[Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. in his 1949 book “The Vital Center”] himself acknowledged that the center could never occupy a fixed location, and that it would continue to adapt to new challenges; “all important problems are insoluble,” he wrote. “The good,” he concluded, “comes from the continuing struggle to try and solve them,” and from keeping in mind “the spirit of human decency.” These were meant to be values of the center, but they can seem nothing short of radical today.
(Quoted by Beverly Gage, “The Political ‘Center’ Isn’t Gone — Just Disputed,” NYTimes, 2-7-19)
(c) 2019 JMN.
