No Labels, No Guts, No Glory

The group "No Labels" that formed this week aspires to help Democrats an Republicans find common ground to solve this country's problems. A moderate group comprised largely of independents like Michael Bloomberg and including a few Democrats and fewer Republicans (what does that tell you?) , the No Labels group wants the extremes of each major party to put their differences aside and work toward a sensible, centrist governing style.

This is the dumbest idea I've ever heard.

First of all, as E.J. Dionne wrote in a column published today, the No Labels group supposes that the American left is as extreme as the American right. In fact, the American left has moved so much toward the center, the Democrats have become as moderate as the old Rockefeller wing of the Republican party, while the Republicans have become more extremely conservative and beyond the scope of moderation. There are politicians as far to the left as Rand Paul is to the right, but they've become hopelessly marginalized over the last thirty years. As for Democrats, they're willing to compromise - like President Obama - but what's the use when Republicans aren't?

Secondly, "bipartisanship" is a fuzzy aim. If your idea is to support bipartisanship that produces legislation insuring a brighter future for America, fine. But if you support the kind of bipartisanship that gets any old bill passed, no matter how bad it is, you're better off with lines in the sand. Case in point: A telecommunications bill that passed in 1995 and was signed by President Clinton enjoyed broad bipartisan support. It also allowed large media conglomerates to own more broadcast outlets in more media markets - sometimes in the same market - and ruined the quality of programming on music radio. It also put news radio until the control of fewer companies; in New York, news stations WCBS-AM and WINS-AM, once competitors, are owned by the same company. The only major difference between them is that WINS has teletype machine sound effects.

Thirdly, No Labels doesn't seem to have any ideas or proposals of their own. This group doesn't seem to stand for anything; it's only interested in combining the best ideas of either side. It doesn't matter to them that the best ideas in Washington these days may not be good enough. Some of them are just plain bad. But bad ideas are what we Americans are best at generating. No Labels is one of them.

No Labels will go the way of so many other "moderate" groups that tried to move the country forward but proposed solutions that only kept it moving in place. It will disband without any fanfare. Another such group slated to join them would be the Democrats.