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Columns and Articles by Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman

December 02, 2017

Can There Be a Centrist Party?

The political pendulum in this country has now swung to two extremes, making it very difficult for a sensible person to select a party that is a big, tolerant tent. Once long ago, the Republicans were such a party and for the same length of time, the Democrats were also a big tent. Today, both parties are struggling for survival and both are being deserted by people in the sensible middle.

A good friend of mine, has stated the problem well:
"Centrist? God, I hope so. The extremes of both parties are nauseating.

The Democrats (foolish, mush-headed, silly, vapid, unworldly, unrealistic about human nature:
? No Black person can do any wrong.
? All persons are of equal intelligence, peaceable, helpful, but maybe sometimes misguided.
? We need wide open borders, even if those incoming are illegal, criminal, hate us, and will wage violent jihad against us.
? Islamists seeking to kill us are not really enemies, just need understanding, love, and respect.
? We need to impound any guns belonging to target shooters, hunters, or those wanting to defend their homes or their persons. Only thugs and MS-13 gang members should be allowed to own firearms.

The Republicans (Neanderthal, backward, hidebound, harsh, intolerant, rigid, stupid, stubborn):
? Politicians are the right people to control all women?s bodies. Politicians know with great certitude every woman?s circumstances, and that every birth will result in a cute, happy, healthy baby with a fine future and a happy mother.
? Any form of firearms licensing or other qualification is the same as prohibiting firearms altogether.
? The actions of the Confederacy were actually for the best for our country and deserve great recognition.
? All Muslims thirst to kill us, whatever their sect or whatever their benign and peaceful behavior."

My friend?s list makes me wince, but I find that I can scarcely disagree with anything. I would add to the Republican list the relatively recent wrinkle of disdain for science, for reasoned thought, for anybody educated enough to be called "elite;" and to the Democrat list, a blindness to the new academic fascism in our universities which consider Muslims (even violent ones) "underdogs" and Jews "colonial masters over a peaceful, innocent Palestinian population." Even academic feminists have decided that supporting Islamic "underdogs" is more important than supporting the women that Islamists victimize.

It is very difficult to see either of these parties representing me. I think that resentment against the educated as "elites" (the main characteristic of the Tea Party Republicans) is no way to govern. I also think that the Democrats have been so hell-bent on resentment against conservative culture, insistent on dicing and slicing us all (Black-Americans, bi-sexual-Americans, special bathrooms for the diversely plumbed), and intolerant against any religions at all, except for Islam, that identity as an American (not hyphenated) is enmeshed in fuzz.

Most dangerous of all is the current Republican administration in denial of the Russian attacks on our liberal democracy. President Putin, running a country on the skids, compensates for its weakness by attacking the rest of Western Civilization?s gift to the world: the Enlightenment. Republicans used to be the loudest opponents of Russia?s machinations. Today, they are silent. The Democrats, who used to downplay how many educated fools once bought into Communist ideology, are now paying attention to the new Russian threat.

Somebody had better do so because with new elections coming up, we have a lot to protect. It is to Putin?s benefit to make us go at each other rather than go at their aggression. Every election in the western world has been under attack. The Brexit movement in England, removing themselves from the European Union, was a Russian-financed campaign. Every secessionist movement around the world (Kurds, Catalonia, even California) is aided by Russia. If you cannot win in a fair fight, destroy them from within.

We need bipartisan governance more than ever today. We need two parties that are intelligent, thoughtful, and willing to work together and compromise when needed. If neither of our current parties can do that, we need a new one.

672 Words
Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman is a historian, lecturer, and author of God's Law or Man's Law. You may contact her at Lfarhat102@aol.com or www.globalthink.net.

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