Influential “Centrist” Group in Democratic Politics, No Labels, Is Revealed to Have Republican Donors

By Jacob Weindling  |  December 3, 2018 | 3:20pm
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty
Politics Features Centrism
Influential “Centrist” Group in Democratic Politics, No Labels, Is Revealed to Have Republican Donors

The prevailing political sentiment in America is being socially liberal but fiscally conservative. It’s how most people describe themselves, despite the fact that when you ask Americans about which specific policies we support, we skew liberal. Being kind towards those left vulnerable by society is always en vogue, just not to our financial masters. The reason why we are the way that we are is because we have been coached in this contradictory direction by those who control our politics.

In order to care for our most vulnerable, we need to spend money. A lot of it. Medicare for All is estimated to cost around $30 trillion over ten years, but according to a study financed by the Koch Brothers, it’s still $2 trillion cheaper than our current system which enriches health care executives at the cost of poor treatment for the poorest among us. This is where the dynamic of “fiscally conservative” and “socially liberal” falls apart. A lot of times, you just can’t have both.

Which brings me to No Labels, a “centrist” political group created by Republican Todd Davis and Nancy Jacobson—wife to veteran Clinton strategist, Mark Penn (Penn is now writing op-eds on FoxNews.com about the supposed fraudulence of the Mueller investigation). Joe Lieberman is their designated national leader. No Labels is seemingly designed to drag Democrats further to the right, and their conferences typically feature speakers like Joe Biden, John Huntsman and Joe Manchin. No Labels preaches the religion of bipartisanship, and chastises anyone who stands in the way of this ideology, no matter the policy effects of it.

This may shock some, but this “centrist” organization created by the wife of a longtime Clinton ally is wholly financed by seemingly the entire hedge fund industry and people who typically give to the Republican Party. Per The Daily Beast:

According to internal documents obtained by The Daily Beast, No Labels encouraged financiers known for backing hyperpartisan causes to back its own super PACs. Among those courted were individuals who’ve bankrolled massive parts of the Republican Party’s infrastructure, including David Koch, former AIG head Hank Greenberg, and billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Singer; as well as top supporters of President Donald Trump, including PayPal founder Peter Thiel, businessman Foster Friess, and Home Depot founder Ken Langone. No Labels also courted liberal-minded moneymen, including Michael Vachon, a top political adviser to George Soros (one of the biggest funders of Democratic and progressive causes) and Reid Hoffman, an investor and entrepreneur who has called Trump “worse than useless.” The group also targeted Wendi Murdoch (ex-wife of Rupert and rumored Ivanka Trump pal), uber-agent Ari Emanuel, and Dallas Mavericks owner and oft-rumored presidential aspirant Mark Cuban. Another possible 2020 candidate, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, was also among dozens of high net-worth individuals approached about donating to No Labels’ super PACs.

How many more examples do we need before we understand that “centrism” is just another name for conservatism? This amorphous idea of bipartisanship is based off the realignment of the political parties driven by Bill Clinton in the 1990s. The supposed basis of his political genius was dragging the Democrats out of the doldrums and to the right (the conservatism of the 1990s is an aberration in the history of a Democratic Party defined far more by the progressivism of the 1960s and 1930s), and Bill Clinton’s legacy is being perhaps the most friendly president to Wall Street in American history (he removed two of the four planks of Glass Steagall—the first firewall we established between investment banks and FDIC-insured deposit banks in the wake of the Great Depression).

No Labels is very much an ideological heir to Clintonian “liberalism.” It is obsessed with The West Wing-esque religion of bipartisanship, which somehow always seems to fall on favorable terms for our financial masters (crazy how that always happens!).

Now that No Labels’ fraudulence has been exposed for all to see by The Daily Beast, maybe the only liberal party in America can finally stop its obsession with compromising with conservatives, ignore “centrist” groups like No Labels preaching watered down conservatism, and start enacting truly liberal policies.

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.

 
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