Instead, he talks about prudence. About the danger of budget deficits. About the importance of Americans living within their means. The country simply can’t afford universal health insurance or free college tuition — even though, somehow, such comparably wealthy countries as Canada, Denmark, France, and Germany manage to have something approaching one or both.
Why does the person who espouses this dour and plutocratic version of the Democratic Party platform get to be called a “centrist”? Why not reserve the term for someone who keeps everything else constant but runs as a pro-lifer? Or use it for someone like Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is a fairly standard Democrat aside from her skepticism about American military adventurism?
The fact is that Schultz’s positions aren’t the center of anything. As the important Voter Study Group report from 2016 revealed, when voters are placed on a two-dimensional graph measuring liberal and conservative views on economics and culture, the quadrant that Schultz occupies — more conservative on economics and more liberal on social issues — is by far the least popular, despite being overrepresented in the upper ranks of business and finance.
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