On The Case Of The Extreme Center - Why the Left Must Become Its Best Enemy

We are in the Extreme Centre, the radical middle. That is our position - Pierre Trudeau

In a youtube video shorter than five minutes the late great David Graber identified the core political problem of our generation, something that he labels the “extreme center”. The extreme center has a rather simple definition. The Extreme Center is the established neoliberal order trying to defend a failed political system that was based on mediocrity, “concepts of a plan” and the attack of another.  This essay will seek to explore what has led us to this situation: Donald Trump and Democrats incompetence. Followed by some key thinking around the issue and finally why the rise of Zohran Mamdani provides what Zizek calls for the alternative left. 

First we must define what the alternative left is. When Zizek calls for an alternative left, he means a left wing willing to criticize supposedly left wing governments. A great example is the fact that Maduro's failures in Venezuela have been pinned on the left and has led the right to picture themselves as heroes. Instead we must be capable of separating ourselves and criticizing both the extreme center and phoney left wing imposters. Is there not a lack of the alternative left both in Canada and the United States right now? This essay was inspired by a rather comical situation, recently 47th president Donald Trump passed what he called “The Big Beautiful Bill” which cuts health care, food stamps and social security to everyday Americans providing a tax break for the ultra wealthy. Now, this is not surprising from Donald Trump and for once as a writer my issue is not with the right wing of politics but instead the supposed left. “The Big Beautiful Bill” did not come to existence overnight, instead it is the result of months of debates, votes and democratic process, so what have the democrats done to combat it? A whole lot of nothing, at most just theatrics. For me it reminds me of when as a kid, I was told as a goalkeeper the worst thing a goalkeeper could do is not dive for a save, even if they had no chance of saving the ball. “Just move and look like you’re doing something.” That seems to be the identity of the extreme center led by their leader Chuck Schumer a State Senator who until recently was the senate leader of the democratic party and often criticized for not doing enough to stop the republicans . The senate majority leader did nothing more than call the “The Big Beautiful Bill” the Big Betrayal in his tweets and press releases. The climax was when on the day of the voting he released a tweet saying “I just forced Republicans to delete their ridiculous bill name. It’s no longer named the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Nothing about this bill is beautiful—it’s a betrayal to American families, and it’s undeserving of such a stupid name.” Let's investigate this further to see why it exemplifies the extreme center. Instead of actually providing an alternative for his people, all Chuck Schumer did was to pretend to dive. Changing the name of the bill, changes nothing and yet the democrats see that change as a win for themselves. It is undeniable that it is not a big beautiful bill, most people agree with Chuck Schumer, but as an elected representative for his people there has to be more effort to change the bill then just changing the name. To put it in a Zizek doctor's joke “ Sir you have stage 5 cancer, but to make it more bearable we are now calling it a cold.” Yet, this moment is unfortunately the definition of the extreme center, a political system that is crumbling and only defence seems to be to present itself as the sane alternative to the rise of right wing populism.

Another example is my home nation of Canada. In 2025 the Canadian Liberals were faced with an election that seemed like it was going to be the nail on the coffin of the Liberal party. Their leader of ten years Justin Trudeau had just resigned, right wing populist Pierre Polievere was surging in the polls and the mandate of the Canadian seemed to be “We want an alternative to the Liberal party.” Now due to tariff threats, Donald Trump's 51st talks and Liberals being the party of the Status Quo most importantly the migration of progressive NDP voters to the liberals they survived the threat. The progressive voters were practicing “Smart Voting” which is defined as “the practice of not voting for your favourite candidate but instead voting for the candidate who stands the best chance of defeating your enemy” So with NDP voters fed up and now adopting a mentality of a vote is earned not given and Conservatives such as Andrew Lawton who has a disgusting record of bigotry the days of the extreme center seem limited, so why then have we stuck around with the extreme center? What are our next steps, what are our alternatives?

We will use another great Zizek joke to explain our adherence to the extreme center. “There is a doctor, a great doctor. The doctor who is proudly an atheist will debate and explain to anyone why believing in made up ideas for comfort is wrong. One day the doctor must host an important conference in his home, one by one his colleagues walk in and notice a horseshoe on his door for good luck, but the doctor does not believe in that nonsense right? He is much too intelligent to believe in it, so one of his colleagues says “Doctar, why do you have a horseshoe?  You mustn't actually believe it brings you luck” The doctor laughs and says “My friend that is the great part! The person who sold it told me it brings you luck regardless if you believe in it or not!”  Is that not the extreme center? Many of us no longer believe in it, we haven't for years. The Occupy Wall Street protests were 20 years ago, each year you see more attacks on the extreme center, but its survival is not based on if people believe in it, instead it is based on if people believe it can still provide them benefits even if they no longer believe in the neoliberal dream. So when we see Chuck Schumer changing the name of a bill, we should not be surprised. Instead we should recognize that, that is what the extreme center has always been a horseshoe that is there for decorations. When Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential debate said that he had “concepts of a plan” to fix healthcare in the United States he rightfully got criticized by the extreme center, yet is that not what the extreme center often does? When asked to fix something, Mark Carney, Hillary Clinton or Chuck Schumer (whoever you personally relate to the extreme center) will answer something like this “We are continuing to prepare a plan to combat this issue, we are consulting with top experts in the field and will continue to serve our people.” (To use a very local example, this is why the Young and Eglinton construction has lasted 12 years when it was supposed to only last 1.) The extreme center does not have to do anything, instead their survival instinct as shown is on the failure of the right wing.

Which is where the other problem enters, the right wing for better or worse has been successful recently. To quote Zizek again (He is to me, what Hegel is to him). “Marine Le Pen has also promised to do in France: a combination of anti-austerity measures- social transfers no leftist party dares to consider- plus the promise of order and security that asserts national identity and pledges to deal with the immigrant threat. Who can beat this combination?” Beating this combination is not easy because it is undeniable that it benefits the common man, which is why we have entered the funny situation where the working class is more and more often represented by the right and the elites are represented by the “left”. Many of my friends who work working class positions in Canada (construction, general labourers and landscapers) were incredibly enthusiastic by the thought of Pierre Poilievre winning the election he represented to them what Marine Le Pen represented to the French working class a politician willing to stand up for a national identity, meanwhile lowering their cost of living and the promise of “common sense” (ignoring blatant hate from Le Pen and Poilievre, a lack of understanding of foreign affairs and some more charisma and less arrogance) France and Canada would look very different today. Yet the extreme center is refusing to change, instead it is gloating. Often times my intellectual friends who voted liberal would look down on my working class friends for being so “dumb” to vote for a party that doesn’t represent their interests and although this is true, the Conservative party and Le Pens RN does not represent the needs of the working class neither do the Liberals or LREM. Yet many of these liberal supporters are blind to this fact, and when they are confronted with the idea they are disgusted with what you are accusing them of. What some Conservatives know, no liberal will admit The Extreme Center is not in it for you.

Is the extreme center not what Jacques Derrida alludes to in The Politics of Friendship when he says “The misuse of the term democracy? Do these look like caricatures-- and precisely because they resemble them- constitute the worst enemy of what they resemble?” What does it mean to resemble a democracy? A great example would be Elon Musk “America Party”. This party which was created after Elon Musk posted on his privately controlled media platform X a poll asking if the American people wanted more than a two party system. Any American is able to identify the democratic answer to be a yes but Elon Musk resembles democracy, he is not. The richest man ever, who controls his media, mistreats his workers and splashes large amounts of money to sway elections is the difference of democracy. Another example is when The extreme center tries its best to resemble a democracy, especially when it comes to telling leftists to “vote blue no matter who” in the United States or to smart vote in Canada but both these practices are extremely undemocratic in nature especially when you consider this. In June 2025 Democratic- Socialist Zohran Mamdani who just a couple months ago was just a state assemblyman fighting for his local people defeated long time extreme center establishment figure Andrew Cumeo to become the democratic candidate for mayor of New York City. Now multiple things are interesting about this. First the same democrats that often resemble democracy (as Derrida's says) and call for us to “Vote blue no matter who” have refused to endorse the democratic candidate for mayor, often time they cite the fact that they have not met him, or worked with him but instead it is because of a core issue. Zoharn Mamandi is the biggest threat to the extreme center we have seen so far. Many leftist believe that right wing populism or fascism must be defeated by attacking the right, but this is wrong. The right-wing will be the right-wing no matter what we do, that is not our answer. Our energy, focus and criticism must be focused on the left wing or on the extreme center. Zizek was right when he pointed out that the failure of Maduro in Venezuela has often been used as a battle cry for the right, but why not the left? We must focus on criticism of so called neo-liberal left parties and that is exactly what Mamandi had such a unique chance to do, with the republican candidate for mayor already defeated Mamandi had the chance to focus on our real enemy, the extreme center. Oftentimes the extreme center calls for a return to politics, where different parties can be friends and our lives are not shaped by politics, do not return to this fantasy land, it would be the best gift we can give them. Instead we must follow Mamandi's example and challenge the extreme center, because the left will not survive meanwhile it is in this toxic marriage with the establishment where it tells us to vote for their candidate when it is convenient and robs ours (Such as Bernie in 2016) when it works for them. To finish this with a quote from The Politics of Friendships “If you want a friend, you must wage a war  on him and in order to wage war you must be capable of it. Capable of having a best enemy. When the left becomes victorious it will be after we become our best enemy.