The Mandarin at the Heart of the Vital Center
As an ideal defining America's post-World War II politics, the "vital center" faded long before the demise of its most articulate proponent, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. But the historian's death last week, at 89, recalls both the achievements and the shortcomings of a vision that guided America through the opening decades of the Cold War and arguably, in a lesser way, to its end.
The son of a Harvard historian and a lifelong liberal, Schlesinger garnered every major award in his field. He chronicled presidencies, charted political cycles, warned against the rise of an "imperial presidency," and deplored the shift from the melting pot to multiculturalism. Known as much for his association with JFK as for his 27 books, he was often criticized for an overly partisan reading of history. But was the vital center, a phrase Schlesinger coined in 1949, simply a liberal notion? Or did it express a more bipartisan outlook embraced by leaders who saw consensus building as the only way to fight a powerful adversary?
The answer, probably, is both. True to his New Deal principles, Schlesinger championed state intervention in the market economy, but his uncompromising stand against communism alienated him from many on the left and connected him with the tragic realism of those who saw the need to contain the Soviet threat—by force when necessary.
The center's collapse began with the Vietnam quagmire and mounting challenges from populist movements in both parties. While the antiwar left divided the Democrats, a different populist uprising made the Republican Party more southern, blue collar, and fiercely antigovernment. But the fatal blow to the weakening center came with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Bearing witness to the center's demise, Schlesinger remained firm about the need for a governing consensus. His last book assailed the current president for taking the Iraq war mandate as a warrant for reckless unilateralism—an admonition that now rings louder than ever.
This story appears in the March 12, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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