In the 1997 news conference, Clinton referred to “the vital center,” while Blair invoked the “radical center.” Both men invoke precisely the same terms in the new podcast. While both leaders are sometimes portrayed as expedient and constantly calibrating politicians, what’s striking is the degree of consistency in their worldviews across a quarter-century. What’s different is that in 1997, just on the brink of the 21st century, Blair and Clinton were describing the world as a fundamentally hopeful place.
www.politico.com
Unlike the link may suggest, I don't see either WJC or Blair really changing their view of governing. In 1997, we were still basking in the warm shadow of Reagan, who explicitly viewed humankind on an upward "evolution" towards rights of individuals and self-determination through democracy. The center didn't change, OUR LEADERS changed. W promised compassionate conservatism as a sort of continuation of 12 years of post-Reagan peace and prosperity, and then he went full neocon in waging an elective war on a country that never attacked us so we could nation build in camelfuck mesopetamia (literally). And Blair became W's lap poodle. Both went out with their constituents thoroughly demoralized.
The dems have morphed from a centrist party seeking progressive solutions to a progressive quasi-socialist rejection of free markets. The gop beat the dems to it, in abandoning all centrasim for Trump's whose defense policy was disentanglement from anything that didn't personally benefit his pocketbook.
Bill Clinton and Tony Blair Have a Warning for Progressives
Long tarnished by their own actions, two heroes of the ’90s seek to reclaim their voices.
www.politico.com
Unlike the link may suggest, I don't see either WJC or Blair really changing their view of governing. In 1997, we were still basking in the warm shadow of Reagan, who explicitly viewed humankind on an upward "evolution" towards rights of individuals and self-determination through democracy. The center didn't change, OUR LEADERS changed. W promised compassionate conservatism as a sort of continuation of 12 years of post-Reagan peace and prosperity, and then he went full neocon in waging an elective war on a country that never attacked us so we could nation build in camelfuck mesopetamia (literally). And Blair became W's lap poodle. Both went out with their constituents thoroughly demoralized.
The dems have morphed from a centrist party seeking progressive solutions to a progressive quasi-socialist rejection of free markets. The gop beat the dems to it, in abandoning all centrasim for Trump's whose defense policy was disentanglement from anything that didn't personally benefit his pocketbook.
