Editing Radical centrism (section)

== Late 20th-century groundwork ==
=== Initial definitions ===
According to journalist [[William Safire]], the phrase "radical middle" was coined by [[Renata Adler]],<ref name=Safire>Safire, William (14 June 1992). "[https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/14/magazine/on-language-perotspeak.html On Language: Perotspeak]". ''The New York Times Magazine'', p.&nbsp;193, page 006012 in The New York Times Archives. Retrieved 5 October 2018.</ref> a staff writer for ''[[The New Yorker]]''. In the introduction to her second collection of essays, ''Toward a Radical Middle'' (1969), she presented it as a healing radicalism.<ref>Adler, Renata (1969). ''Toward a Radical Middle: Fourteen Pieces of Reporting and Criticism''. Random House, pp. xiii–xxiv. {{ISBN|978-0-394-44916-6}}.</ref> Adler said it rejected the violent posturing and rhetoric of the 1960s in favor of such "corny" values as "reason, decency, prosperity, human dignity [and human] contact".<ref name=Adler>Adler (1969), p. xxiii.</ref> She called for the "reconciliation" of the white working class and [[African American|African-Americans]].<ref name=Adler/>

In the 1970s, sociologist Donald I. Warren described the radical center as consisting of those "middle American radicals" who were suspicious of big government, the national media and academics, as well as rich people and predatory corporations. Although they might vote for Democrats or Republicans, or for populists like [[George Wallace]], they felt politically homeless and were looking for leaders who would address their concerns.<ref>Warren, Donald I. (1976). ''The Radical Center: Middle Americans and the Politics of Alienation''. University of Notre Dame Press, Chap. 1. {{ISBN|978-0-268-01594-7}}.</ref>{{#tag:ref|Warren's book influenced [[Michael Lind]] and other 21st century radical centrists.<ref name=Tanenhaus>{{cite news|first=Sam|last=Tanenhaus|date=14 April 2010|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/books/review/Tanenhaus-t.html|title=The Radical Center: The History of an Ideal|newspaper=[[The New York Times Book Review]]|publisher=[[New York Times Company]]|location=New York City|page=27|access-date=7 February 2013}}</ref><ref name=Lind>Lind, Michael (20 April 2010). "[http://www.salon.com/2010/04/20/radical_center_revisited Now More than Ever, We Need a Radical Center]". Salon.com website. Retrieved 1 February 2013.</ref>|group="nb"}}

[[File:Joe Klein 2016.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Joe Klein]], who wrote the ''[[Newsweek]]'' cover story "Stalking the Radical Middle"]]
In the 1980s and 1990s, several authors contributed their understandings to the concept of the radical center. For example, futurist [[Marilyn Ferguson]] added a [[Holism|holistic]] dimension to the concept when she said: "[The] Radical Center ... is not neutral, not middle-of-the-road, but a view of the whole road".<ref>Ferguson, Marilyn (1980). ''The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s''. J. P. Tarcher Inc./Houghton Mifflin, pp. 228–29. {{ISBN|978-0-87477-191-6}}.</ref>{{#tag:ref|Two years later, another prominent futurist, [[John Naisbitt]], wrote in bolded type, "The political left and right are dead; all the action is being generated by a radical center".<ref name=Naisbitt>Naisbitt, John (1982). ''Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives''. Warner Books/Warner Communications Company, p. 178. {{ISBN|978-0-446-35681-7}}.</ref>|group="nb"}} Sociologist [[Alan Wolfe]] located the creative part of the political spectrum at the center: "The extremes of right and left know where they stand, while the center furnishes what is original and unexpected".<ref>Wolfe, Alan (1996). ''Marginalized in the Middle''. University of Chicago Press, p. 16. {{ISBN|978-0-226-90516-7}}.</ref> African-American theorist [[Stanley Crouch]] upset many political thinkers when he pronounced himself a "radical pragmatist".<ref>Author unidentified (30 January 1995). "The 100 Smartest New Yorkers". ''New York Magazine'', vol. 28, no. 5, p. 41.</ref> Crouch explained: "I affirm whatever I think has the best chance of working, of being both inspirational and unsentimental, of reasoning across the categories of false division and beyond the decoy of race".<ref>Crouch, Stanley (1995). ''The All-American Skin Game; or, The Decoy of Race''. Pantheon Books, p.&nbsp;1 of "Introduction". {{ISBN|978-0-679-44202-8}}.</ref>

In his influential<ref>Satin (2004), p. 10.</ref> 1995 ''[[Newsweek]]'' cover story "Stalking the Radical Middle", journalist [[Joe Klein]] described radical centrists as angrier and more frustrated than conventional Democrats and Republicans. Klein said they share four broad goals: getting money out of politics, balancing the budget, restoring civility and figuring out how to run government better. He also said their concerns were fueling "what is becoming a significant intellectual movement, nothing less than an attempt to replace the traditional notions of liberalism and conservatism".<ref name=Klein>Klein, Joe (24 September 1995). "[http://www.newsweek.com/stalking-radical-middle-182838 Stalking the Radical Middle]". ''Newsweek'', vol. 126, no. 13, pp. 32–36. Web version identifies the author as "Newsweek Staff". Retrieved 18 January 2016.</ref>{{#tag:ref|Subsequent to Klein's article, some political writers posited the existence of two radical centers, one neopopulist and bitter and the other moderate and comfortable.<ref name=Judis/><ref name=Michael>Lind, Michael (3 December 1995). "[https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/03/magazine/the-radical-center-or-the-moderate-middle.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm The Radical Center or The Moderate Middle?]" ''The New York Times Magazine'', pp. 72–73. Retrieved 17 April 2013.</ref> According to historian [[Sam Tanenhaus]], one of the strengths of [[Ted Halstead]] and [[Michael Lind]]'s book ''The Radical Center'' (2001) is it attempts to weld the two supposed radical-centrist factions together.<ref name=Tanenhaus/>|group="nb"}}{{#tag:ref|A 1991 story in ''Time'' magazine with a similar title, "Looking for The Radical Middle", revealed the existence of a "New Paradigm Society" in Washington, D.C., a group of high-level liberal and conservative activists seeking ways to bridge the ideological divide.<ref>Duffy, Michael (20 May 1991). "[https://web.archive.org/web/20101122041936/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,972984,00.html Looking for The Radical Middle]". ''Time'' magazine, vol. 137, no. 20, p.&nbsp;60. Retrieved 21 February 2013.</ref> The article discusses what it describes as the group's virtual manifesto, [[E. J. Dionne]]'s book ''Why Americans Hate Politics''.<ref name=Dionne>Dionne, E. J. (1991). ''Why Americans Hate Politics''. Touchstone/Simon & Schuster. {{ISBN|978-0-671-68255-2}}.</ref>|group="nb"}}

=== Relations to the Third Way ===
In 1998, British sociologist [[Anthony Giddens]] claimed that the radical center is synonymous with the [[Third Way]].<ref>Giddens, Anthony (1998). ''The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy''. Polity Press, pp. 44–46. {{ISBN|978-0-7456-2267-5}}.</ref> For Giddens, an advisor to former British Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] and for many other European political actors, the Third Way is a reconstituted form of [[social democracy]].<ref name=Andrews /><ref>Giddens, Anthony (2000). ''The Third Way and Its Critics''. Polity Press, Chap. 2 ("Social Democracy and the Third Way"). {{ISBN|978-0-7456-2450-1}}.</ref>

Some radical centrist thinkers do not equate radical centrism with the Third Way. In Britain, many do not see themselves as social democrats. Most prominently, British radical-centrist politician [[Nick Clegg]] has made it clear he does not consider himself an heir to Tony Blair<ref name=Stratton /> and [[Richard Reeves (British author)|Richard Reeves]], Clegg's longtime advisor, emphatically rejects social democracy.<ref name=Reeves>Reeves, Richard (19 September 2012). "[http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2012/09/case-truly-liberal-party The Case for a Truly Liberal Party]". ''The New Statesman'', p. 26. Retrieved 7 January 2013.</ref>

In the United States, the situation is different because the term Third Way was adopted by the [[Democratic Leadership Council]] and other moderate Democrats.<ref>Smith, Ben (7 February 2011). "[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49041.html The End of the DLC Era]". ''Politico'' website. Retrieved 31 December 2016.</ref> However, most U.S. radical centrists also avoid the term. Ted Halstead and Michael Lind's introduction to radical centrist politics fails to mention it<ref>Halstead and Lind (2001), p. 263.</ref> and Lind subsequently accused the organized moderate Democrats of siding with the "center-right" and [[Wall Street]].<ref name=Lind/> Radical centrists have expressed dismay with what they see as "split[ting] the difference",<ref name=Klein/> "[[Triangulation (politics)|triangulation]]"<ref name=Lind/><ref>Burns, James MacGregor; Sorenson, Georgia J. (1999). ''Dead Center: Clinton-Gore Leadership and the Perils of Moderation''. Scribner, p. 221. {{ISBN|978-0-684-83778-9}}.</ref> and other supposed practices of what some of them call the "mushy middle".<ref>Satin (2004), p. ix.</ref><ref>Ray, Paul H.; Anderson, Sherry Ruth (2000). ''The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World''. Harmony Books/Random House, pp. xiv and 336. {{ISBN|978-0-609-60467-0}}.</ref>{{#tag:ref|In 2010, radical centrist Michael Lind stated that "to date, [[Barack Obama|President Obama]] has been the soft-spoken tribune of the mushy middle".<ref name=Lind/>|group="nb"}}