Today more than ever, American politics is dependent on pushing people away from each other. However, in the wake of the chaos, a group called the Centrists has become increasingly prevalent in both the media and on the floor of Congress.
A Centrist seeks the middle ground. They aim to balance both left-wing and right-wing viewpoints with moderate, pragmatic solutions rather than extreme ones that further the issue. They focus on finding solutions that appeal to both sides, rather than siding with one or the other. Yet, centrism still has a problem. The problem actually stems from what both parties want. Before Donald Trump reshaped Republicans to be more aggressive and nationalist, Centrism worked. What gave it its effectiveness was the ability to compromise from the two main parties. Between moderate liberals and conservatives. If one side becomes unrealistic and unreasonable, then they shouldn’t be accommodated for their asks. We can provide an example. Donald Trump wants to end birthright citizenship, and Democrats staunchly oppose this. There is no middle ground on this. You either support an unconstitutional argument that would negatively affect millions by revoking citizenship, or you believe it’s unreasonable.
The middle option does not exist, and shouldn’t exist. This does not mean you are mandated to support one side or the other. This issue isn’t Republican and Democrat, it’s Trump versus those on the right. If you choose to give attention to these issues, you only further the chance of Donald Trump getting his way. Even if Trump continues to try to work around the system, centrism may actually only encourage people to remove it. Many individuals in the United States want an overhaul of the current system, and many believe our system is corrupt. And to an extent, they would be correct. Many politicians don’t actually put our nation first. They put themselves first and don’t represent who elected them. But maintaining that system by working with two increasingly radical sides doesn’t fix anything; it only prolongs the suffering of a nation and justifies both parties to keep going.
American Centrism doesn’t want reform or change. It wants to uphold the status quo and not change how things work. Put simply, it is the prejudice of people who are honest. Yet even as it is fought for, centrism itself has no clear ideology that dictates or directs its actions. Centrism has no clear goals or any real core values. It doesn’t give anything to fight for, and instead relies entirely on the other two parties’ unwillingness to cooperate with each other. Without the two parties fighting, Centrists don’t have a purpose. They exist only as a way for the two parties to continue to argue, and as stated before, their purpose is no longer just, or applicable. In relation to how it has no clear identity, it also has no way of avoiding extremism. If both parties begin moving further away from the center, to become more extreme and less moderate, American Centrism moves with it. It may seem like they should move for pure moderate ideas, but they don’t. The compromises they provide become more and more drastic, and begin dismissing the Constitution, much like what’s happening now. We can use the idea of removing the 22nd Amendment as an example. The compromise to it would be to remove it, but add strict limitations to the president to balance the role of the president. But that’s only agreeing with Republicans, not compromising. It still gives them exactly what they want. They may continue to use the blame game to continue their agenda. Political Journalism often requires the writer to be neutral and only report the facts in a situation. But oftentimes, neutrality isn’t an option.
In 2009, Mitch McConnell, after Obama won the election, said, “Our top priority over the next two years is to deny President Obama a second term.” The next year, republicans held the debt ceiling hostage and caused a government shutdown. Many in the media blamed both Democrats and Republicans, but the blame resided in Republicans. American Centrism blames both parties whenever there is a clear issue, even if one side is in the right. It makes both parties look worse, or in some cases, better than what they actually are.
Yet even as the parties fight, oftentimes people may use centrism to avoid politics to begin with. A small portion of people who claim to be centrists only say this to avoid politics altogether. It sums up all of politics as “Both sides are equally bad” and leaves it at that. It provides a cheap way to avoid politics, rather than finding solutions that may truly fix an issue. American Centrism provides a way for people to seem involved, without looking deeper into the problems they discuss, making true centrists look bad.
