Many of us like to be viewed as political centrists because we don’t relate to what we see as the extreme views on either side of the spectrum; the dreaded right or left wingers! I know I viewed myself as a centrist years ago probably mostly to avoid confrontation with either side. Maybe I was just apathetic, or too busy in my career; I wasn’t too interested in politics. I also think it gives us the idea that we are more prone to compromise and bringing people together if we are in the middle. Maybe it does.
But in my case I am now accused often of being a right winger! And I haven’t changed my views a bit! What happened?
It is my ideology! Mine hasn’t changed from how I was raised many years ago. I have not subscribed to progressive ideas and as the world has moves left I now find myself on the far right in some issues! I think that could be said of a lot of us “right wingers” who refuse to go with the flow. Many of us have Judeo Christian beliefs in certain truths that have existed for many years, but seem to have gone out of style with many, especially some of the media. We are viewed as old fashioned, or uninformed hicks by some of them. Just because we don’t subscribe to the new enlightened thinking!
But back to the centrists…… In light of the progressive movement I think many purported centrists have migrated their ideology to the left without even realizing it. If one wants to be in the middle one has to go with flow to stay in the middle. As the political and cultural climate moves either way centrists must also move to stay in the middle. That may be good to be engineers of compromise, but are we simply changing our values over time?
That is not to say that change is bad; we must make some changes to adapt to new developments that need fixing. But I choose to hold on to core values that have worked for centuries and accept change that incorporates those values.
If that makes me a right winger so be it!
You are a liberal right winger compared to some i know, but not what i woudl call a Centrist as they would vote for either party. Not that won wouldn’t vote for a Democrat if they had a good program, but seldom do they have a program that doesn’t include entitlements, which since you have worked for everything you have Entitlements are wrong to you.
I generally oecjbt to the terms “extremist” and “moderate.” Moderation in pursuit of justice is indeed no virtue. Extremism in defense of liberty is an oxymoron. There are complete nut cases, like Glenn Beck, and cynical manipulators, like Rush Limbaugh, but they aren’t “extreme” Republicans or conservatives, they are lunatics or snake oil salesmen.I also oecjbt to calling Rwandan Hutus who declined to participate in genocide “moderates.” This would imply that genocide is acceptable, in moderation. To call genocidaires “extremists” is to suggest that there are “extreme Hutus” and “less extreme Hutus.” There is no such thing. Or is the critique, too much genocide is over-doing it?