Deliver Us From Middle Muddle
I think I see at last the great flaw of Bill Clinton’s leadership and it’s not a conclusion I’d have imagined: Here is a presidency that died of moderation. As we choose our next leader, the failure we must avoid, I now believe, is that seeming virtue, centrism.
Understand: I’ve long considered myself a champion of moderation. The voices too seldom heard are those of the thoughtful middle. Extremism has choked out reasonable discourse; shouts from the edges have dominated our politics deplorably.
Then I read “Dead Center: Clinton-Gore Leadership and the Perils of Moderation,” a new book by James MacGregor Burns and Georgia J. Sorenson. I concluded that these two University of Maryland scholars are on to something: When moderation is the goal, as opposed to being something achieved through consensus and compromise among those holding strong positions, there is nothing there at the center.
Moderation over the years, in the course of the nation’s governance, is a good thing. But this longterm course should be the result of the kind of healthy debate that can only grow out of bold positions passionately defended.
“I thought Clinton would be an amazing president, but for me, he’s been a disappointment,” Sorenson said in a phone interview, “He overpolls. Every line on every speech, he polls for our response and then moderates his speech to fit what he thinks we want.” When this happens, “There’s no debate, because he’s eliminated the debate in anticipation of our response.”
Clinton, in short, is too good at being liked - good for his standings in the polls but bad for the country’s political life. When you find the center and aim every statement at it, you anger few people as a result. But neither do you impassion anyone. Nobody really cares.
Powerful leaders speak powerful words - words that may offend, words that could inspire. Ideally, said Sorenson, “The country moves back and forth between the great principles established by the parties. You give each its chance to work. Then the country corrects itself.”
“Dead Center” quotes Franklin D. Roosevelt crying out to a crowd of roaring Democrats at the height of the 1936 election: “The Republicans were unanimous in their hatred for me - and I welcome their hatred.”
Who would say such a thing today? “We’re kind of phobic about the idea of conflict,” said Sorenson. “We haven’t learned how to do intellectual debates successfully. They become very personal.” When people have ideas, those who debate them can deplore the ideas rather than the people. Without the passion, without the ideas, you get the empty partisan bickering we know so well today.
I first met Bill Clinton in the late ‘80s, when the young Arkansas governor had come to The New York Times editorial board to talk about education. He impressed everyone there with the reach of his vision about this huge national challenge. As he said of education later, in 1990, “We have to be prepared to reform the systems we have made. We can’t get there with the system we’ve got. That’s why restructuring schools nationwide is so important.”
His presidency is almost over, and no such restructuring is in sight. There have been some sound, progressive, incremental steps, yes. But moderation won. Transformation lost.
I realized how oppressive this relentless centrism has been when I went the other day to listen to a speech by Newt Gingrich on challenges facing America. The former House speaker addressed a Wilson Center audience here with a dazzling coherence that made my heart sing: Here is a viewpoint, I thought. Here is an actual set of beliefs! Even the ideas I found loony were music to my ears.
Sure, Gingrich is out of office: No problem for him now to say what he thinks. But do we accept a world in which you can say something worth hearing, something specific that actually has enough stuff in it to stir an emotion - only if you’re neither in office nor seeking it?
No way. The primaries will in effect be over in a few weeks. The two front-runners seem determined to guide us into a new millennium with same-old, same-old centrist caution. Meanwhile, their maverick runners-up, John McCain and Bill Bradley, just might give us a real, stirring presidential race.
So I beg you, Iowans, New Hampshirites and all other early primary voters: Free us from our muddle of moderation. We need ideas. We need debate. We need leadership! Give McCain and Bradley a shot at it.