Hillary's GOP outreach strategy is "Barbara Boxer Centrism."

In her acceptance speech at the Democratic convention Hillary Clinton asserted a strongly progressive domestic agenda while simultaneously reaching out to Republicans through the use of traditionally Republican imagery like seas of American flags and chants of "USA, USA." Since then a variety of conservatives and self-proclaimed centrists have called on Clinton to back up her outreach with actual policy concessions to Republican positions and some progressives have become concerned that she might actually be tempted to listen to this advice. But was there necessarily a contradiction between Clinton's progressive gestures and outreach to Republicans in Philly? Is it possible to energize the base while persuading swing voters at the same time, without betraying somebody's trust? To answer that question, it's important first to take a look at the nature of Clinton's "outreach to Republicans" thus far. Andrew Prokop put it well at Vox: "If you look closer, it turns out that Clinton and the Democrats are indeed embracing the symbolism and tropes that the right has loved--but they really aren't making policy concessions to win them over ... Indeed, all of this imagery and rhetoric was deployed in service of an agenda that is remarkably liberal--at least when it comes to domestic and economic policy." Even on national-security policy, notes Prokop, Clinton didn't really "pivot to the center"; she stayed pretty much where she has always been. But the heart of her persuasion technique was not about convincing swing voters she was something they did not think she was; it was about convincing them--and most definitely including Republicans--that Donald Trump was exactly what they feared he was. In this respect, Clinton deployed a technique I used to call "Barbara Boxer centrism"(named after the famously combative liberal senator from California), wherein a politician "seizes the center" not by occupying it with any surprising or "moderate" policy proposals, but by pushing their opponents out of the center by constantly labeling them as extremist. It just so happens that Clinton's opponent is an exceptionally good foil for this kind of attack. And so she does not really have to choose between "left" and "center," or between base mobilization and swing-voter persuasion. He's dangerously crazy is a message that serves both purposes equally. Sincerely, Ed Kilgore Managing Editor

The Democratic Strategist www.thedemocraticstrategist.org