Coli centrists, what's so great about centrism: come in here and sell us on your political leaning

[Professor Emeritus]

this is a blatant lie

i'll tell you one good thing about being a centrist; you get to look at both parties objectively

Center is not synonymous with objective breh.

 

[OfTheCross]

this is a blatant lie

i'll tell you one good thing about being a centrist; you get to look at both parties objectively

I wasn't forced and know several people that opted out

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

yeah, no shyt. you're talking about "forcing'"

so which party was forcing the vaccine? forcing masks? forcing businesses to close? and all for barely more effective results than the party that just left people alone?

just keeping your point in perspective

no one was forced to take a vaccine, just like we have vaccine requirements to attend public schools, there was a requirement for public employees to be vaccinated, just like you can go private or home schooled to avoid vaccinating your kids, you can get a job in the private sector or become self employed to avoid the vaccine

requiring masks indoors absolutely helped stop the spread, and it was businesses that required masking as they didnt want to pay the fines or be closed due to unmasked patrons - they chose capitalism, preserve/maximize profits at all costs, over your freedumb

but you need to get over covid mandates, no one cares that it was harder for you to procure hookers with dive bars closed

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Thread gon get avoided by hlnbc like the plague. After all, centrists are cowards with zero conviction…..

Some of the most devout centrists in HL are TLR posters moreso than they are HL posters. And when TLR posters come in they're often agreeing with the HL centrists more than the principled HL posters. One of the classic examples posted in this thread already just a little above you.

 

[the cac mamba]

no one was forced to take a vaccine, just like we have vaccine requirements to attend public schools, there was a requirement for public employees to be vaccinated, just like you can go private or home schooled to avoid vaccinating your kids, you can get a job in the private sector or become self employed to avoid the vaccine

or, you could live in a state where republicans just left you the fukk alone, and didnt treat you like a child

 

[the cac mamba]

Center is not synonymous with objective breh.

im referring to the shilling and inability to criticize the democrats, that we see from a lot of these posters

as an independent, its refreshing to call out the bullshyt from both parties

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

or, you could live in a state where republicans just left you the fukk alone

you do know these were all local mandates? the state didn't make the decisions, and pretty much every medium to large city had mandates at some point, red and blue alike, but please feel free to cheerlead the protocol of 2600 person towns

 

[Jalether]

im referring to the shilling and inability to criticize the democrats, that we see from a lot of these posters

as an independent, its refreshing to call out the bullshyt from both parties

As long as the smoke is proportional. I have often found both siders to have significantly more smoke for dems than they do the literal fascist party known as maga GOP

 

[Dave24]

There's little evidence of that. Reagan, Bush, and Trump all won presidencies by running to the right of their opponents. Bobby Kennedy (R.I.P.) and Obama ran to the left and were extremely popular doing it. Meanwhile, the Dems and Republicans both have pushed a LOT of centrists over the last 20 years (Kerry, McCain, Romney, Clinton, Jeb and company) and the only one who succeeded was Biden, who was pretty much handed the election without campaigning on substance or personality.





Can you name ANYONE who ran as a centrist and then improved things for the better on their own initiative when they entered office? As opposed to being forced in that direction by public sentiment?

Feels like more often we see presidents like Clinton and Obama, who rather than running center and then moving left to "change things for the better", actually governed further to the center-right than they had ever campaigned on.

@Rhakim for the 2000 election did both Bush and Gore run as centrists? Also in 2004 did Bush run as a centrist?

 

[No1]

This. People struggle with the idea that voters are largely self interested and align with what they feel is best.

Nobody struggles with any of this. Both you and @dora_da_destroyer and everyone else in here who is viewed as centrist or moderate are failing to answer the question. A belief system has coherent organizing principles. Your answers are literally proving the point that centrism isn’t a coherent belief system. It’s literally a belief system that says I’m going to take some good ideas from progressives and some bad ideas from conservatives and mix them together because I believe that the best answer is middle ground. Self-interest is a conservative position and thinking of the collective is a progressive position. To the extent that someone accepts ideas from both factions it just really means they’re a self-interested person who can be persuaded to do something that benefits everyone but with the express limit of how much discomfort they’re willing to stomach. In other words, they’re actually conservatives. The whole idea of being a progressive is seeing a unified destiny and purpose with others. The progressive movement has failed to be as successful in recent decades because white people cannot be convinced to see a destiny connected to people of color.

 

[mc_brew]

no one was forced to take a vaccine, just like we have vaccine requirements to attend public schools, there was a requirement for public employees to be vaccinated, just like you can go private or home schooled to avoid vaccinating your kids, you can get a job in the private sector or become self employed to avoid the vaccine

requiring masks indoors absolutely helped stop the spread, and it was businesses that required masking as they didnt want to pay the fines or be closed due to unmasked patrons - they chose capitalism, preserve/maximize profits at all costs, over your freedumb

but you need to get over covid mandates, no one cares that it was harder for you to procure hookers with dive bars closed

that clown still has ptsd over a 2 year period of a once in a lifetime pandemic.... he's actually comparing two years to a complete lifetime of policies republicans want to impose on people.... you can't make this up.....

 

[LOST IN THE SAUCE]

im referring to the shilling and inability to criticize the democrats, that we see from a lot of these posters

as an independent, its refreshing to call out the bullshyt from both parties

Progressives don't criticize Democrats? That's what you believe?

 

[mc_brew]

Nobody struggles with any of this. Both you and @dora_da_destroyer and everyone else in here who is viewed as centrist or moderate are failing to answer the question. A belief system has coherent organizing principles. Your answers are literally proving the point that centrism isn’t a coherent belief system. It’s literally a belief system that says I’m going to take some good ideas from progressives and some bad ideas from conservatives and mix them together because I believe that the best answer is middle ground. Self-interest is a conservative position and thinking of the collective is a progressive position. To the extent that someone accepts ideas from both factions it just really means they’re a self-interested person who can be persuaded to do something that benefits everyone but with the express limit of how much discomfort they’re willing to stomach. In other words, they’re actually conservatives. The whole idea of being a progressive is seeing a unified destiny and purpose with others.

but how do progressives get people to go along with their ideas if they are completely opposed to them.....? governing country isn't just about what progressives want, it is about the entire country....

white people cannot be convinced to see a destiny connected to people of color.

true, very true....

 

[LOST IN THE SAUCE]

that's not true, it's about splitting the difference between the extremes, unfortunately the right is more extreme and has more gravitational pull, so some conversations shift right. but overall our electoral system at the national/congressional level gives the right much more power, the left can't shift the country left by all congregating in denver, austin, SF, NY, LA, Seattle, ATL, and every other blue enclave leaving damn near every other county/district to the right. congressional districting (and the electoral college) favors the right...so "the left" either needs to move (geographically) or we need to redesign our entire political system and you know that's not happening or dems who have a shot at keeping those districts from going full tea party are going to have to be centrists (this comes in many different forms)

That's first half is true, but none of that negates what I said.

I disagree with the notion that Dems are 'going to have to be centrists.' I think going along with that narrative is simply accepting that the system is compromised and being unwilling to fix what is clearly broken. That goes against my principles and I'm not going to do that.

 

[Pressure]

Nobody struggles with any of this. Both you and @dora_da_destroyer and everyone else in here who is viewed as centrist or moderate are failing to answer the question. A belief system has coherent organizing principles. Your answers are literally proving the point that centrism isn’t a coherent belief system. It’s literally a belief system that says I’m going to take some good ideas from progressives and some bad ideas from conservatives and mix them together because I believe that the best answer is middle ground. Self-interest is a conservative position and thinking of the collective is a progressive position. To the extent that someone accepts ideas from both factions it just really means they’re a self-interested person who can be persuaded to do something that benefits everyone but with the express limit of how much discomfort they’re willing to stomach. In other words, they’re actually conservatives. The whole idea of being a progressive is seeing a unified destiny and purpose with others. The progressive movement has failed to be as successful in recent decades because white people cannot be convinced to see a destiny connected to people of color.

Or perhaps we aren't centrists.

If people fail to fit within your neat little boxes, perhaps it's your box that's the issue.

Based on my views I safely qualify at center left on my values. But I also understand the value of pragmatism and compromise to get things accomplished in a democracy.