Vital center
"Vital center" refers to the contest between democracy and totalitarianism, not to contests within democracy between liberalism and conservatism, not at all to the so-called "middle of the road" preferred by cautious politicians of our own time [Schlesinger, p. 13].
Schlesinger's argument follows: capitalism and technology have detached modern man from his moorings. Searching for a new solidarity, he finds this in communism. Still, it has been a totalitarian military dictatorship run by the Communist Party since Lenin "exposed Marxist socialism to the play of... influences which divested it of its libertarian elements."[1] Instead of this totalitarian road, strong and interventionist liberalism is needed, New Deal-style, in the tradition of American leadership in the liberal world order and of the national reforms of Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt. This would be practical and anti-utopian and "restore the balance between individual and community." [Seymour, p. 122].
Seymour, R. (2008). The Liberal Defense of Murder. London: VERSO.
Schlesinger, A. M. (1949). The vital Center: The Politics of Freedom. Introduction to the Transaction Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.