What Do the Centrists Stand For? Here’s the Uninspiring Answer.
The logic of releasing an agenda that addresses Americans’ most pressing economic concerns is unassailable. Voters gave President Trump a second term at least in part because they remained upset about post-pandemic inflation and an economy that is increasingly unfair to workers. Of course, he appealed to them by pointing the blame at immigrants rather than his billionaire friends. But that anger is still valid, and it’s what Jim Kessler, Third Way’s executive vice president for public policy, said his group wanted to address. “This is a country where the majority of Americans are just not satisfied about what’s going on in their economic lives, and it’s been going on for a long time,” he told me.
The plan contains plenty of inoffensive, even sensible, ideas. It nods to the abundance agenda with multiple references to cutting red tape, in particular for building new housing and energy production (though it characteristically does not mention a preference for a particular kind of energy production, whether renewables or fossil fuels—so one can assume it’s the outdated Obama approach of “all of the above”). It also proposes cutting tariffs on “family essentials,” capping energy bills, and expanding apprenticeships and alternatives to college. And it has one genuinely new idea: to provide a Federal Housing Administration-like car loan program for used cars, which would help tackle one of the biggest transportation costs many Americans face.
The agenda also tries to tap into Americans’ fury at Big Tech for colluding with local governments to build data centers in their neighborhoods, hogging electricity and raising energy bills—but it comes up short. Third Way’s plan would force tech companies to work with communities when building data centers, including “significant investment in the local electricity system, no increase in household utility bills, enough new tax revenue to cut local property taxes, good jobs for local workers, transparent negotiations including a ban on NDAs, and straightforward community engagement.” But it doesn’t call for a halt on new data centers, which even some Republican governors have done.
