An Apology For All The Insults

There does come a time in everyone's life – at least those who bother to think about these things or who learn about them the hard way – when they are informed about the utter futility of name-calling.

Having done my more than fair share of this to those on the right and to a much less extent those on the left, I now offer my sincere apologies. My apologies go not toward my intended targets, of course. But to those who were alienated by my attitude toward my intended targets.

You see, the epiphany one learns is that when one is trying to convince others of one's viewpoint, one is not preaching to the choir, or to the pitchfork and torches-carrying mobs. The Choir is already on your side and it's always satisfying to them to insult those who hold differing opinions. The howling mobs you're insulting aren't going to listen to you anyhow whether you insult them or not. But when one gives in to the visceral satisfaction of the insult, one forgets that the world isn't comprised solely of the choir and the howling mobs. There are the silent ones off to the sides who don't know whether to agree, disagree or simply remain silent a bit longer.

These silent ones aren't howling for your blood or singing your praises. They are the majority fence sitters who haven't quite decided whether to go left or right or camp where they are, break out the popcorn and watch the left and right bash each other. As one who passes out napkins in the center, it should have come as no surprise to me that centrists aren't really looking for a fight. They'll WATCH it, they have no choice but to watch it, but they aren't necessarily as entertained by it as I am, nor do they really want to get into fights.

These folks know what the problems are. I've often highlighted them here, and the fact is, all I'm doing is reiterating what the moderates in the center know while I'm beating on the left or (more commonly) the right. And though I do offer insights and solutions, it's usually done with a jab at those who haven't figured it out yet in a tone that can be (and probably usually is) off-putting to those who are just looking for solutions instead of fights.

I could explain it and rationalize it but the fact is I'm as guilty of the brainlessness I accuse the other side of having as the other side believes me to be. I focused on the wrong politics to persuade and ended up descending to the level of a toddler in a kindergarten shouting match. I should have focused on the potential allies the center needs to enlist in order to bring sanity back to our government and country. By thinking I could convert the left or the right to the center, I alienated the center.

This epiphany came as I was looking at the actual organizational efforts of the center. I was not impressed. Much of it is amateurish. Even more of it is disorganized and vague. None of it is big enough to be a threat to either the left or the right. At least not as individual organizations. But together, they could be a major threat. The trick is giving up proprietary positions.

Here's why.

Dogma is the death of a political party. Look at the right for that example. Platforms should be established, but they should be based on what the needs of the country are. This means updating the platforms. Is that "wishy washy"? No, that's accepting the will of the people. Society changes. Our collective needs change. Shouldn't our policies change with them? Leftist and rightist policies are pretty well defined and don't really change that much.

How well is that working out for them?

So, policies and platforms need to be responsive to the will of the people. And when I realized THAT, I realized how awful I sounded to the people who would support this idea. My political position hasn't changed that much, but the country certainly has politically. My positions were always based on negotiation, compromise and everyone coming away mostly happy with what they got. You can’t always get what you want in a democracy, especially one as diverse as our country. That truism has been lost in today's political climate. And in the ensuing storm, I raged as much as the next guy, believing that my rage expressed my passion for my cause and never realizing that my rage was undermining my cause.

Now, I don't bother apologizing to those I pointed my finger at in an effort to convince others of the validity of my efforts. It would likely be construed as a "surrender", which this most emphatically is not. I wasn't wrong in my goals, or my point of views. I was wrong in how I went about expressing them. Those I insulted aren't going to ever join in the center. Arguments or insults toward them are pointless. But the center needs to organize, to unify, to become one political party instead of a myriad of them if it is to wrest control away from the hegemony of the left and the right to steer a relatively center course. And insulting others is what the left and the right do. The center shouldn't. And for that, I apologize profusely to my centrist colleagues for my behavior.

From now on, I will endeavor to present positions and insights without regard to the rightist and leftist positions. The center needs to organize, as I said, and to come together. We know what the problems are on the left and the right. We need to decide on how to address them from a centrist point of view. We don't need to antagonize each other with "centrist rhetoric" directed at each other, the left or the right. We already have the interest of the majority of Americans. What we need to do is get their attention, and that isn't done with insults. It's done with building a coalition of centrists, working together to drive this divided nation back into one and to bring renewed meaning to the name UNITED States of America.

I may be one tiny voice in the wilderness, but instead of shouting in anger, I'll try to whisper in invitation. Whispers get people to shut up and listen. And today, that's really what it will take to bring the center together.