Our Mission
The mission of The New Center is to nurture new policy proposals and establish the intellectual basis for a viable political center in today’s America. It will do this primarily through a web presence that promotes ideas, news coverage and commentary that helps people see common sense solutions to the problems we face. Our efforts will shine a spotlight on the influences that have been holding us back from arriving at those solutions.
To this end, The New Center will:
Develop Policy:
The New Center will provide original perspectives on the issues of the day from taxation to immigration, and from health care to trade. These policy documents will explore common sense policy proposals upon which Democrats and Republicans should be able to agree (e.g. a grand bargain on tax reform and infrastructure). The New Center will also focus attention on more controversial topics like the implications of the spread of technology and the growth of the new giants of commerce. The first policy document from The New Center, Ideas to Re-Center America, was released in September 2017.
Create and Aggregate Content:
The Right has The Drudge Report. The Left has The Huffington Post. The New Center will be the destination for aggregated and original content that both highlights new and ongoing efforts to find common ground and calls out circumstances where the Right and the Left are overstepping their bounds. The New Center website will feature regular contributors who publish original content, curate stories from the center, and release relevant and exclusive polling.
Call It How We See It:
The New Center will also create a fact-explaining site that will ferret out media bias on both the Right and the Left. We will review lead articles in major publications and use a “red ink” process to point out where facts are twisted or where passions are being unfairly inflamed. Our audience will want to know when an article tells only one side of the story or leaves out critical facts.
These activities will all reinforce one another, as The New Center will provide an intellectual framework for new ideas; be a destination for people who are tired of the overheated and histrionic fare served up by the Left and Right; and offer a credible counter to the growing bias on both sides.
The New Center is organized around four core values:
OPPORTUNITY
Opportunity means that all Americans should be able to go as far as their gifts and drive can take them. The policies best suited to enlarge opportunity are a matter of important debate, but we need such policies. Without them, too many Americans will feel excluded and will be excluded from the American Dream.
SECURITY
If opportunity is a distinctive principle of American government, security is a basic purpose of every government. The reasons are clear: not only do all people crave safety and stability, but also the lack of security generates fear. A fearful people cannot face the future with confidence. The New Center must be supportive of measures to protect the physical and economic security of our people and the national security of our nation.
ACCOUNTABILITY
When powerful institutions—public and private—act without regard to the public good or lack the competence to promote it, they should be held accountable for their mistakes.
INGENUITY
Americans see ourselves as problem-solvers, and we’ve solved a lot of them over the centuries. If machines aren’t working, we fix them, and similarly for our institutions and policies. The American ingenuity that has produced a stream of world-changing inventions can also reshape the way we govern ourselves and solve serious societal challenges. The New Center must stand for ideas that promote and harness American ingenuity.