Unfortunately you conflate two separate problems and come to exactly the wrong conclusion. If you want to know why we have a belligerent fool in the White House it’s important to understand what drive voters to him and why any liberal who claims to be “centrist” needs to examine what they means.
First, however, lets dispense with the myth that Republicans care only about money and power, while Democrats are friends of the common people. Both major parties cater to banks, insurance companies, and other corporate interests. Trump didn’t win the election because he’s rich, he won despite his financial success. In fact, the polls clearly showed that even people who voted for Trump despised him as a person, but they liked Hillary and her disingenuous posturing even less. There is a problem with rich, powerful interests having an undue influence on US politics, but neither candidate in last year’s election represented a solution, so no lessons can be drawn from the outcome.
Trump’s success in the election came about because of cultural changes in the US that have been anything but “centrist”. For example, BLM isn’t a centrist phenomenon, it’s a radical agenda that excuses criminal and antisocial behavior as long as the offender is black. A cooperative effort to reduce bias in police forces would probably receive broad support. Instead we saw Michael Brown hailed as a martyr, despite the video of him robbing a store, and the physical evidence that conclusive showed that he assaulted a cop who was sitting in his vehicle, and that he tried to take the officer’s weapon. Anyone who questioned the incongruity of the response from the President and the Attorney General was dismissed as a racist. The same with immigration law. It is against the law to enter the country illegally or to overstay a visa. Expecting the government to enforce those laws isn’t racist or xenophobic. No President, Democrat or Republican, has the authority to decide which laws can be ignored.
Calling for the dismantling of the entire fossil fuel industry isn’t centrist. Signing a treaty promising $100 Billion annually to the UN isn’t centrist. Forcing people to share bathrooms and showers with people of the opposite sex isn’t centrist. Destroying property and setting fires because you disagree with a person’s speech isn’t centrist. Characterizing ANY restrictions on abortion a “war on women” isn’t centrist.
It’s important for centrists to lead people to common ground. We can make accommodations for transsexual needs, but it’s also important for them to realize that they are different and can’t expect everyone to act like they’re not. Abortion is complicated, but there’s a huge difference between a second or third trimester abortion and one that’s done in the first 20 weeks of a pregnancy. Similarly, an immigrant who came here as a teen 20 years ago and is living a quiet, productive life in the US should be treated differently than someone who came here as an adult and knowingly broke the law. There is plenty of middle-ground that needs to be discussed without extremists blocking roads and occupying buildings.
The reason that I reject the idea of “rebuilding the left” is purely selfish. I’m a true conservative and, for the first time in my adult life, I didn’t vote in an election. Neither candidate was an acceptable choice. Who they chose is the Republicans fault, but why they chose him is clear. Being bulldozed by Progressives for another 8 years wasn’t an option, and Trump was the only candidate crazy and arrogant enough to say no to them. The Republicans didn’t select him because he’s a pompous, ignorant buffoon…they just accepted him as the lesser of two evils. Anyone who thinks that the solution lies in becoming more strident and divisive will create even more problems.
