Radical Middle, Post-Partisan, and Transpartisan Politics Defined!

"Radical centrists acknowledge that good ideas come from both the left and the right. . . . Radical centrist policy ideas are hatched by thinkers like authors Michael Lind and Ted Halstead, journalist Mark Satin, and philosopher Ken Wilber"
-- Bill Shireman, "The Radical Middle Wins in Iowa," The Huffington Post, April 5, 2009

Dare to Synthesize, Dare to Win!

A Radical Middle / Post-Partisan / Transpartisan Primer Based (with Some Exceptions) on the Last Five Years of Radical Middle Newsletter

(for the first five years, see our award-winning book)

All articles are FREE; just click on the blue titles below.

I. Introduction

Post-Partisan! The First Uniquely American Political Ideology Is Being Born
The "Ceasefire!: Bridging the Political Divide” conference in Los Angeles (starring Michael Bloomberg & Arnold Schwarzenegger) ratified what some of us have known for quite some time: a uniquely American political ideology is arising. Its champions listen to all -- learn from all -- and strive to combine creativity with practicality.

Are the Best Conservative Thinkers Becoming Radical Middle?
Most radical-middle thinkers and activists are refugees from the left. But with the collapse of “small-government” conservatism and the incoherence of the Bush agenda, some innovative conservative thinkers and activists (many of them Gen-X or -Y) are beginning to sound more radical-middle than Republican. One giant step for the integral radical-middle project!

Where’s the Juice? A Review of Halstead and Lind’s The Radical Center
Finally we have it! -- a readable, sensible, and sophisticated introduction to radical middle politics by U.S. authors (both in their 30s). But is it juicy enough to win activists away from revolutionary tracts like Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's Empire, and messianic tracts like David Korten's The Post-Corporate World?

II. Economy

Could Common Ground on Capitalism (and Globalization) Be at Hand?
When the 21st century began, analysts couldn’t have been further apart in their assessments of capitalism (and globalization). Righteous rhetoric still abounds -- but beneath the rhetoric, there’s an increasing amount of common ground. Just look at six recent texts, by authors as diverse as global-justice crusader Naomi Klein and business school professor William Baumol.

Selling U.S. Products Abroad: Malign, Moral, or a Chance for Mutual Learning?
Ralph Nader sees multinationals as the enemy. George Priest sees them as evidence of the "moral virtue of capitalism." Increasingly, radical middle thinkers see them as at least potentially Learning Organizations; and feel the learning needs to cut both ways.

Art Kleiner’s Good Corporate Guys vs. David Yamada’s Good Corporate Laws
According to former Whole Earth Review editor Art Kleiner’s celebratory manifesto The Age of Heretics, “heretical” corporate managers and consultants have done more than anyone or anything to make businesses more humane. Whatever, says labor law prof. David Yamada in an important new law review article. Workers need “dignitarian” employment laws to retain their humanity, and to keep their employers focused on everyone’s long-term interests.

To Balance the Federal Budget, Build a Better Society!
When it comes to our soaring budget deficits, most of us just bury our heads in the sand (and pray that our grandchildren will forgive us). But radical middle policy analysts have discovered something: To balance the federal budget, all we really need to do is build a fair and sustainable society.

III. Polity

Repairing American Democracy: Changing the Rules Is Not Enough
Activist Steven Hill’s new book 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy is thoughtful and passionate. He'd change the rules to support universal voter registration, instant runoff voting, direct election of the President, etc. But changing the rules is not enough. We also need savvier citizens (“Socratic citizenship”) and more engaged citizens (“deliberative democracy”).

Mediator-Leaders: The Leadership We Need Now?
As this country slowly comes apart at the seams, many of us long for the days of “strong” contentious leaders like LBJ and Jack Welch. Wrong move!, says a new generation of conflict resolution specialists and management consultants. In an important recent manifesto, mediator Mark Gerzon says what we really need now are Mediator-leaders, in politics, business, everywhere.

OK, Congressman Rangel, Let’s Bring Back the Draft – But a Better One Than Yours!
When Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) proposed re-introducing his restore-the-draft bill, Democrats tripped over themselves running away from it. Our political "leaders" should have tried improving Rangel's bill instead -- giving it a better rationale, giving draftees a choice over HOW they’d serve, and eliminating all loopholes to make the draft truly universal. Even this Vietnam-era war resister would support that kind of draft.

Healing First! Time for the U.S. Justice System to Get Less Mechanistic and More Therapeutic
The U.S. legal system is often described as Noble and Indispensable -- especially by lawyers. But many good people beg to differ, lawyers among them. An exciting new radical-middle movement called Therapeutic Jurisprudence could transform the legal system at its core, if only its leaders – law professor David Wexler first among them – had the courage of their convictions.

IV. Society

What the Poor Need Now
The capabilities of the poor are not as great as we imagine. If we want to truly help the poor, then we’re going to have to coach them one on one, as an act of love, via a national service program.

Confronting the Sociopolitical Causes of Psychological Depression: Too Taboo?
Twice as many Americans suffer from psychological depression as live in poverty. Although most politicians won't touch this issue, some underappreciated scholars and psychologists have begun proposing ways that families, schools, and workplaces can be made more friendly to the soul.

Liberal vs. Conservative vs. Holistic Immigration Reform
Once again, the Senate failed to produce a competent immigration reform bill. The problem was that Senators had been hammering out “compromises” with each other and with over 300 groups ranging from far left to far right. What we need isn’t compromise on positions, but respect for everyone’s deepest interests in the immigration debate -- and options that would allow for mutual gain. They’re easy to find once you look!

Rx for Black America: Stop “Therapeutic Alienation” Now!
Despite what Americans may say in public, fewer and fewer of us believe that “white racism” explains most of the problems in black America today. In his new book Winning the Race, John McWhorter offers a plausible new primary explanation -- the appeal of “therapeutic alienation” as lifestyle and worldview. He even offers some solutions.

V. Culture

Re-Inventing American History: When Narratives Collide
The political left loves Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the U.S.; the political right loves Larry Schweikart’s Patriot’s History. But the books could be about different countries! What is a whole human being to do? Fortunately, new approaches to U.S. history are gaining traction. Narratives are being built around ecology (Ted Steinberg), citizenship (Michael Schudson), freedom (Eric Foner), our connection to the world (Thomas Bender), and even our guiding visions (Zachary Karabell).

These Self-Help Books Celebrate Honesty, Connection, and Complexity!
Conservative self-help books encourage us to manipulate people. Liberal self-help books encourage us to see ourselves as innocent victims. Robert Karen and Terrence Real have written self-help books that celebrate honesty and connection, ambivalence and complexity. Their work lays the psychological foundation for a radical middle politics.

Safety and Love First: The Politics of Children’s Literature
U.S. children’s books have spent the last 20 years celebrating “diversity," and that's fine so far as it goes. But if we want to produce good citizens and activists, then something may be more important: addressing young people's needs for safety, love, and belonging. The great children’s book author Barbara McClintock does this, which is why she’s one of the most significant political authors of our time.

Zadie Smith’s On Beauty: First Great Radical Middle Political Novel
Thirty-year-old Zadie Smith’s cultural-political novel On Beauty garnered rave reviews from literary critics and made the New York Times’s “10 Best Books of 2005” list. But it’s been largely ignored by critics on the far left and far right, and no wonder -- it’s our first great “radical middle” political novel.

VI. Global

Coming to Grips with Our Badness
Too often, those of us who take issue with the hard left end up downplaying or excusing America’s bad deeds in the world. In his new book Overthrow, journalist Stephen Kinzer urges Americans to look clearly at their nation's misbehavior. He also shows we can change it more readily than hard leftists like Noam Chomsky are willing to admit.

Is “Democracy” What the World Needs Now?
Stanford professor Larry Diamond’s The Spirit of Democracy may be the most important book on international relations published this year [2008]. In impressive detail, Diamond tells us how to spread democracy abroad in the least coercive and most cost-effective manner. His strategy might work. But how benign is it, really? And is U.S.-style democracy what the world needs now, or is it something deeper and wiser that’s struggling to be born?

“Ethical Realism”: The Foreign Policy We Need Now
We don’t have to choose between interventionism and neo-isolationism. At last, two young foreign policy analysts (one from the left, one from the right) have produced the first truly radical-centrist foreign policy manifesto -- Anatol Lieven & John Hulsman, Ethical Realism. Passionately written and admirably systemic, it tells how the U.S. could contribute mightily to a world that works for everyone.

Fareed Zakaria’s Global Humanism vs. Alanna Hartzok’s Earth-Rights Idealism
For many people, Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World goes as far as a “responsible” commentator can go in imagining a better world. But for economist and grassroots global activist Alanna Hartzok, Zakaria doesn’t go nearly far enough; and in her book The Earth Belongs to Everyone, she outlines the positive, “highest values of right and left” agenda that the global justice movement has long needed.

VII. Strategy

Alienation Forever?: A Critique of David Korten’s The Great Turning
The hottest radical political book these days is The Great Turning, by one of our most prominent so-called “antiglobalists,” David Korten. It is bold, provocative, and eloquent. What does it have to teach those of us at the radical middle? Not what it thinks it does. [See also "Credo of a Chastened Idealist," AmbivaBlog's thoughtful endorsement of this article.]

Where’s the Depth?: A Critique of Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat
The New York Times correspondent's bestselling book may convince you that the world is becoming more transparent and connected by the minute. But do we really want to live there? Only if we add in key ideas from Amy Chua (World on Fire), Michael Hardt (Multitude), and Walter Truett Anderson (The Next Enlightenment).

Where’s the Mutual Learning?: A Critique of George Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant
George Lakoff’s book Don’t Think of an Elephant! has been hailed by left-leaning Democratic politicians and activists as their “New Bible.” It is about as different from my book Radical Middle as could be imagined. While I argue that activists should listen to and learn from everyone, and create a fresh new political force thereby, Lakoff argues that progressives need to find a language that will win others over to their “side.”

Where’s the Backbone?: A Critique of Paul Hawken’s Blessed Unrest
Is there an invisible and exceptionally life-loving political movement in our midst? Well, no. But Paul Hawken’s claim that there is -- in Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming (2007) -- is important and worth exploring. And refuting.

VIII. Groups

Participants Agonize Over (and Draw Lessons From) the Death and Life of the NEW WORLD ALLIANCE
Before Reuniting America, before Unity08, before the New America Foundation and the Breakthrough Institute, was the New World Alliance (1979-83, RIP). We're not going to get it right in our own time if we can't figure out why the Alliance -- full of caring people and healing, cutting-edge ideas -- fell flat.

Resentment and Transcendence at the NAACP Convention
The race men (and women) were out in full force at the national NAACP Convention in New York City. But so were some speakers and delegates who sought to teach economic, postethnic, multiracial, and / or human consciousness.

Don Beck’s SPIRAL DYNAMICS INTEGRAL Confab: Political Evolution Now!
While my Washington DC friends were concerning themselves with the political flotsam of the day, I flew out to the annual Spiral Dynamics Integral confab near Dallas TX, where educators, consultants, business people, and activists from around the world were busily constructing an innovative evolutionary / developmental approach to politics.

Coherent “Radical Centrist” Agenda Emerges at NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION Conference
The radical middle is becoming increasingly bold and coherent and compelling in its message. That's a conclusion you'd have surely reached if you'd have attended -- as I did -- the spectacular "Real State of the Union" conference sponsored by the Atlantic Monthly and the New America Foundation.

IX. Movement?

At Last, a Movement that Would Have Us Listen To and Learn From Each Other
Twenty-four left-wing, right-wing, and independent opinion leaders got together at the Fetzer Institute deep in the Michigan woods in the summer of 2004. Their "Democracy in America" conference turned out to be a pioneering attempt to lay the groundwork for a movement based on post-partisan or "transpartisan" ideas.

First “Transpartisan” Political Organization Prepares for Liftoff
When we covered the first “Democracy in America” conference back in 2004, we dreamed its participants might someday set up a national political organization. But Joseph McCormick did more than dream: he made the “Reuniting America” organization happen. Now he has 10 humongous organization- and movement-building issues to confront. [For Reuniting America's reply to this article, click HERE.]

There Is a Radical Middle in Congress
We polled 21 leading radical centrist thinkers and activists to determine the “Best Radical Middle or Post-Partisan Members of Congress.” They not only pinpointed Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), they threw the spotlight on 19 other members of Congress who are trying to promote creative and post-partisan new ideas. What will it take to make the Congressional radical-middle more visible and effective?

Mushy Middle? No Way! A 12-Point Radical Middle Agenda
The knock on post-partisans is that we're mushy and unprincipled. But with all the wonderful radical middle writings, conferences, and organizations that are out there now, it's possible to come up with an agenda for our movement that's every bit as firm and principled as, say, the old Black Panther 10-Point Plan.

X. Conclusion

The Katrina Dialogues: A Dream Deferred
Politicians, thinkers and activists have been screaming at each other about Katrina; as a result, we're deeply divided. In this article I bring some of our leading thinkers & doers to an imaginary roundtable and make them listen to and learn from each another (using their actually expressed views). Moral: With a little bit of give and take and a lot of vision, WE CAN SOLVE even our most contentious political problems.

THE RADICAL MIDDLE CONCEPT:

WHY "Radical Middle"?

50 Thinkers and Activists DESCRIBE the Radical Middle

50 Best Radical Middle BOOKS of the '00s

10 Best Radical Middle MAGAZINES

25 Arguably Radical Middle POLITICIANS

GREAT RADICAL MIDDLE GROUPS AND BLOGS:

Over 250 Great Radical Centrist GROUPS and Organizations

50 Great Radical Centrist BLOGS

NOT JUST RADICAL MIDDLE:

10 Best U.S. Political NOVELS

50 Current Activist MEMOIRS