‘No Labels’ and everyday irony

‘No Labels’ and everyday irony

Posted on December 24th, 2010 by Jay Baldwin

I get a kick out of what I call everyday irony—small contradictions, often so small they pass without notice—that make me laugh. For example, the other day a friend of mine pointed out the everyday irony of those radio ads that ask for donations of old cars to benefit the blind. Undoubtedly a worthy charity, but it still brings to mind Mister Magoo.

I subscribe to SiriusXM Radio. I only use it in my car, and when I drive I sometimes listen to news and news talk, both liberal and conservative. I sometimes like to switch back and forth between Sirius Left and Sirius Patriot in an attempt to discover what liberals and conservatives, respectively, think is the important news item of the day. That is, what they think we should be talking about. The irony comes from the fact that Sirius Patriot is channel 144 and Sirius Left is channel 146, which means that if I’m tuned to Sirius Patriot, for me to hear left-wing commentary, I have to turn the radio dial to the right; if I’m tuned to Sirius Left and want to know what the right-wing is talking about, I have to turn the radio dial left. I think that’s funny.

This all came to mind as I contemplated the ironically labeled new would-be national movement organization, “No Labels,” which seeks to set aside partisan political labels “to do what’s best for America.” Their website is so chockfull of high-minded silliness and everyday irony that in reading it one must wonder if the whole thing is a big joke.

Click on the tab labeled, “Approach.” And you’ll find this:

“Hyper-partisanship is one of the greatest domestic challenges our nation faces. It divides America and derails our ability to solve our shared challenges. Rather than focusing on solving problems, hyper-partisans use labels to demonize their opponents, enforce orthodoxy within their own ranks, and marginalize sensible compromises. “

Okay, so let me get this straight. An anti-partisan organization opposed to the use of labels for demonizing political opponents, forms, labels itself No Labels, carves out for itself a new partisan position of extreme moderation while using the label “hyper-partisans” to demonize their newly positioned political opponents in an effort to enforce orthodoxy within their own ranks and marginalize other voices, knows what’s best for America.

Uh-huh. In the words of comedian, Larry the Cable Guy, “I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there.”

What these geniuses of the public square seem to not understand is that neither modern-day liberals nor modern-day conservatives are extreme relative to the political spectrum. I don’t hear any liberals calling for an autocracy. Neither do I hear any conservatives calling for anarchy. We live in a debating society; partisanship, which simply means to be devoted to a set of principles, is necessary, if somewhat frustrating, to the operation of our society.

The ironic and decidedly un-funny part of the No Labels agenda is that their stated goal to “bring together leading thinkers from the left, right, and all points in between” is disingenuous. Read that line carefully and you’ll see that the goal is not inclusion, but exclusion. What lies “between” conservatives and liberals? No Labels and people who think like them, that’s who. They seek to be the gatekeepers of the public square, setting the discussion agenda by excluding voices beyond orthodox Republican or Democrat newspeak. It’s anti-pluralism in the guise of pluralism. There’s a label for projects like No Labels, Orwellian. Ironic, yes. Funny, no.

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Jay Baldwin

Mr. Baldwin is a doctoral candidate of comparative literature and cultural studies at the University of Arkansas. He is a self-described free-market anti-capitalist harboring anarchist utopian fantasies. The best that can be said of him is that, presumably, his mother loves him.