The NDP convention

I was rather depressed by the news that the federal NDP at their Montreal convention removed some socialist language from the party constitution.  It isn't that I know the party is about to abandon socialism altogether; for all I know, they'll remain as socialist as always.  But as an attempt to win new centrist votes, I'm skeptical that it'll work.  It seems to me that people who hate socialism will largely continue to vote against the party.  Thomas Mulcair is trying to have it both ways, telling one group of people that the party is faithful to its socialist roots, and telling another that they don't really mean it.  It's a weasel game, and it may end with both groups feeling they're being lied to.

I fear that this may be like Tony Blair's "New Labour" in Britain two decades ago:  a power grab by the party's ruling elite at the expense of the grassroots.  I hear you saying "But Blair brought Labour back to power by making it ELECTABLE!" The truth is, Labour returned to power in 1997 because the Conservative government, after 18 years in power, had finally become unelectable.  If Stalin had been leading Labour in 1997, they still would have returned to power.  And New Labour has far less to show for the next thirteen years in power than Clement Atlee's postwar "old Labour" government accomplished in just six years.

IMHO no party ever won an election by moving to the center. You win elections by moving the center to you.  Show me a party that's moving "to the center," and I'll show you a party that isn't moving to anything, that's only moving away from something.