What Is Centrism?

Wikipedia provides a definition: "In politics, centrism usually refers to the political ideal of promoting moderate policies which land in the middle ground between different political extremes. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of Left-Right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between left-wing politics and right-wing politics. However, there is arguably more than one dimension to politics, so even the centre has its own radicals as exemplified by radical centrist politics."

Wikipedia's definition of centrism continues: "An alternate definition is to assume that the two poles in question (e.g., Left/Right) are well-defined, and then (i) define as 'centrist' any position which the Left considers too far Right and the Right considers too far Left, and (ii) define as a 'Centrist' any person who self-identifies more with those positions than either the Left or the Right. The weakness in this argument is that it is difficult to unambiguously and objectively define both poles at once, but that difficulty affects all political definitions, not just centrists. In practice, the two poles can only be well-defined in a specific place at a specific time, since they differ from place to place and change over time. Thus, 'centrism' itself means different things in different places (depending on the local political spectrum) and changes over time. For example, ideas that were considered extremist 200 years ago (such as democracy and universal suffrage) are considered centrist today - while other ideas that were considered centrist 200 years ago (such as slavery and racism) are considered extremist today."

I would define centrism someone differently. I believe it is a mix of liberal and conservative views that puts an individual somewhere in the 40%-60% category (i.e., the middle quintile) when that person's conservatism or liberalism is ranked. A bona fide centrist should be able to name at least 10 issues where he or she is conservative and at least 10 issues where he or she is liberal. Even a right-leaning centrist (moderate-conservative) or a liberal-leaning centrist (moderate-liberal) should be able to name at least 7 issues where he or she takes the other side's position and agree with that other side about 1/3 of the time.

I am a moderate-conservative in ideology. I am a staunch fiscal conservative, (87% conesrvative on economic issues), social moderate (43% conservative, 37% liberal, and 20% unclassifiable on social issues), and a foreign policy moderate (41% conservative, 24% liberal, and 35% unclassifiable on foreign policy issues). However, I suppose I am centrist in my politics. In last year's mid-term elections, 58% of my ballot went to Republican candidates and 42% went to Democratic candidates. However, I voted in last year's Democratic primary. In 2004, I voted in the Republican primary but in the general election I have 56% of my ballot to Democratic candidates and 44% to Republican candidates. And I was probably a rare Bush-Obama voter in my home state of Illinois in 2004. If the Libertarians ever got their act together, that party would probably get my vote most of the time. There hasn't been a decent Libertarian (national, state, or local) on my ballot since 2000.