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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (25086)	7/25/2006 1:45:16 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541373

If the two parties represent left and right, it seems to me the non-affiliated voters are the center. But that is just one way to define the term, I suppose. Except for the non-affiliated voters on the Dem side who have given up on it as too much in hock to big money to do anything serious about universal health care, serious individual and community planning for such when their work place is outsourced, reverse the give away of tax money to the wealthy, etc.. That is, in the customary way of cutting the electoral pie, those who are further left. and the non-affiliated voters on the Rep side who have given up on it as too much in hock to big money to do anything serious about immigration and/or stem cell research (once Bush is out of office) and/or any number of things when Bush I was president. And, mirror image of above, those who are further right.

To: Dale Baker who wrote (25086)	7/25/2006 1:46:07 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 541373

it seems to me the non-affiliated voters are the center. But that is just one way to define the term, I suppose. That's one way--unaffiliated. But then we could just call them "unaffiliated," couldn't we. If the two parties represent left and right Or, as the parties move further to the fringes, we could just call them "moderates." They're left or right oriented at some level, just circumspect. (formerly known as "conservative" <g>) Or you could use what I infer to be John's definition when he calls us, particularly me, centrists, which is actively opposed to fringism. I take up arguments against balmy ideas and partisanship (my definition, John) on both ends of the spectrum with equal vigor because succoring them isn't healthy for the country, but I sure don't consider myself a centrist. Call us "rationals." My own ideology is strongly libertarian, but I realize that my utopia won't happen and I try to concurrently support what is realistic. Call us "realists."

To: Dale Baker who wrote (25086)	7/28/2006 9:19:46 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541373

If you isolate some particular political idea, and some range of attitudes about that idea, you might be able to identify a center. You could also take two coalitions or groups (like Democrats and Republicans) and assign the center to be somewhere in between them. But I don't think there is some intrinsic center. The midpoint between different alternatives may be called the center but what alternatives you provide or what issues you consider determines where the center would be. If you try to pick all issues and groups, or even all issues of some importance and all groups with any significant level of support I think its to complex to really have a center.