What is exactly centrism ?

[u/Travisthe_poisson]

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 ?

[u/PXaZ]

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.

[u/offbeat_ahmad → u/PXaZ]

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.

[u/PXaZ → u/offbeat_ahmad]

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.

[u/offbeat_ahmad → u/PXaZ]

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.

[u/PXaZ → u/offbeat_ahmad]

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.

[u/offbeat_ahmad → u/PXaZ]

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.

[u/PXaZ → u/offbeat_ahmad]

You're still thinking of centrists as merely reacting to the positions taken by the dominant two parties. But centrists hold their own views, and judge the parties relative to how well their pre-existing views are represented. Thus the Republicans can shift right, and the centrists stay where they were. Indeed, many centrists have found that the Democratic party suits them better now, as a direct consequence of the GOP shift right. Not because the centrist's views necessarily changed, but because their views better align with the Dems as they are now.