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Radical centrism
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=== 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. 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. xiiiβxxiv. {{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. 228β29. {{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. 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. 32β36. 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. 72β73. 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. 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"}}
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