racism is a problem, and kids in school should be taught racism is a problem, but also that people have gotten too self-righteous about this stuff lately. They do not support, at all, the idea that they bear a portion of the guilt for racism in America. For schools, what is desirable is a curriculum that says America did lots of bad stuff but is somehow overall good, both in its present and in its past.

10. Voter centrists used to hope that bipartisanship would work, that people would just see that all the above goals were sensible and work towards them. They've lost their faith in bipartisanship, now they just want their representatives to figure it out, they don't care how.

11. Voter centrists don't like the idea of defunding the police. Police have gotten a bit nasty though- maybe they need better training? This is a difficult issue for voter centrists and they have mixed feelings. Maybe they could support limited cuts in some circumstances, but certainly not if it’s a hot button issue, intended to make some culture war statement.

12. Voter centrists have no sympathy for healthcare insurance companies. No sympathy for drug companies. Very, very little sympathy for healthcare companies and real but qualified sympathy for doctors. Medicare for all does sound nice, at least in theory

13. Voter centrism wants tough talk on welfare, but at the end of the day, they don't want anyone to starve. They want a system that is more "human" and less bureaucratic. In a sense, their ideal might be a benevolent but strict social worker who assesses each case individually with both “commonsense” and “compassion”. Welfare should be like a tough-love parent who pushes you to better yourself, doesn’t make it easy for you, but in the final instance would never let you starve.

14. Voter centrism is broadly in favor of unions, in a passive, abstract way. Bosses have gotten too greedy lately, that's for sure.

15. Something has to be done about inequality but the details are vague. Desert is very important in their theory of income. Some people are receiving more than they- in some hard to pin down objective sense- “have earned”. Something needs to be done about this, but it should not affect anyone they know- it should be targeted at real big player oligarchs.

It’s not clear to me that DNC wonkish identitarian centrism is closer to voter centrism than leftism is to voter centrism. In fact, I think both a certain kind of Republicanism AND a certain kind of Sanderite leftism are probably both, paradoxically, closer to the tenor of voter centrism.