The term The Vital Center was first coined by Harvard historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., in his 1949 book of that title. He himself objects to the domestic use of the phrase, though:
"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. The middle of the road is definitely not the vital center: it is the dead center. Within democracy the argument adheres to FDR's injunction to move always "a little to the left of center."
— Arthur Schlesinger, from "Introduction to the Transaction Edition" of The Vital Center (page xiii, 1998 edition)
U.S. President Bill Clinton started to use the phrase "vital center" in speeches given during his term of office. Schlesinger wrote an article for Slate magazine noting that Clinton hoped to appropriate this term to mean "middle of the road" or something that his "DLC fans" might prefer its meaning to be, which would locate it "somewhere closer to Ronald Reagan than to Franklin D. Roosevelt". In the Slate article, Schlesinger strongly rejected this interpretation of the term, and reiterated his argument from the 1998 introduction:
In my view, as I have said elsewhere, that middle of the road is definitely not the vital center. It is the dead center.
— Arthur Schlesinger, "It's My Vital Center", Slate magazine
Famous quotes containing the words vital and/or center:
“One theme links together these new proposals for family policy—the idea that the family is exceedingly durable. Changes in structure and function and individual roles are not to be confused with the collapse of the family. Families remain more important in the lives of children than other institutions. Family ties are stronger and more vital than many of us imagine in the perennial atmosphere of crisis surrounding the subject.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)
“Columbus stood in his age as the pioneer of progress and enlightenment. The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment, and it is peculiarly appropriate that the schools be made by the people the center of the day’s demonstration. Let the national flag float over every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)