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Say hello to the Daily Centrist

There's another entrant to the market of groups that believe they have the key to making American democracy work better.

The Daily Centrist is being launched to offer news and opinion "to serve the wide plurality of Americans who identify as political independents and the even larger numbers who, regardless of party affiliation, can be considered center-right and center-left Americans in search of solutions." The audience, the editors said, would be the plurality of voters who don't affiliate as either a Democratic Party that's moved to the left or a Republican Party that's moved to the right.


"We plan to be the water cooler for that great silent majority of Americans who are underserved by political opinion – or attitude – that speaks to their sensibilities," said the editor in chief, political analyst Rick Ungar. "And we will scrutinize and criticize commentators, personalities, politicians and candidates who embrace either extreme political pole."


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We only think about the plumbing in our homes when something goes wrong. The same is true for government bureaucracy. Rules, procedures, and bureaucrats operate largely out of sight, making sure food is safe, Social Security checks arrive, workplaces are safe, and children with disabilities receive the services promised to them by law. Yes, there is plenty of red tape in government, just as an old house can accumulate pipes that no longer serve much purpose. But ripping out pipes simply because there are too many of them is not much of a plumbing strategy. Yet the Trump administration has made the number of federal regulations it eliminates a measure of success. That raises a more important question: When does cutting bureaucracy stop making government more efficient and start making it less capable?

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