Centrist Rhetoric: The Production of Political Transcendence in the Clinton Presidency (review)

Antonio de Velasco's Centrist Rhetoric: The Production of Political Transcendence in the Clinton Presidency is both an insightful critique of a rhetorical strategy and, more broadly, a provocative meditation on the place of this strategy in a democratic polity. The rhetorical strategy in question is what de Velasco labels "centrist rhetoric"—a rhetoric that claims to transcend partisan politics, a third-space rhetoric that purports to rise above the to and fro of partisan debate. It is a rhetoric that stakes its claims in a purported disinterestedness. Drawing on Kenneth Burke's famous line, de Velasco argues that the centrist speaker is persuasive precisely because she "damns an opponent's motive by calling it political" and claims thereby to transcend political faction (8). As it was in Clinton's first term, such rhetoric remains a powerful and pervasive force in public life. Centrist Rhetoric is a sophisticated interrogation of this force, and it is well worth our collective attention.

Historically speaking, de Velasco argues, "Bill Clinton used the center as a complex, mostly tacit figure of argument to advance his political goals . . . between 1989 and 1996" (4). The vast majority of Centrist Rhetoric is dedicated to arguing this thesis, and on this measure, the text is insightful and enlightening. Chapter 1 reminds us that as Clinton rose to power in the early 1990s, he did so as the figurehead of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). A privately funded think tank, the DLC was the institutional site for the so-called New Democrats. Although the New Democrats are remembered for their opposition to the progressive left wing of the Democratic Party, de Velasco stresses that the New Democrats defined themselves in opposition to partisan politics as such. Believing that voters were dissatisfied with both parties, the DLC claimed the center. In the words of its founding Senator Sam Nunn, the "idea [of the DLC] was to 'move the party—both in substance and perception—back into the mainstream of American political life'" (21). In de Velasco's terms, this is centrist rhetoric.

Beginning with Clinton's keynote at the 1991 DLC convention, de Velasco convincingly argues that Clinton's first term was infused with the rhetoric of the New Democrats. Not only was the DLC keynote a turning point in his campaign, but also, and more importantly, the centrist rhetoric expressly advocated by the DLC remained Clinton's go-to rhetorical strategy for the next five years. The central chapters of the book, 2 through 4, demonstrate the various partisan agendas to which Clinton put centrist rhetoric. From appealing to alienated white voters, to attacking House Republicans in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, to Clinton's long-promised welfare reform, these chapters demonstrate the sheer flexibility and power of centrist rhetoric. They demonstrate that centrist rhetoric—a rhetoric that purports to rise above partisan politics—is in fact a powerful partisan resource. Indeed, this is the irony that drives Centrist Rhetoric: de Velasco is keenly attuned to the fact that the New Democrats remained Democrats to the end; he situates their insistence on a third-way, post-partisan politics as a rhetorical strategy for pushing their own agenda. De Velasco is at his best when he demonstrates the consistency, effectiveness, and deep irony with which Clinton wielded this rhetorical strategy. Indeed, on this level Centrist Rhetoric is outstanding: it is a critical record of Clinton's consistent recourse to a disingenuous rhetorical form.

The only reservation I have about de Velasco's historical argument is with regard to its scope. In de Velasco's telling, the realm of centrist rhetoric is confined to the first term of Clinton's presidency. He argues that he could not extend his analysis even to Clinton's second term because the Lewinsky scandal pushed Clinton's rhetoric in other directions (14). I disagree; one need only recall how the White House cast Clinton as an apolitical victim of...