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The Radicals Of The Middle

By Kleinheider Posted on July 8, 2008 at 5:58 pm

There’s a difference between moderates and centrists:

“Moderates” or “centrists” are two very different things. For instance, libertarians and populist Lou Dobbs supporters would both be smack dab in the middle of any linear conception of politics - these days, both are about equally likely to support the Dems as they are the Republicans on any given issue, and neither could be remotely consider “moderate.” But the views of libertarians and populists are almost completely opposite to each other. This is equally true of many - probably even most - of the other groups in the so-called “center.” By “moving to the center,” a politician isn’t necessarily winning over the support of many of those groups, and may even wind up hurting his standing with a majority of those groups.

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3 Responses to “The Radicals Of The Middle”

  1. joe lance writes
    July 8th, 2008 10:01 pm

    What makes it more confusing is when you have a guy nominated by the Libertarian Party to run for President that sounds an awful lot like Lou Dobbs on occasion….

  2. Sean Braisted writes
    July 9th, 2008 8:32 am

    This is simply the problem with having a one-dimensional view of political ideology. The two-dimensional graphs, which include libertarian and authoritarian are much more accurate.

  3. mushin no shin » Blog Archive » Yes We Can (Tap Your Phone) writes
    July 10th, 2008 10:49 pm

    […] No, I’m not surprised by Obama’s shift to the center, and particularly the capitulation on FISA. I am disappointed, not because he went to the center, but because he went to the wrong center. […]

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