Central Dawn

by Mark Newberg

I’m not old enough to remember Reagan’s “Morning in America” campaign ad, but I’m not immune to its romanticized American-bred optimism. I am old enough to remember the man from “a place called Hope” restoring that optimism to the Nation for as long as bipartisanship lasted. Granted, that wasn’t much past transition time, but it was a rosy time for our American ideals. Now, with President-Elect Obama, we’ve launched, once again (and 75%-heartedly) into an era of national unity, cheer, and good tidings.

I like this stuff. I like it a lot. In fact, I’m of the belief that the best Democratic Presidents tend to tap into the same vein of our collective consciousness: the desire for hope. Don’t believe me? Ok. Name the best Democratic Presidents of the television age (and yes, FDR counts). FDR. Kennedy. Clinton. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." ”Eight years of peace and prosperity.“ Seeing a theme yet? Even Reagan, in his search for the Center, harnessed our desire to feel good about the future, especially in times of great national pain. Remember, “They slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God?” How about, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

What’s that, you say? Reagan wasn’t a centrist, he was a (insert whatever descriptor you deem appropriate here). Right. Reagan held conservative principles. Like tax cuts. Like a strong national defense. Like individual liberty. To be sure Reagan’s ideological antipathy toward government was straight out of the Goldwater playbook, but if we just think of the 40th President as a Right-wing renegade, we’d be missing something…

I’ll come back to that thought in a minute, because I want to zoom forward twenty-eight years, to right-about-now. The National celebration over the words “President-Elect Barack Obama” had hardly started to subside before an age-old debate sprang up on cable news: “Obama must take his mandate and enact everything the left couldn’t get done for the past twenty years!” warbled one pundit (I’m paraphrasing). “Not so,” thundered another (paraphrasing again), “this was not a liberal victory and he has to govern from the center!” And round and round it went, channel after channel. Left, Right, Center. Lurch here, lurch there. New Deal! Great Society! Limited Government! Be Cautious! A virtual cacophony of logical disconnect, all missing the bigger point: …The Center has shifted.

Obama doesn’t have to choose an ideological pole, and he doesn’t have to compromise everything to tread lightly upon a politically contrived centrist coalition. The great secret to Obama’s broad victory, much like the Reagan Revolution, is that the Center moved toward the gravity of leadership. His leadership. That’s the “Change”, the “New Politics” that Obama has ushered in. The Center-Right America of Reagan is now Obama’s Center-Left. Possibly. Or perhaps it’s Center-Center. Or maybe, just maybe, the electorate rose up and exclaimed with one voice (or mostly one voice) “stop fighting over the small things, or what we call the things, and fix the big stuff!”

Is Clean Energy left, or right? Is effective re-regulation of financial markets left, or right? Is rebuilding crumbling bridges left, or right? Is a strong national defense left, or right? Is putting Americans back to work left, or right? Is taking the smartest people in the country, putting them in a room away from television cameras or microphones, and telling them to come up with the best ideas they’ve got to fix the biggest problems we face, left, or right?

Neither. It’s all part of the Center now, and however we hyphenate the word is irrelevant. Eight years ago, we wouldn’t have agreed on much, if any of it. It’s different now. Today there’s broad understanding, broad agreement, and broad desire to get things done. From the “new” Center. The Obama Center. It’s a uniquely American place that keeps us searching for our horizons, always believing that the pain of our yesterdays can be tempered by the triumph of our tomorrows. And now, more than ever before in my lifetime, we need to reach, together, for our shared American future.

Mark Newberg is currently an advisor to Hotlist Media LLC, and has previously served as a post-Katrina advisor to the President of the New Orleans City Council. While in New Orleans, he represented the City on the Office of the Federal Coordinator's intergovernmental task force to resolve issues in the ongoing recovery. He has also worked with the Clinton Climate Initiative to promote sustainable economic development and carbon emissions reduction. Mark has previously served as Deputy Director of Operations for the Democratic GAIN Training Program at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and has experience in communication strategy, policy, and speech writing. He is a founding member of the Roosevelt Institution's Tulane Chapter, and presented his paper "Courting Disaster: Law and Jurisdiction in Crisis Management" at the Roosevelt Institution's SCEPR conference. Mark holds a JD from Tulane Law School, and was a visiting student at Harvard Law School following Hurricane Katrina. He also holds a BA in Political Science from Tulane University.