I loathe Evan Bayh, the former senator from Indiana, and either for reasons of catharsis or clarity, I thought it necessary to dedicate an entire column to my dislike of the “Democrat.” A few weeks ago, I read Bayh was signing on to be a contributor for Fox News, and without shock but much chagrin, I thought this is exactly the conundrum “centrists” pose for the Democratic Party.
“For some time, I have had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should,” said the former senator upon his announcement he was not running for re-election in 2010. “There is much too much partisanship and not enough progress. Too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem solving.”
My dislike for the former senator isn’t an issue of purity within the Democratic Party or demanding absolute liberalism to wear a (D) next to your name. My issue with Bayh is he is a corporatist, not a centrist. And politicians like Bayh are exactly why the Congress is not working.
It isn’t wrong for politicians like Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia to take a centrist position and cross the party line on environmental issues and support coal, because West Virginia’s economy is largely dependent on the business of mining. With Bayh, however, the word centrist has simply lost its meaning. It’s come to mean politicians who take liberal stances on social issues but always support industry on business issues.
All over the media Bayh is treated as the most reasonable politician, all because of his “centrist” positions, and it is disgusting. Make no mistake, Bayh acted like a Democrat when it came time to vote on social issues during his time in the Senate, but all too often he swapped his (D) for an ® when it came to business and industry. Most notably during the debate over health care reform, Bayh supported the President’s agenda except one measure, the public option.
Nary a Democratic politician was as fervently against the public option as Bayh was, but it wasn’t surprising. The public option posed a threat to the embedded insurance companies which often dominate 75 percent of the market within a given state, and far be it for a corporatist like Bayh to let anything challenge the insurance companies’ supremacy.
And it wasn’t enough Bayh was among the “centrists” who defeated the public option, but his personal gain through his wife, Susan Bayh, who works as a lobbyist for those very industries, was obvious. It’s noted Bayh used to serve with a Republican, and his state isn’t a bedrock of liberalism like California, but Bayh wasn’t simply maintaining a conservative image among his constituency, he was busy collecting the same corporate donations as conservative politicians.
If the latter were the case, and Bayh was simply trying to represent the conservatives among his constituency, I would be telling a different story. But the story I am telling now is about a politician, a politician who would sellout his party for a nickel. A point that makes Bayh’s move to be a contributor on Fox News not surprising at all.
According to Smarmy, a former Democratic politician, Bayh will fit perfectly into the role as Fox News’ token liberal, playing the part formerly acted out by Alan Colmes of the former “Hannity & Colmes.” And without a doubt, Bayh will play the role effortlessly and willingly, granting even more credulity to the fallacy of Fox News’ bogus claim of being “Fair and Balanced.”
Bayh will serve as a bane to the Democratic Party even after leaving office, offering cover to the Republican Party and their talking points, providing legitimacy to illegitimate ideas. Already, if you watch, you can see Sean Hannity fawning over the former senator.
Again, the problem isn’t an issue of purity within the Democratic Party, it’s weeding out the centrist from the “centrist.” It is an issue of separating Democratic politicians with conservative positions from the Evan Bayh’s of the world. On a final note to readers, whenever you pick up the New York Times on campus, or click on your favorite news site, remember in this day and age, the word centrist hasn’t lost all meaning, but simply translates into something else, “corporatist.”
