Thank You, Allen West, by @DavidOAtkins

Thank You, Allen West

by David Atkins

In a way, I'm grateful to Allen West for calling members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus "Communists", since it has put the Progressive Caucus and it's very popular People's Budget back in the news.

Rachel Maddow hit it out of the park yesterday.

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This, by the way, is what is so frustrating about so-called "Centrists" like Olympia Snowe or Linda Parks. A "Centrist" should stand in the center of American public opinion, not in some no-man's land of unpopular policies that stand somewhere between the two parties.

There are issues on which majorities of Americans tend to agree more with Republicans on than Democrats. They're not many, but they're there. Americans tend to agree with Republicans on things like building an immigration wall, the Keystone pipeline, cutting foreign aid, or cutting deficits (which the progressive budget does, of course.) If some politicians want to occupy "centrist" positions, then let them do so on positions from both sides that are popular with the American people.

"Centrists" who don't support most of the positions in the People's Budget can call themselves whatever they want, but "centrist" and "moderate" aren't appropriate labels.


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