Full disclosure: I’m a staunch Democrat. I am probably the most anti-Trump man in America.
I’m going to come out and say this directly: this is one of the most insulting pieces of work I’ve ever seen written on Medium.
Centrism is not an ideology. Let’s get that out of the way. This piece is an argument about political moderation, not centrism. It makes me sick that centrists are being equated to political moderates (i.e., moderate liberal Democrats or moderate conservative Republicans) when that is clearly not the case. I have no issues with political moderates, however, political moderation is a deliberate political tactic that’s more personal than analytical.
Centrism is a fact-based, problem-solving approach governing and issues. Centrists understand that there are arguments that the American left make (social justice, human rights, the welfare state, interventionist economics) and the American right (too much government inference in the economy can be a problem and corporate income tax rates are far too high), and to not dismiss ideas on the grounds of ideology, but rather on the grounds of whether or not it makes any legitimate sense.
In its essence, centrism is similar to progressivism as it is not an ideology…but an approach. In truth, the only real difference the centrist approach and the progressive approach is that the centrist approach is not used as a tool to promulgate an ideology; progressivism (used overwhelmingly by social political liberals) actually does — not that there’s anything completely wrong with that so as long as progressivism is being used to worthwhile means (even racist political conservatives, such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, were both “progressives”).
True centrists don’t care about ideology. We care about facts, context, and reason, however, comfortable or uncomfortable they may be. We want to solve issues to solve issues, not out of political convenience, but out of a desire to make the world a better place and keep our society functional and accessible to all. Our approach to problem solving is not bound to political tribalism. We’re not trying to “stay above the fray” out of self-righteousness. We will tell you the truth and present you the facts the way it needs to be told, not out of liberal or conservative complacency.
Your argument is based upon a view that centrists are trying to perch themselves on a high horse; based upon a despicable argument that you cannot be a centrist and vehemently stand against the pile of trash that’s inhabiting the White House and the right-wing disease that has more than three-fifths of governorships and state legislatures as well as three branches of the federal government.
This idea that it has to be “left” versus “right” is what crippled the Democratic Party in the first place. As Democrats, we have to admit that we let our guard down. Voter turnout was mediocre in state elections and mid-term elections. This “civil war” of ideas is on two fronts — cultural and political. All the virulent conservative tribe did was divide and conquer and Democrats were too slow to respond. The response is not a “rebuilt Left”, but a rebuilt coalition party that is united more than it is divided.
