… Centrists may be extinct in the current Republican Party, but there are still plenty among Democrats. The presidential field is stacked with people routinely tarred as moderates by their left-wing opponents, including Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, John Hickenlooper and Joe Biden, the Democratic front-runner. If one sees American politics as a death match between Donald Trump and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, then yes, there is no center. But that view is clearly wrong.
The problem, perhaps, isn’t the center as such. It’s what “centrism” has come to represent. The most prominent of the big centrist interest groups, No Labels, was founded in 2010 to “advocate and educate for greater bipartisan cooperation through all levels of government.” While the group supports some progressive proposals, like subsidized family leave, its orientation toward corporate-friendly politics is unmistakable. A huge part of what it does is bankroll pro-business candidates of both parties. Last cycle, six No Labels-affiliated super PACs raised $11 million from just 53 donors. According to documents leaked to the Daily Beast last year, its funders include Bain Capital CEO Josh Bekenstein, Walmart heiress Christy Ruth Walton and other very rich people. CONT.
Simon van Zuylen-Wood, Washington Post Magazine