The Political Philosophy of Mark Satin and the Radical Middle (Day Nine)

The featured article on Wikipedia today highlights the "American political theorist, author, and newsletter publisher," Mark Ivor Satin (born November 16, 1946).  "He is best known for contributing to the development and dissemination of three political perspectives – neopacifism in the 1960s, New Age politics in the 1970s and 1980s, and radical centrism in the 1990s and 2000s. Satin's work is sometimes seen as building toward a new political ideology, and then it is often labeled 'transformational', 'post-liberal', or 'post-Marxist'. One historian calls Satin's writing 'post-hip'"

Years ago I bought a little, yellow, marked-down book at a local bookstore in Huntington, West Virginia titled, The Radical Middle: The Politics We Need Now.  And unbeknownst to me at the time, Satin was not just another journalist with just another option.     

After a period of political disillusion, spent mainly in law school and practicing business law, Satin launched a new political newsletter and wrote a book, Radical Middle (2004). Both projects criticized political partisanship and sought to promote mutual learning and innovative policy syntheses across social and cultural divides. 

As well, 

Instead of defining politics as a means for creating the ideal society, as he did in New Age Politics, [Satin] defines radical middle politics as "idealism without illusions" – more creative and future-oriented than politics-as-usual, but willing to face "the hard facts on the ground". Rather than arguing that change will be brought about by a third force, he says most Americans are already radical middle – "we're very practical folks, and we're very idealistic and visionary as well."

In Radical Middle, Satin centers on Four Key Values to built a good society: (1) "maximize choices for all Americans," (2) "give every American a fair start," (3) "maximize every American's human potential," and (4) "help the peoples of the developing world." 

Instead of finding those [Four Key] values in the writings of contemporary theorists, Satin says they are just new versions of the values that inspired 18th-century American revolutionaries: liberty, equality, pursuit-of-happiness, and fraternity, respectively. He calls Benjamin Franklin the radical middle's favorite Founding Father, and says Franklin "wanted us to invent a uniquely American politics that served ordinary people by creatively borrowing from all points of view."