Daniel Hagelberg
Jul 10, 2017 · 2 min read

I disagree with your premise. The far left and far right working together will cause them to compromise their own views in favor of that collaboration. In so doing they will betray the actual underlying reason for their movements.

You are correct in stating that it is the ideological center that is weakening as people spread out to the corners of the spectrum. However, if we are to reach directly across this divide we will only end up back in the middle. We are in a strong reaction to this type of center dumbing down of politics over the past 30 years. You would have us jump back directly towards that center.

Instead allow the center to drain. Let the libertarians go with the libertarians, let the socialists go with the socialists, let the culture warriors retreat to wherever they came from. In standing for what they believe each corner of the spectrum will in fact be working in concert. Adherents will stream out to whomever presents the best policy solutions. Yes that is a political utopia, but its worth fighting for in principle.

No side should see themselves as enemies of the press unless they truly believe they are not fighting for something that could stand the scrutiny of good reporting. We should be demanding good reporting and good journalism as well. Being for the press is being for quality, when it begins to lack quality it is no longer the press but just some sort of cheap entertainment, politics porn if you will. The major cable networks have fallen in to this category with much of their on-air coverage. That is not to say that good quality reporters and journalists don’t exist at these outlets. They don’t need to be killed, or kicked, they need to be signaled. They need to lose viewers when they are staring at an empty podium, or debating something that doesn’t need debate. CNN has so many resources the world over they can be useful when they are doing good work. It just needs to be demanded of them.

So we can happily concede when someone is correct logically or factually, but no formal alliance between right and left should occur. Except in our dedication to the intellectual tension between our points of view.

I appreciate your appeal for practicality, but I hope you can see the picture from another angle.

    Daniel Hagelberg

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