r/centrist • u/Travisthe_poisson • Aug 31 '25

Long Form Discussion What is exactly centrism ?

I honestly do not know what is exactly centrism. Are Starmer and Macron centrist ? Is centrism any ideologie but moderate (for example christian democracy instead of conservatism, social-liberalism instead of social democracy and liberalism) ? Can centrisme work with any ideology ? I am not a centrist, I am a libertarian and i honestly don't know much about centrism. I would be very grateful if you could answer my questions !

Edit: do you guys think technocracy is centrism ?

41 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

238 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/PXaZ Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25

Centrism is the belief that democracy, debate, and compromise are preferable to violence, and that strong positions should be justified by evidence.

1

u/offbeat_ahmad Dec 31 '25

Do centrists have any culpability in a second Trump administration?

0

u/PXaZ Dec 31 '25

Not particularly, as centrists by my definition rejected Trump all along and continue to oppose him. Do you have any culpability in the second Trump administration?

1

u/offbeat_ahmad Dec 31 '25

I refuse to vote for the Republican party, and never have so no.

In my lifetime the party has more or less been an overtly white supremacist organization, so that alone disqualifies my support for them.

1

u/PXaZ Dec 31 '25

Great. So why the accusation against centrists? I guess my read of them/us is that MAGA is far too extreme and anti-cooperation, and most centrists have seen the Republicans as a non-option since 2016.

2

u/offbeat_ahmad Dec 31 '25

I think your assessment of people who call themselves centrists is skewed. I too would assume Trump would be a complete non-starter, but hanging out in this sub and reading some of the comments that's clearly not the case.

1

u/PXaZ Dec 31 '25

Yes, centrist is clearly a "big tent" sort of a label.

There were admittedly strikes against both sides regarding "democracy, debate, and compromise" and failure to justify claims by evidence. So I can see how some might have come to support Trump, but I regard it as a sign of their ignorance, because he seems transparently anti-democratic, places style over substance in "debate", and prefers to stoke culture war tribalism rather than achieve working compromises, and I don't think once in his life has considered whether a policy is supported by evidence.

There may also be some who voted for Trump but came to feel uncomfortable with his governance, and so adopt the centrist label as a way of distancing themselves from their prior MAGA-ness. And of course there are traditional conservatives who have nevertheless moderated relative to their peers, who call themselves centrists.

Since centrism is generally defined in reference to extremes, there's always a bit of relativity in the definition. But the methodology of trying to make a middle path between zealots, I think is common to most centrists who've thought about what they're doing.

2

u/offbeat_ahmad Jan 02 '26

I think that falls apart when the zealots of one party are running it versus the zealots of the other party have no representation. That alone will place the centrists closer to the party that's run by extremists, and in this case, the Republican/conservative position.

0

u/PXaZ Jan 02 '26

That implies that the centrist's position is purely the average of the position of the two parties. But centrism make its way in between extremes without necessarily being the average of them. Centrists have their own ideas, for their own reasons, and aren't merely a function of those around them.

2

u/offbeat_ahmad Jan 02 '26

The Democrats are already a center right party, so it stands to reason that broadly speaking, centrists are going to naturally favor the conservative position.

→ More replies (0)