Fish in a Barrel: Tom Hayden Edition

I'm not one who necessarily finds great sporting pleasure in shooting fish in a barrel, but this post by Tom Hayden on the Huffington Post got just enough of an ire raised with this clip involving Iraq and centrists ...

Centrists are so blinded by their paradigms that they cannot grasp the logic of withdrawal from Iraq. They cannot see that the Pentagon faces an insoluble recruitment crisis (unless the draft is resumed, a risky venture for Bush). They cannot see American deaths since they are never photographed in the mainstream media. They cannot see that $1 billion per week for Iraq is real money, not a write-off. They cannot see that the ?coalition of the willing? is disintegrating over Iraq, the latest wounded being Blair and Berlusconi. They cannot absorb polls showing that two-thirds of Iraqis want a near-term withdrawal, or that 100,000 Iraqis recently marched for US withdrawal on the streets of Baghdad. Above all, being a centrist requires that while you acknowledge that the Iraq War was a ?mistake?, you agonize over whether it would be a bigger ?mistake? to withdraw, while the ?mistake? continues to bleed. The centrists wait for an ?exit strategy? while Donald Rumsfeld brags that America doesn?t have one.

It is important for the anti-war movement to try to budge the centrists with the question, how long is long enough to sit on the fence supporting a mistake?

Not entirely sure which centrists Hayden thinks he's talking to (then again, this could be due to Paradigm Blindness*), but this one does not view our venture in Iraq as a mistake. Hayden's bigger point is the need for withdrawal. If there's an idea with more national security flaws in it short of subjugation to Canada, I'm not aware of it. The new Iraqi government can pretty much dictate the timing of our exit right this minute and despite the fact that many of their newly elected officials ran on the very premise of getting us out of Iraq, they have yet to do so. Yet there exist those on our own shores who seem to know better? It's not just the New Left here in America, as Hayden points to a WFB contribution to the cause.

Assuming I qualify for centrist street cred (Hayden's position invites doubt), I'm not sure what being a centrist requires of me. Not like I just woke up one fine afternoon to proclaim "I think I'm going to be a centrist and just remain equidistant from both major ideologies at any and all costs." Instead, I think it's more of a genetic predisposition that states something closer to "I'm entitled to my own damned opinion. If that meshes with some other grand ideology or worldview, fine. If not, so be it." If there is a requirement for centrism, maybe its the acceptance that this is normal ... or, at least, it should be. This leads to the end state that some of our views mesh wonderfully with conservative ideology and others with liberal ideology. People deal with this cross-pressure in a variety of way, some more frustrated over it than others. Some perfectly wonderful centrists might well agree with Hayden on the need to leave an infected hornets nest to simmer in Iraq, creating the world's biggest failed state without realizing how this might possibly come back to haunt them.

But for me, if I withdraw from anything, it'll be the bitter-end "Us vs Them" politics that attempts to align grander worldviews to less-than-grand political parties. The conservatism practiced by the current GOP is becoming less and less the conservatism espoused by Goldwater and Reagan. Liberalism in the Democratic Party has always been overstated, as evidenced by the fall of Howard Dean when confronted by actual, living, breathing Iowa caucus-goers. Cross-pressured worldviews are the majority and every winning pol since Bill Clinton has preached to this choir. The latest example being Bush's play towards those who "don't always agree with him but know where he stands."

Now if the Tom Haydens of the world can deal with their own brand of blindness ...

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* - Hi, Greg Wythe here. We here at GregsOpinion had a few laughs over Paradigm Blindness, but it's no laughing matter to the millions and millions of centrists who suffer from it. Signs of Paradigm Blindness range from advocating that job growth is the best social program going, belief in a reliable safety net, quality education, strong families, and a firm belief in national greatness. You can help advance research into Paradigm Blindness by joining the DLC or by subscribing to The New Republic and/or Washington Monthly.