Both the Democrats and GOP have some good ideas, but never call me a ‘Centrist’ or ‘Moderate’

By Kent R. Kroeger (August 5, 2022)

Humours of an Election: scene 3, The Polling (William Hogarth (1697–1764) [This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or fewer.]

I get this question all the time: If you don’t love the Democrats or the Republicans, do you consider yourself a centrist, undecided, independent or moderate?

Not only is the answer, no, but I couldn’t be further from the ‘centrist,’ ‘undecided,’ ‘independent’ or ‘moderate’ labels.

I respect bold ideas and policies: Medicare for All. The end of our forever wars. Cancelling student debt. Aggressive policies to end our reliance on fossil fuels. A pro-nuclear energy policy. Ending the carried interest loophole. Less government. Lower taxes. A simple, flat national consumption tax.

Those are hardly centrist, undecided, independent or moderate positions. I’m all over the ideological map.

And the survey data reinforces this understanding of centrists, undecideds, independents and moderates: Like me, they are ideologically diverse. Writes analyst Lee Drutman for fiverthirtyeight.com:

“Anybody who claims to have the winning formula for winning moderate, independent or undecided voters is making things up. Perhaps more centrist policies will appeal to some voters in each of these categories — but so will more extreme policies.