Bill Clinton's centrism is out, but his way of making an argument deserves a revival, harrispolitico writes
The great curse of modern political life is abstraction. Politics is a means for asserting identity or virtue, or denouncing the moral defects of opponents. Often missing from this rhetoric is the concrete human dimension of politics—that there are real people, with actual names who live at specific addresses, who are affected by policy decisions.
When battling Newt Gingrich’s Republicans in the 1990s, Clinton sometimes signaled willingness to compromise, and in other cases was much more willing to fight. The choices weren’t random. Meanwhile, in 2020, the politics of specificity and connection is at low ebb. Trump talks mostly about himself rather than the problems or aspirations of voters. Joe Biden has succeeded in building up a polling lead over Trump in part by talking hardly at all during the five months since coronavirus lockdowns began.This one may raise eyebrows. Way back in Arkansas in the early 1980s, an editorial writer tattooed Clinton with the moniker “Slick Willie.
Over the years, I’ve been around Clinton in plenty of not-for-quotation settings. The off-the-record Clinton is a bit earthier and more profane than he would ever be in public. But there is no large gap between what he says and how he says it between settings.
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