Owen Jones on Centrism in 2024

Earlier this month Owen Jones had something to say of the "surprise" outcome of the U.S. election--specifically, that it was no surprise. Discontent, not least over such matters as the purchasing power of hard-pressed consumers, tends to work against incumbents--and Kamala Harris, whose substitution for President Joe Biden on the ballot a scarce four months before election day in a manner many criticized as not just belated and undemocratic but incompetent, saw her promise continuity to a public which, on various grounds, seems to see continuity as an existential threat to the things they care about. Of course, many others have said that, but Jones does sum up the situation in a last sentence that I think merits attention from anyone considering the election, and what it reminds one about regarding the limits of the kind of politics the Democratic candidate ran on, namely that "voters . . . wanted politicians to solve their problems."

Alas, in the eyes of the centrist that desire has always been suspect--and in an era in which those who espouse centrism regard themselves as less and less able to do just that than their predecessors, simply unreasonable. Unsurprisingly centrists have a harder and harder time winning elections these days--and equally unsurprising, centrists refuse to acknowledge any connection between one fact and the other.