Right-Wingers Are No Longer the Problem; So-Called 'Moderates' Are

Posted by Chris Bowers, Open Left at 12:15 PM on June 29, 2009.

We have spent so long living under a government that is dominated by the right-wing of the Republican Party, that we are still having a difficult time coping with the new political reality. The right-wing is no longer the problem. The so-called "moderates" in Congress are.

From watering down the size of the stimulus, to weakening the climate change bill, to seriously threatening the public option, to blocking EFCA, cramdown and full voting rights for D.C., moderates have consistently blocked the truly transformative aspects of the Democratic agenda. Despite this, the full force of progressive media attacks remain focused on the right-wing, rather than upon these so-called moderates.

A perfect case in point comes from the climate change bill that passed the House on Friday. The bill had been consistently weakened from its original form. By his own admission, President Obama had originally wanted a 100% auction on the emission allowances, instead of 85% give-aways to polluting industries. Further, the renewable energy standards also plunged, and now barely surpassing the business as usual projections.

However, none of these concessions were made to appease right-wing global warming deniers, all of whom still voted against the still. Instead, the concessions were made for "moderates" in both parties, not a single one of whom would publicly deny the human role in climate change. While they claim to believe in the dangers of climate change, what they all really believed in were huge giveaways to corporate interests within their districts. Such giveaways,as Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill reminded us over Twitter immediately following the House passage of the climate change bill, is the real meaning of moderation:

I hope we can fix cap and trade so it doesn't unfairly punish businesses and families in coal dependant states like Missouri.

By which McCaskill actually means that she doesn't want the bill to do anything to Peabody Energy, the largest corporate user of coal in the world, which happens to be headquartered in Missouri. Clearly, she plans to engage in the same weakening tactics at which "moderates" in the House proved so adept on this bill.

These so-called moderates are the real barrier to the progressive change that the country needs right now. As such, we should be directing our fire at them, rather that at the right-wing. Currently, the right-wing has no power whatsoever unless the moderates in Congress choose to side with them. And yet, it is the right-wing that progressive media keep aiming most of their attacks. For example, consider Paul Krugman's column on the passage of the climate change bill, where he characterizes the main opposition to the bill as climate change deniers:

So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement.

But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill because they rejected the whole notion that we have to do something about greenhouse gases.

And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn't help thinking that I was watching a form of treason - treason against the planet.

To fully appreciate the irresponsibility and immorality of climate-change denial, you need to know about the grim turn taken by the latest climate research.

The climate change deniers that Krugman discusses in harsh terms are not the ones who weakened Waxman-Markey. Rather, the bill was the "responsible" moderates--none of whom would ever claim to deny the human impact on climate change--that threatened to throw their weight with the deniers unless they received massive, in-district corporate giveaways. They were the ones that gave power to the deniers, and even used the deniers in order to weaken the bill.

Until the Obama administration and the Democratic congressional leadership deliver on big change -- a public option, and actually passing a good piece of climate change legislation into law -- we in progressive media need to stop directing a disproportionate amount of our attacks on right-wing Republicans and other wackjob conservative movement types. By engaging in those attacks, and keeping right-win insanity in the national public discourse on a regular basis, we are doing a huge favor to the Obama administration and the Democratic leadership. We are, to put it in common  political language, giving away the carrot before  using the stick. Instead, we need to hold that carrot -- keeping right-wing insanity front and center in national media -- out of the grasp of the party leadership for the time being, making it clear that they only get that benefit after they deliver real results.

Wingnuttery is a tempting and easy target. Further, after eight eyars of the bush administration, attacking it has also grown into a real habit for progressives. However, after the electoral successes of 2008, the political reality has changed, and we need to change with it. Now, we have to direct our ire at the so-called moderates impeding real change, until such point as the congressional leadership and Obama administration have delivered more of what they promised during those long years when we all worked our asses off to get them elected.

Chris Bowers was a full-time editor at MyDD from May 2004 until June 2007. Some of his projects have included the creation of the Liberal Blog Advertising Network, the first scientifically random poll of progressive netroots activists, the Use It Or Lose It campaign, the nation's most accurate forecast of Democratic house pickups in 2006, and the 2006 Googlebomb the Elections campaign.