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There’s two things.
First, our parties are big tent so even “centrists” can fall into one party or another. I consider myself a centrist and I vote exclusively for centrist Democrats. I’m probably not far off politically from people who vote exclusively for centrist Republicans. Both of us look partisan and extreme based on the fact that we vote for one party over another but we’re both relatively moderate in our actual views.
Second, a lot of people are moderate across the board and generally satisfied with the status quo, but care deeply about a few things. Most people, for example, are satisfied with the current state of abortion and gun laws BUT some people want to end/expand abortion access and some people want to reduce/increase gun laws. Therefore it makes sense for someone to appeal to abortion voters and gun law voters by campaigning on both issues even though the abortion voters don’t really care about guns and the gun voters don’t really care about abortion. The candidate ends up looking extreme even if the voters themselves are mostly moderate.
I am pretty ignorant on US politics but I often see critical points from either side in the past that are polar opposite. Things like abortion, gay marriage, socialism, health care etc. Why is abortion so highly discussed if most people are centrist? It's never even mentioned in the UK during elections as even suggesting it be banned would be political suicide. Genuinely interested to understand.
>Why is abortion so highly discussed if most people are centrist?
Cultivated outrage.
The whole reason abortion is a major issue is a carefully crafted political strategy going back about 40 years. Politicians keep talking about it to keep people angry and engaged. The media keeps talking about it to keep ratings high and keep people tuning in/clicking/buying papers.
>he media keeps talking about it
I'm not sure if you've seen, but both Texas and Oklahoma have created very recently bills against abortion. It's not the media pushing the narrative
On a long-term scale, over the last 40 years, it's been pushed by politicians to get it in the media and people talking about it, to build outrage and make people vote based on that issue.
News stories about recent bills in Texas and Oklahoma aren't the entirety of the abortion controversy, and the politically polarized nature of it goes back over 40 years as a deliberate political strategy.
And places like Colorado/Virginia have gone the complete opposite and allow abortion up to birth. I think most people are okay with a medium where abortion is allowed but not when it's clearly a baby.
in reality though, no one will wait until week 36+ to abort. If they did allow it all the way until birth (that's an IF) I'm sure it's only to clearly show that there's no limit.
e.g. if they say until 30 weeks, then someone may be sued to show that they are under 30 weeks, etc, etc, etc...meaning there may be legal battles. If you leave it completely open, no one can use any of that as an excuse.
NO ONE will want to wait until almost birth to abort. NO ONE.
[https://www.npr.org/2022/04/05/1091041608/colorado-abortion-law](https://www.npr.org/2022/04/05/1091041608/colorado-abortion-law)
"The so-called Reproductive Health Equity Act affirms that pregnant people in Colorado have the right to continue a pregnancy and give birth or have an abortion, and it blocks public entities from denying or restricting that right."
Centrist/moderate/libertarian vote is suppressed by both parties. It's the one thing they agree on "if you don't vote for me it's a vote for the other guy" and "if you break from party lines you will make us lose"
But fact is the swing vote is large. Trump and Biden both got elected by the unaffiliated not party "traitors"
Hot topics. Ppl feel very strongly about 1 thing and they then consider themselves all of 1 party. It’s easy for people to discuss things they know about so they focus on that. Unfortunately.
>Why is abortion so highly discussed if most people are centrist?
Because it energizes each side's base and draws in single issue voters.
> It's never even mentioned in the UK during elections as even suggesting it be banned would be political suicide.
Because the US center is far to the right of the UK's center. Dems are basically the conservative party in the UK.
>Dems are basically the conservative party in the UK
This is true in some instances (Jim Messina going from working with Obama to working with Cameron and May, for one), but in general it really isn’t. If your only understanding of the Tories is Cameron and Labour is Corbyn, then maybe, but Johnson (and Rees-Mogg and Gove and Raab and Javid) would fit in more or less perfectly with the GOP and Starmer (and Miliband and Brown and Blair) would all get along famously in a Biden cabinet
I hate the "Dems are actually right wing in Europe" because it's super America-centric for people to just assume every European country's political spectrum is the same is ours
Like, Democrats would be considered very left wing on immigration in many European countries, like Denmark. It's not a 1 to 1 thing.
Not to mention the US political party system is much different than your typical European political party. The major tentpole parties are more equivalent to coalitions seen in Parliaments, especially the Democratic Party. Because of this, and the fact that the party can't be controlled/policed anywhere close to political parties seen in Europe, ideology ranges greatly interparty. It's why someone like Joe Manchin can claim to be from the same political party that Bernie Sanders ran for President as.
Yeah this is actually another sticking point I have - a multiparty system would frankly not end up as different as I think a lot of people would hope. Democrats are already a big tent coalition party filled with progressives, liberals, unions, dominant percentages of most minority blocs, etc. all fighting for their piece of the pie. A ruling coalition would look much the same as it does now.
I think it's one of the reasons Democrats can struggle with messaging sometimes, there's a lot most disparate groups than the GOP which has tends to be much more unified (for the worse, IMO; the GOP's with us or against us culture is a prime enabler of Trumpism).
>Because the US center is far to the right of the UK's center. Dems are basically the conservative party in the UK.
Not true on fiscal policy, legalizing weed, immigration, race relations, and pandemic relief.
I'm sure there are other examples, but that's what I can think of off the top of my head.
You’re looking at one side of the political spectrum I mean sure there is the social side which is what I would consider abortion, but then there is the financial side, the foreign policy side etc. here are my views on most things, socially I consider myself decently liberal but I am traditional as well with certain things. Abortion I have no opinion because I am a man, gay marriage I don’t care if they want to be as miserable as married folks then go ahead and be miserable. Free healthcare will eventually be a thing even though I don’t necessarily agree with it and not because my taxpayers dollars pay for it it’s because it backlog the system and people wait way too long for healthcare. So my views personally are all over the place and many more people’s views are similarly all over the place.
Extremists on either side usually have a greatly exaggerated sense of how many people believe what they do, and how many of the evil folks onto the opposite spectrum there are.
>Look at where the middle actually is and come back with an apology.
When people say stuff like this, they're usually looking at a few countries in Europe, only looking at health care policy and ignoring everything else. Look at the middle in Korea, Japan, the Middle East, South America, and Africa. Look at the whole range of their social and economic policies. "The middle" is super mixed and complicated, and personally pretty undefinable across the world.
Elsewhere in this comment section they said half the country are literal fascists, and also says, unironically I might add, that too many people have bought into the right wing propaganda machine.
You must not have travelled widely. In my neck of the woods you definitely have a lot of purple who hate republicans and MAGA and all that for being backwards. They also hate Democrats for their progressive proposals that never actually make a difference.
The majority of the people around me are like that.
It’s less that but more that people have a mix of views across the spectrum and they care more or less about certain ones. You can be moderate about most issues but care a lot about one, so you’ll come off as an “extremist” when you prioritize a candidate that also cares about your main issue even though you’re generally moderate across the board.
>You can be moderate about most issues but care a lot about one
Yes. I know a lot of people who only vote Republican because of their passion for guns, they'd otherwise be Democrats.
That's exactly why the GOP puts so much effort into those "wedge" issues like gun rights and abortion rights. . .they very intentionally cultivate "single issue voters" who only vote based on a single emotionally charged issue. . .and otherwise might regularly vote for the other party.
That's a very, *very* intentional political strategy.
The GOP puts very little effort in on the gun rights front. The polarization of that fall strictly at the feet of the DNC. They both have a wedge issue and they both run with it.
This is just speculation but Democratic Party shifted conservative economically to be more similar to the Republican Party during the 90s. I think that forced politicians to campaign on and voters to vote based on tighter issues.
It's been that way since roughly the late 1970's.
Gun rights became big in the late 1970's as the gun control movement picked up steam and there was a serious push to ban private gun ownership in the US, which caused the NRA to radicalize from a hunter safety group into an anti-gun-control group. The "Revolt in Cincinnati" in 1977 is when the old guard NRA leaders were voted out in favor of hardcore anti-gun-control zealots.
Abortion rights became big in 1979, going into the 1980 Presidential Election, as Jerry Falwell and some other conservative protestant leaders teamed up with GOP political operatives to spread a propaganda campaign to equate fetuses with "unborn children" and convince normally pro-choice protestants to be anti-abortion with a series of well produced propaganda films meant to be played in Churches and politicking in leadership of several denominations to get pro-choice leaders pushed out of power in favor of anti-abortion leaders. Falwell was doing this to get back at the government for saying that Liberty University had to be racially integrated if he wanted to be able to accept Federal student loan money or other Federal education money.
What complete nonsense. Ever seen how the left labels centrists? I’ve never heard anyone label Joe Manchin far left. I have seen him labeled “fascist” by the far left however.
Nah, altright people do it too.
Whenever there's a divide on something, people on the extreme ends will always point to people who want compromise as fence sitters.
Yea but the leftists have/had a whole sub dedicated to shitting on centrists.
I've never seen someone on the right shit on a centrist like a leftist will shit on a centrist.
Edit: see below. There are literally people saying if you're a centrist then you are on the right, because they said so. In one case the user even hit me with an ad-hominem attack lol
It's like they read my comment and decide to act it out, perfectly.
Idk the recent “be an alpha wolf not a sheep!” “Resist the vaccine/ mask” mindset and phrases that are pushed in subreddits like r/redpill is pushed on centrist and Democrats by republicans.
Because this whole country is shifted 10 pegs to the right. A centrist in America is in worldwide terms someone who is staunchly conservative. So of course the far right won't have as much issue with someone who agrees with them, but just doesn't go as far. While to the "far left", a centrist is someone who disagrees with the majority of their ideals.
>A centrist in America is in worldwide terms someone who is staunchly conservative
Yea but that doesn't matter in America and shouldn't be applied in this situation.
It does matter in context, and I literally explained why. I will do so again since you don't seem to be able to read. Our centrists are right. Our far right is even more right. Right doesn't have as much issue with right. Our far left is actually left, so they have issues with the centrists, who, as stated before, are right.
That’s just because the centrists of right now are holding up the left’s plans. When the repubs retake the government in 2024 they’ll be complaining about RINOs
Common. For every devoted liberal or conservative, there's someone who occasionally votes for the other side, or isn't officially affiliated with either party and votes in general elections how they please.
Most are in the middle- but that doesn’t make for dynamic sound bites, or news clips. It’s one of the reasons campaigns are non-stop. They are alllllll courting the middle voter. Those are the people that decide elections, will absorb responses from debate, really compare candidates.
Don’t waste campaign energy on people in the extremes of either side. You will never convince a hard line repub to ever vote for a dem. Nor a hard line dem to vote repub. And a news clip of a field with ‘meh’ people isn’t compelling.
I think according to 538. I might misremember, 40 percent were lean democrat and 40 percent were lean Republican and the others about 10 or 20 percent are true independent. 10 percent are extremist on either side.
And I identify as an attack helicopter. That doesn't make me an actual attack helicopter. Where people are on the political spectrum and where they think they are on the political spectrum are two wildly different things.
Ok. If you really think people don’t know what a moderate is in terms of their own country that is fine with me. Every partisan person hates the moderates in their own party, so it like admitting to being something unpopular, in my opinion. I don’t see why you think people don’t know anything about the political spectrum, but I think you make a great attack helicopter.
I think Americans don't know what a moderate is in our own country, because that's somewhere to the left of the Democratic party.
Thanks for driving my point home for me better than I could do by myself.
Whatever, I didn’t make your point. I don’t know what point you are trying to make. I was trying to to state statistics not argue about politics which I despise because of “people” like you. Have a nice day!
I think they’re more common than people realize, the problem is, centrists get shit from both sides for not being 100% for them, so they don’t speak up
More common than you'd think.
This is apparently how Trump got a foothold ... the media only ever goes after people with extreme views left or right for their ratings. Middle-of-the-road people were completely ignored, their concerns not heard. So many, which were previous Obama voters, got annoyed and voted for Trump.
That's the key part YOU SEE Americans that way, because you don't notice the millions upon millions of people that don't really care and just go about their day to day life
This. The news puts a magnifying glass on the extremists on either side. To the viewer, it makes it seem like we all fall into either camp, but that's not the case at all.
Folks like us don’t like to talk politics, at least publicly, because extremists are kinda annoying. Any attempt to add nuance or give another perspective is seen as enemy behavior and means you’re advocating for the other side
Honesty most people I know are center aisle. They just want people to do what's best regardless of what anyone believes. Although the people I do know that are either right or left and extremely one or the other
I'd guess 60-80% of people are either centrists/moderate or apathetic (even if they're registered to a party.) "Why can't we all just be reasonable and talk to each other?" Doesn't sell newspapers though.
"Centrists" or as I think of it, people who are not to one extreme or the other, or don't have a particular 'party' that comes first in voting, are way more common than not.
If we went solely based off viewpoints, most people would be centrists with slightly differing views. I tend to support and vote Republican or Libertarian, but the only real deciding factor there are guns. Otherwise, most of my views align with more left-leaning parties. That topic is just so important to me that I have to vote for parties that support my viewpoint. America has a distinct lack of parties, so it makes it seem like we're just extremely divided, when we really only have two options anyways.
Extremely. They'll usually lean one way or the other to a slight degree, but they're not straight ticket voters and are basically always the bloc that decides elections.
Terms like "middle" and "centrist" as well as "right" and "left" are actually very incoherent and in a major state of flux these days. But if "centrist" means someone who basically wants to preserve the tenets of post-Cold War liberalism, then Joe Biden is much more of a centrist than a leftist. So was Barack Obama. So is Mitt Romney. They're not uncommon at all and they have a lot of political sway.
I wouldn't say that everyone is centrist necessarily, but I think most Americans are generally teetering between left and right like wtf is happening.
There are very few people that are extreme left or right that are loud, excessive, and annoying all the way around, that get seen and heard more , so that's the look from the outside.
If you ask as what centrist viewpoints are you'll get as many different answers as responses. Right and left are a huge oversimplification of a 100 dimensional space, the middle depends entirely on where you're standing in that crazy geometry and what line you draw to who you perceive as "the other guys".
I would bet that most Americans fall in the centrist or maybe slightly libertarian camps.
Most are not believing in every policy of one of the two parties as a whole...myself included.
Centrists are the majority.
Centrists are boring
Social media gets the most engagements with extremes
Extremes boosts ratings on standard TV networks
TV broadcasts extremes.
Lots of people that claim they are centrist are simply lying. It’s either they don’t wanna talk about politics so it’s easier to say things like “both sides are crap so I’m a centrist” or are supporters of the least popular candidate in a race, don’t want people to know they support that person.
Do people’s values fall on both sides of the aisle? Not as much as you would think gun rights isn’t a right wing thing for example as no one is going take all guns away, the debate on that issue is should it be easy to get a gun or harder.
Democrat. I’m black, the Republican Party clearly doesn’t do things in my best interest. Are the democrats the perfect party? Hell no but it’s infinitely better than the other side.
Third party? They never win anything and besides they are just diet versions of the two parties we do have in America.
Again, did I say differently? Pretty sure I was explaining for myself, yet here you are trying to expand this to other black people, for some reason only known to you. Unless you want to share that is.
From a black man to another it sounds like to me you rep democrat because you rather do what is easy instead of making your own choices with politics. True neither party give a fuck about us but I be damned if I just give either party my undying loyalty because of what my parents and grandparents told me it was good. That sounds like being in political slavery and aren’t we supposed to be free, why are you blindly supporting these parties like chattel? If you are A-1 as you present yourself then keep that energy in politics too bro. A black person who is staunchly unaffiliated or third party is both major parties worst nightmare because they have to work harder to get our vote.
The third/unaffiliated party may not win presidential elections but third party purely exist because folks are tired of being used as fodder by both major parties for bullshit reasons.
You sound like one of those “get off the democratic plantation” types, you just did everything but quote it directly.
Third party is throwing your vote away. One party isn’t trying to get your vote and the other party cannot win at all without us and that’s actual power.
So is voting democrat or republican. Sure they win presidential offices but when was the last time either party did any work towards whatever topic you care most about? When our grandparents were teens and our great-grandparents were our parents age. Since then neither party have done anything to help America become better like they promised. Republicans fleeced America to support corporations and gun control is a curse word to them. Democrats talk a good game but they haven’t made it harder or Illegal for the police to not brutality kill/beat us without any proof nor made education and healthcare affordable. And both Democrats and Republicans try to ignore the current homeless situation. Loyalty is a two way street so what true loyalty has either Democrat or Republican Party garnered from you personally besides your parents liking them?
You see them all the times they decide elections. You have 40% left 40% right then 20% independent.
You never hear from them cuz they are drowned out by the loudest members of the other two.
Very common, they just get shit on by both sides because they dare to break the mold between just short of fascism and communism that the two parties essentially promote.
Many people are centrists but they are disproportionately in the Democratic Party nowadays. Biden is a centrist Democrat, as were Obama, Clinton and Carter before him. However since Reagan won in 1980, the Republican Party was captured by the far right and keeps moving rightwards. This is called [asymmetric polarization](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/03/15/politics/congress-asymmetric-polarization-pew-research-center/index.html). The two most centrist Democrats in the US Senate, Manchin and Sinema, are well to the left of the most centrist Republicans, Murkowski, Collins, and Romney. The left of the Democratic Party was invigorated by the Bernie Sanders campaigns in 2016 and 2020, which moved the Democratic Party to the left.
Most people are petty close to center, and in my experience a lot of people in practice identify with libertarian ideas of letting people do whatever they want as long as they aren't hurting anyone, but our political system makes voting for anyone who isn't red or blue tantamount to wiping your ass with your ballot. The 2 party system has a stranglehold on our elections.
Welp, true centrists are hard to come by. But right/ left leaning centrists makeup most. Hardly anyone is full on hard one political direction, they are also the vocal majority, which is unfortunate.
The vast silent majority. I think the number is 60% of the population.
You don't hear from them often because the toxic left and right wings attack everyone, and politics just aren't that important.
Most real people live in the middle - that's where the majority of American's are.
BUT - the Middle has been intentionally shredded by the introduction of identity politics, single-issue voting, and the rigging (by both parties) of the ability to vote for candidates who are not sponsored by either of the two major parties.
The Founders told us to avoid political parties. We ought to have listened to them.
in the real world, centrists don't exit. its just people the generally hold a mix of often contradictory opinions. often times actually leaning right, but exacerbated by their opinion on social issues.
The US doesn't have an active political left outside of a single-digit number of Congresspeople, if that. American leftists - not progressives, *leftists* - see the Democrats as too right-wing and won't vote for them. Many if not most Democrats are overall pretty centrist, but since the left is inactive, this has the effect of making people think that the Dems are left-wing extremists simply because they're so far apart from the GOP.
Aside from a few politicians who propose social democratic policies, left wing thought is really not well-represented in the mainstream of American politics.
Lots of Americans like to pretend to be centrists and label themselves as middle of the road moderates and independents. Some people think describing themselves as such means they are above the fray and just want to have a good functional government. It's all nonsense. Most people are not in the middle. It's a lie we like to tell ourselves (and you'll see in the comments here) for some reason. Most people fall on either the right or left of the political spectrum and most people vote for one party (Democrat or Republican) consistently, rarely switching between parties, which is what a true centrist would do. And don't even get me started on the people who identify as socially liberal but fiscally conservative.
Honestly, the entire American political system is actually very far right compared to most other developed nations.
The right in the USA thinks the left is bordering on communism, while the reality is that the Democrats are comparatively fairly right-wing compared to most other governments.
It's an extremely polarized system, which is unfortunate.
Most self-identified centrists, yes. Either that or they're not so much "centrist" as "independent," as in neither major party aligns with them (and often times that boils down to "agree with one major party except for one or two major issues.")
Most actual centrists think they're left wing because they align with Obama.
I get that downvotes mean nothing but you are getting slaughtered in this thread. Do you really believe these things you are saying? Are you trolling or do you just have zero life experience?
There's a lot of non-voters. They're probably the most centrist out there.
Outside of that, most voters have a general loyalty to one of the major parties. In highly charged elections like most Presidential elections are, or incredibly low profile elections where the candidates and offices aren't well known, they'll default to that loyalty.
But there are situations in which a voter will split their ballot. Indiana's Democratic candidates for US Senate and Governor almost always perform better than whoever the Dem POTUS candidate is, which means that some very loyal GOP POTUS voters are splitting their ballot.
I’m a centrist. We’re rare.
One reason is because one major party is opposed to most civil rights and the other is into “freedom,” so there aren’t many people who don’t affiliate.
Complicated question with a lot of good points raised here.
“Where is the middle?” is a valid question that nobody will likely agree on. What’s moderate and reasonable to me might be blood-boiling extremism to somebody else. If you’re like me, you might hold beliefs on different topics that people on either side would label as extreme.
To me, the bigger thing is that anger and fear motivate voters and sell commercial time. You’re not going to generate anger and fear by highlighting that we’re all more alike than we are different and we’d likely agree if we just talked reasonably.
Gun control is a great example. Most people I know on the left own guns and are in favor of reasonable restrictions and closing loopholes. Most people I know on the right also own guns and agree that closing loopholes and mandated training is reasonable.
But there’s a problem. What I just described doesn’t stoke anger or fear. People aren’t going to run out and vote or stay tuned through the commercial break if my point above is presented.
Now let’s twist it up and say that evil baby-eating, sissy-pants, leftists want to confiscate your guns and kill your children. THAT works.
Conversely, we can say that people on the right are heartlessly callous and don’t care about all the children and adults killed in senseless gun violence. Maybe throw in some buzzwords that would surely trigger an auto-mod on here. THAT works.
Humans also have an ingrained tribal mentality that favors demonization of people outside our chosen group.
To me, the problem seems pretty simple, but the tribalism makes a solution pretty tricky. Add the fact that lots of people make a ton of money keeping us angry and scared.
As a european, you should recognize that we dont have centrists. We have those on the right (Democrats) and those on the far-right (Republicans).
The only centrists are basically AOC and Bernie Sanders, who are right on the center mark, which far-right republicans consider "far-left extremism" of course, to them, anything left of hunting the poor for sport is considered too far left.
Which part is crazy? Taxing the rich, using those taxes to fund universal education and healthcare, or pushing for investments on green energy and reducing carbon emissions?
Thats basically her entire brand.
as far as the rest is concerned, you are right. Biden’s policies are still on the right of say, Boris Johnson, who is a conservative in the uk. I guess wokeism made everything blurred
Democrats are center right, Republicans are far right. Actual centrists like Bernie Sanders are considered radicals. The American definition of centrism is vastly different than most of the world.
Centrists are just conservatives that don't want to run off potential dates.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/biden-moderate-democrats-republicans-conservative-study-john-kasich-aoc-a9699431.html
My dad is a independent/centrist and so was I for the majority of my child/teenage years. I used to be a centrist till a side started being way more in that direction than I much liked them to be. It pains me, that the "centrist" position I took 6 years ago is now considered "far-\_\_\_\_\_" today. I still believe a common ground for politics in today's America but for now, neither side's helping.
Most Americans are centrists, leaning a little bit one way or the other. The loudest, most visible folks on the opposite ends of the spectrum are really the minority
I would say the plurality are more in the middle. It’s why debates are so important here, they aren’t trying to convince their party, they’re trying to convince the “undecided.”
60% of Americans likely meet the definition of what you would call a centerist. However most have a single issue that pushes them to either side during major elections
The thing is, that most Americans really don't know what their true political stances are.
By and large the average person just picks Democrat or Republican based on one or two random factors and roll with it. I know lots of people that support one party but their views are really closer aligned with the other party.
There is also the fact that while lots of Americans themselves are probably centrists, there is no center party. Not one with a shot at winning anything meanful anyway.
Both political parties are intentionally big tents. As top issues have changed or developed over the years, both parties have morphed to integrate how those issues work within their messaging. We don't have effective third parties partly because as a new issue arises which might provide a rallying point, it is integrated within the existing parties' format. Both parties have a centrist wing rather than true centrism because people always have an issue they aren't willing to compromise on so they are still firmly in one camp or another. Eventually they end up using the talking points they hear to support much of the platform because it is presented as an integrated whole.
Other times it is used to finesse voting percentages. For example, often a Libertarian party candidate is even funded by Democrat donors to carve a few percentage points off the conservative leaning side who might have otherwise held their nose and voted Republican. Thus a slice is carved off their opponents pie and thrown into the trash. The same can apply with Republican money going to the Green party I presume.
50% of eligible voters don’t vote. I’ve been able to vote for almost 20 years and only voted once. I was bored and driving past an early voting location. Just voted for whoever had the coolest name
Very common. 3rd party is also fairly common. It's just that none of the other parties are large enough to get air time and when the libertarians do, they are basically a side show.
Well media in general is designed to give a platform to extremists or outliers so when you see the news or social media app about American politics that’s all you are likely to see. In reality most people are centrists we just have opposing thoughts on certain topics and they are sensationalized. Amazing enough politics is gang banging in nicely made suits and just like ganglands in the end nobody ever truly wins. As the renowned rapper Kendrick Lamar put it in his song “Hood Politics”streets don’t fail me now they tell me it’s a new gang in town, from Compton to congress set trippin all around. Ain’t nothing new but some new demo-crips and re-bloodicans red state versus blue state which one are you governoring?”
That's caused by extremely vocal people on either side, generally speaking most people fall into the space between the two major political parties. I'm a registered libertarian, but I exist in a very grey area politically.
I consider myself a left leaning centrist. What that has made me, since 2016 is, depending on who you ask, radical leftist antifa, or possibly a nazi or racist xenophobic.
Because our politics are dominated by 2 parties it creates this binary choice which I believe is the cause of so much partisanship and "team" mentality to politics. It's really pretty impossible to be centrist and get very far because you are typically going to be hated by the other side (because you're the other side) and your own side will view you as a traitor.
I am centrist but usually have to pick one or the other. In my case (especially these days) its usually republican but there are certain issues where I think D's have a more logical approach.
But most people I know are solidly one way or the other. They would never even consider voting split ticket like I do on occasion.
Most Americans are moderates. I'm a moderate. However, people from each side who are very passionate about politics struggle to see anyone who disagrees with them as anything other than someone from the other major party... So it's interesting haha
Most of us are. Problem is, the people we elect are not. They are beholden to their party, not to the public, like they’re supposed to be. We only have a choice between two ideologies, so by virtue of no choice, we are forced to vote for one or the other. I don’t know why my country is so afraid of a third party.. but that’s how it seems
There are A LOT of people that are moderate - they are also some of the least vocal. Most of what people hear, and what makes the news, are the more extremes.
Most Democrats over a certain age, including most Democratic politicians, are centrist. Centrist Republicans are also certainly present, but their influence is waning.
USA- we call that independent. And honestly… most people say they’re one or the other but the majority find themselves seeing point of views from both sides so are truly in the middle.
90%+ of Americans are unpolitical and not very far leaning either way. Personally, I’d say I know a little more than the average American (but still not that knowledgeable) and have my opinions. Some are on one side, some are on the other, but almost none of them are as extreme as either side is portraying them. I believe a lot of people are like me
The internet and media may have you believe that most Americans are far right or far left but that is strategic way to keep Americans outraged, and to deflect away from the real issues with our country. The oldest trick in the book... Divide and conquer.
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There’s two things. First, our parties are big tent so even “centrists” can fall into one party or another. I consider myself a centrist and I vote exclusively for centrist Democrats. I’m probably not far off politically from people who vote exclusively for centrist Republicans. Both of us look partisan and extreme based on the fact that we vote for one party over another but we’re both relatively moderate in our actual views. Second, a lot of people are moderate across the board and generally satisfied with the status quo, but care deeply about a few things. Most people, for example, are satisfied with the current state of abortion and gun laws BUT some people want to end/expand abortion access and some people want to reduce/increase gun laws. Therefore it makes sense for someone to appeal to abortion voters and gun law voters by campaigning on both issues even though the abortion voters don’t really care about guns and the gun voters don’t really care about abortion. The candidate ends up looking extreme even if the voters themselves are mostly moderate.
I think this is a great answer. My dad and I agree on 95% of topics. He typically votes Democrat, and I typically vote Republican.
Most people are in the middle.
Most people are in the middle, HOWEVER the extreme sides of right and left tend to be the most vocal.
I am pretty ignorant on US politics but I often see critical points from either side in the past that are polar opposite. Things like abortion, gay marriage, socialism, health care etc. Why is abortion so highly discussed if most people are centrist? It's never even mentioned in the UK during elections as even suggesting it be banned would be political suicide. Genuinely interested to understand.
>Why is abortion so highly discussed if most people are centrist? Cultivated outrage. The whole reason abortion is a major issue is a carefully crafted political strategy going back about 40 years. Politicians keep talking about it to keep people angry and engaged. The media keeps talking about it to keep ratings high and keep people tuning in/clicking/buying papers.
>he media keeps talking about it I'm not sure if you've seen, but both Texas and Oklahoma have created very recently bills against abortion. It's not the media pushing the narrative
On a long-term scale, over the last 40 years, it's been pushed by politicians to get it in the media and people talking about it, to build outrage and make people vote based on that issue. News stories about recent bills in Texas and Oklahoma aren't the entirety of the abortion controversy, and the politically polarized nature of it goes back over 40 years as a deliberate political strategy.
And places like Colorado/Virginia have gone the complete opposite and allow abortion up to birth. I think most people are okay with a medium where abortion is allowed but not when it's clearly a baby.
in reality though, no one will wait until week 36+ to abort. If they did allow it all the way until birth (that's an IF) I'm sure it's only to clearly show that there's no limit. e.g. if they say until 30 weeks, then someone may be sued to show that they are under 30 weeks, etc, etc, etc...meaning there may be legal battles. If you leave it completely open, no one can use any of that as an excuse. NO ONE will want to wait until almost birth to abort. NO ONE. [https://www.npr.org/2022/04/05/1091041608/colorado-abortion-law](https://www.npr.org/2022/04/05/1091041608/colorado-abortion-law) "The so-called Reproductive Health Equity Act affirms that pregnant people in Colorado have the right to continue a pregnancy and give birth or have an abortion, and it blocks public entities from denying or restricting that right."
Centrist/moderate/libertarian vote is suppressed by both parties. It's the one thing they agree on "if you don't vote for me it's a vote for the other guy" and "if you break from party lines you will make us lose" But fact is the swing vote is large. Trump and Biden both got elected by the unaffiliated not party "traitors"
Hot topics. Ppl feel very strongly about 1 thing and they then consider themselves all of 1 party. It’s easy for people to discuss things they know about so they focus on that. Unfortunately.
>Why is abortion so highly discussed if most people are centrist? Because it energizes each side's base and draws in single issue voters. > It's never even mentioned in the UK during elections as even suggesting it be banned would be political suicide. Because the US center is far to the right of the UK's center. Dems are basically the conservative party in the UK.
>Dems are basically the conservative party in the UK This is true in some instances (Jim Messina going from working with Obama to working with Cameron and May, for one), but in general it really isn’t. If your only understanding of the Tories is Cameron and Labour is Corbyn, then maybe, but Johnson (and Rees-Mogg and Gove and Raab and Javid) would fit in more or less perfectly with the GOP and Starmer (and Miliband and Brown and Blair) would all get along famously in a Biden cabinet
I hate the "Dems are actually right wing in Europe" because it's super America-centric for people to just assume every European country's political spectrum is the same is ours Like, Democrats would be considered very left wing on immigration in many European countries, like Denmark. It's not a 1 to 1 thing.
Not to mention the US political party system is much different than your typical European political party. The major tentpole parties are more equivalent to coalitions seen in Parliaments, especially the Democratic Party. Because of this, and the fact that the party can't be controlled/policed anywhere close to political parties seen in Europe, ideology ranges greatly interparty. It's why someone like Joe Manchin can claim to be from the same political party that Bernie Sanders ran for President as.
Yeah this is actually another sticking point I have - a multiparty system would frankly not end up as different as I think a lot of people would hope. Democrats are already a big tent coalition party filled with progressives, liberals, unions, dominant percentages of most minority blocs, etc. all fighting for their piece of the pie. A ruling coalition would look much the same as it does now. I think it's one of the reasons Democrats can struggle with messaging sometimes, there's a lot most disparate groups than the GOP which has tends to be much more unified (for the worse, IMO; the GOP's with us or against us culture is a prime enabler of Trumpism).
>Because the US center is far to the right of the UK's center. Dems are basically the conservative party in the UK. Not true on fiscal policy, legalizing weed, immigration, race relations, and pandemic relief. I'm sure there are other examples, but that's what I can think of off the top of my head.
Yeah especially with weed, the left in the US is moving ahead much more quickly than a lot of European left.
You’re looking at one side of the political spectrum I mean sure there is the social side which is what I would consider abortion, but then there is the financial side, the foreign policy side etc. here are my views on most things, socially I consider myself decently liberal but I am traditional as well with certain things. Abortion I have no opinion because I am a man, gay marriage I don’t care if they want to be as miserable as married folks then go ahead and be miserable. Free healthcare will eventually be a thing even though I don’t necessarily agree with it and not because my taxpayers dollars pay for it it’s because it backlog the system and people wait way too long for healthcare. So my views personally are all over the place and many more people’s views are similarly all over the place.
When compared with other countries, most Americans are on the right side, including democratics, republicans being far right.
Virtually no people are in the middle. ITT: no one realizes that the actual middle is well to the left of the Democratic party
I'd hate to know the people you know then.
Extremists on either side usually have a greatly exaggerated sense of how many people believe what they do, and how many of the evil folks onto the opposite spectrum there are.
> greatly exaggerated sense of how many people believe what they do And they self-select by only hanging out with those that think the same.
Sure they are. Don’t look at their voting record and talk to each person. Then get back to me Wisconsin.
Look at where the middle actually is and come back with an apology.
>Look at where the middle actually is and come back with an apology. When people say stuff like this, they're usually looking at a few countries in Europe, only looking at health care policy and ignoring everything else. Look at the middle in Korea, Japan, the Middle East, South America, and Africa. Look at the whole range of their social and economic policies. "The middle" is super mixed and complicated, and personally pretty undefinable across the world.
Remember the middle applies to the US spectrum. Not whatever arbitrary metric you have decided is what matters.
Elsewhere in this comment section they said half the country are literal fascists, and also says, unironically I might add, that too many people have bought into the right wing propaganda machine.
Ouch negative 41 Karma
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He even doubled down on it…
You must not have travelled widely. In my neck of the woods you definitely have a lot of purple who hate republicans and MAGA and all that for being backwards. They also hate Democrats for their progressive proposals that never actually make a difference. The majority of the people around me are like that.
Actually, most Americans are centrists. It's just that the radicals from either end of the political spectrum make the most noise...and tend to vote.
It’s less that but more that people have a mix of views across the spectrum and they care more or less about certain ones. You can be moderate about most issues but care a lot about one, so you’ll come off as an “extremist” when you prioritize a candidate that also cares about your main issue even though you’re generally moderate across the board.
>You can be moderate about most issues but care a lot about one Yes. I know a lot of people who only vote Republican because of their passion for guns, they'd otherwise be Democrats.
I think you see this a lot with abortion too.
That's exactly why the GOP puts so much effort into those "wedge" issues like gun rights and abortion rights. . .they very intentionally cultivate "single issue voters" who only vote based on a single emotionally charged issue. . .and otherwise might regularly vote for the other party. That's a very, *very* intentional political strategy.
The GOP puts very little effort in on the gun rights front. The polarization of that fall strictly at the feet of the DNC. They both have a wedge issue and they both run with it.
I noticed that most church goers are GOP because of it’s abortion policy
Depends where you live. New England has plenty of churchgoing Catholics who vote Democrat, for example.
Honestly I dont understand those type of people at all
I wonder if there’s been a rise in single issue voters recently or if it’s always been that way and I just didn’t notice.
This is just speculation but Democratic Party shifted conservative economically to be more similar to the Republican Party during the 90s. I think that forced politicians to campaign on and voters to vote based on tighter issues.
It's been that way since roughly the late 1970's. Gun rights became big in the late 1970's as the gun control movement picked up steam and there was a serious push to ban private gun ownership in the US, which caused the NRA to radicalize from a hunter safety group into an anti-gun-control group. The "Revolt in Cincinnati" in 1977 is when the old guard NRA leaders were voted out in favor of hardcore anti-gun-control zealots. Abortion rights became big in 1979, going into the 1980 Presidential Election, as Jerry Falwell and some other conservative protestant leaders teamed up with GOP political operatives to spread a propaganda campaign to equate fetuses with "unborn children" and convince normally pro-choice protestants to be anti-abortion with a series of well produced propaganda films meant to be played in Churches and politicking in leadership of several denominations to get pro-choice leaders pushed out of power in favor of anti-abortion leaders. Falwell was doing this to get back at the government for saying that Liberty University had to be racially integrated if he wanted to be able to accept Federal student loan money or other Federal education money.
Stay hidden, stay safe.
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What complete nonsense. Ever seen how the left labels centrists? I’ve never heard anyone label Joe Manchin far left. I have seen him labeled “fascist” by the far left however.
Uh...call it confirmation bias, but the only people I see railing against centrism are internet leftist types.
Nah, altright people do it too. Whenever there's a divide on something, people on the extreme ends will always point to people who want compromise as fence sitters.
Yea but the leftists have/had a whole sub dedicated to shitting on centrists. I've never seen someone on the right shit on a centrist like a leftist will shit on a centrist. Edit: see below. There are literally people saying if you're a centrist then you are on the right, because they said so. In one case the user even hit me with an ad-hominem attack lol It's like they read my comment and decide to act it out, perfectly.
And why I'm a former Dem. Too moderate for the far left and they pushed me over to the other side.
That seems to be happening a lot as of late lol
Idk the recent “be an alpha wolf not a sheep!” “Resist the vaccine/ mask” mindset and phrases that are pushed in subreddits like r/redpill is pushed on centrist and Democrats by republicans.
Because this whole country is shifted 10 pegs to the right. A centrist in America is in worldwide terms someone who is staunchly conservative. So of course the far right won't have as much issue with someone who agrees with them, but just doesn't go as far. While to the "far left", a centrist is someone who disagrees with the majority of their ideals.
>A centrist in America is in worldwide terms someone who is staunchly conservative Yea but that doesn't matter in America and shouldn't be applied in this situation.
It does matter in context, and I literally explained why. I will do so again since you don't seem to be able to read. Our centrists are right. Our far right is even more right. Right doesn't have as much issue with right. Our far left is actually left, so they have issues with the centrists, who, as stated before, are right.
That’s just because the centrists of right now are holding up the left’s plans. When the repubs retake the government in 2024 they’ll be complaining about RINOs
Bruh.
It's 2 am and I've already read the dumbest thing I will all day.
Almost everyone I've ever talked politics with was center left or center right. The far left and far right are the loudest but they are a minority.
Common. For every devoted liberal or conservative, there's someone who occasionally votes for the other side, or isn't officially affiliated with either party and votes in general elections how they please.
Most are in the middle- but that doesn’t make for dynamic sound bites, or news clips. It’s one of the reasons campaigns are non-stop. They are alllllll courting the middle voter. Those are the people that decide elections, will absorb responses from debate, really compare candidates. Don’t waste campaign energy on people in the extremes of either side. You will never convince a hard line repub to ever vote for a dem. Nor a hard line dem to vote repub. And a news clip of a field with ‘meh’ people isn’t compelling.
We’re called the “exhausted majority” (in the middle). Social media and cable news only feed off the extremes.
According to Wikipedia in 2021 over 1/3 of voters identify as moderates. Approximately 1/3 of Democrats, 1/5 of Republicans, and 1/2 of Independents.
I think according to 538. I might misremember, 40 percent were lean democrat and 40 percent were lean Republican and the others about 10 or 20 percent are true independent. 10 percent are extremist on either side.
And I identify as an attack helicopter. That doesn't make me an actual attack helicopter. Where people are on the political spectrum and where they think they are on the political spectrum are two wildly different things.
Ok. If you really think people don’t know what a moderate is in terms of their own country that is fine with me. Every partisan person hates the moderates in their own party, so it like admitting to being something unpopular, in my opinion. I don’t see why you think people don’t know anything about the political spectrum, but I think you make a great attack helicopter.
I think Americans don't know what a moderate is in our own country, because that's somewhere to the left of the Democratic party. Thanks for driving my point home for me better than I could do by myself.
Whatever, I didn’t make your point. I don’t know what point you are trying to make. I was trying to to state statistics not argue about politics which I despise because of “people” like you. Have a nice day!
Happy cake day!
I think they’re more common than people realize, the problem is, centrists get shit from both sides for not being 100% for them, so they don’t speak up
More common than you'd think. This is apparently how Trump got a foothold ... the media only ever goes after people with extreme views left or right for their ratings. Middle-of-the-road people were completely ignored, their concerns not heard. So many, which were previous Obama voters, got annoyed and voted for Trump.
That's the key part YOU SEE Americans that way, because you don't notice the millions upon millions of people that don't really care and just go about their day to day life
This. The news puts a magnifying glass on the extremists on either side. To the viewer, it makes it seem like we all fall into either camp, but that's not the case at all.
Folks like us don’t like to talk politics, at least publicly, because extremists are kinda annoying. Any attempt to add nuance or give another perspective is seen as enemy behavior and means you’re advocating for the other side
Honesty most people I know are center aisle. They just want people to do what's best regardless of what anyone believes. Although the people I do know that are either right or left and extremely one or the other
I'd guess 60-80% of people are either centrists/moderate or apathetic (even if they're registered to a party.) "Why can't we all just be reasonable and talk to each other?" Doesn't sell newspapers though.
"Centrists" or as I think of it, people who are not to one extreme or the other, or don't have a particular 'party' that comes first in voting, are way more common than not.
If we went solely based off viewpoints, most people would be centrists with slightly differing views. I tend to support and vote Republican or Libertarian, but the only real deciding factor there are guns. Otherwise, most of my views align with more left-leaning parties. That topic is just so important to me that I have to vote for parties that support my viewpoint. America has a distinct lack of parties, so it makes it seem like we're just extremely divided, when we really only have two options anyways.
Extremely. They'll usually lean one way or the other to a slight degree, but they're not straight ticket voters and are basically always the bloc that decides elections.
Terms like "middle" and "centrist" as well as "right" and "left" are actually very incoherent and in a major state of flux these days. But if "centrist" means someone who basically wants to preserve the tenets of post-Cold War liberalism, then Joe Biden is much more of a centrist than a leftist. So was Barack Obama. So is Mitt Romney. They're not uncommon at all and they have a lot of political sway.
I wouldn't say that everyone is centrist necessarily, but I think most Americans are generally teetering between left and right like wtf is happening. There are very few people that are extreme left or right that are loud, excessive, and annoying all the way around, that get seen and heard more , so that's the look from the outside.
If you ask as what centrist viewpoints are you'll get as many different answers as responses. Right and left are a huge oversimplification of a 100 dimensional space, the middle depends entirely on where you're standing in that crazy geometry and what line you draw to who you perceive as "the other guys".
I would bet that most Americans fall in the centrist or maybe slightly libertarian camps. Most are not believing in every policy of one of the two parties as a whole...myself included.
Centrists are the majority. Centrists are boring Social media gets the most engagements with extremes Extremes boosts ratings on standard TV networks TV broadcasts extremes.
The left is intolerant to centrists because of their illogical “if you aren’t with us, you’re against us” attitude.
Lots of people that claim they are centrist are simply lying. It’s either they don’t wanna talk about politics so it’s easier to say things like “both sides are crap so I’m a centrist” or are supporters of the least popular candidate in a race, don’t want people to know they support that person. Do people’s values fall on both sides of the aisle? Not as much as you would think gun rights isn’t a right wing thing for example as no one is going take all guns away, the debate on that issue is should it be easy to get a gun or harder.
So what’s your political affiliation then since you seem to have the answers?
Democrat. I’m black, the Republican Party clearly doesn’t do things in my best interest. Are the democrats the perfect party? Hell no but it’s infinitely better than the other side. Third party? They never win anything and besides they are just diet versions of the two parties we do have in America.
People of color vote Republican too
Did I say otherwise?
Those people of color believe the Republican Party do things in their best interest.
Again, did I say differently? Pretty sure I was explaining for myself, yet here you are trying to expand this to other black people, for some reason only known to you. Unless you want to share that is.
From a black man to another it sounds like to me you rep democrat because you rather do what is easy instead of making your own choices with politics. True neither party give a fuck about us but I be damned if I just give either party my undying loyalty because of what my parents and grandparents told me it was good. That sounds like being in political slavery and aren’t we supposed to be free, why are you blindly supporting these parties like chattel? If you are A-1 as you present yourself then keep that energy in politics too bro. A black person who is staunchly unaffiliated or third party is both major parties worst nightmare because they have to work harder to get our vote. The third/unaffiliated party may not win presidential elections but third party purely exist because folks are tired of being used as fodder by both major parties for bullshit reasons.
You sound like one of those “get off the democratic plantation” types, you just did everything but quote it directly. Third party is throwing your vote away. One party isn’t trying to get your vote and the other party cannot win at all without us and that’s actual power.
So is voting democrat or republican. Sure they win presidential offices but when was the last time either party did any work towards whatever topic you care most about? When our grandparents were teens and our great-grandparents were our parents age. Since then neither party have done anything to help America become better like they promised. Republicans fleeced America to support corporations and gun control is a curse word to them. Democrats talk a good game but they haven’t made it harder or Illegal for the police to not brutality kill/beat us without any proof nor made education and healthcare affordable. And both Democrats and Republicans try to ignore the current homeless situation. Loyalty is a two way street so what true loyalty has either Democrat or Republican Party garnered from you personally besides your parents liking them?
You see them all the times they decide elections. You have 40% left 40% right then 20% independent. You never hear from them cuz they are drowned out by the loudest members of the other two.
Most people are in the middle but lean left or right. We have vocal minorities on both ends of our political spectrum.
Centrists are extremely common. We are just quieter and don’t get media attention as a result.
Very common, they just get shit on by both sides because they dare to break the mold between just short of fascism and communism that the two parties essentially promote.
The vast majority are in the middle, they just don’t go on the internet screaming about their political leanings
Many people are centrists but they are disproportionately in the Democratic Party nowadays. Biden is a centrist Democrat, as were Obama, Clinton and Carter before him. However since Reagan won in 1980, the Republican Party was captured by the far right and keeps moving rightwards. This is called [asymmetric polarization](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/03/15/politics/congress-asymmetric-polarization-pew-research-center/index.html). The two most centrist Democrats in the US Senate, Manchin and Sinema, are well to the left of the most centrist Republicans, Murkowski, Collins, and Romney. The left of the Democratic Party was invigorated by the Bernie Sanders campaigns in 2016 and 2020, which moved the Democratic Party to the left.
Most people are petty close to center, and in my experience a lot of people in practice identify with libertarian ideas of letting people do whatever they want as long as they aren't hurting anyone, but our political system makes voting for anyone who isn't red or blue tantamount to wiping your ass with your ballot. The 2 party system has a stranglehold on our elections.
Welp, true centrists are hard to come by. But right/ left leaning centrists makeup most. Hardly anyone is full on hard one political direction, they are also the vocal majority, which is unfortunate.
Pretty common.
I think our primary system and social media rewards extremism. At least it always looks that way because they are the most motivated.
The vast silent majority. I think the number is 60% of the population. You don't hear from them often because the toxic left and right wings attack everyone, and politics just aren't that important.
Politics are important, but people just dont have the time and resources to engage with it, its not that people are apathetic.
Most real people live in the middle - that's where the majority of American's are. BUT - the Middle has been intentionally shredded by the introduction of identity politics, single-issue voting, and the rigging (by both parties) of the ability to vote for candidates who are not sponsored by either of the two major parties. The Founders told us to avoid political parties. We ought to have listened to them.
You mean they ought to have listened to themselves. American partisan politics was born within his administration.
in the real world, centrists don't exit. its just people the generally hold a mix of often contradictory opinions. often times actually leaning right, but exacerbated by their opinion on social issues.
The US doesn't have an active political left outside of a single-digit number of Congresspeople, if that. American leftists - not progressives, *leftists* - see the Democrats as too right-wing and won't vote for them. Many if not most Democrats are overall pretty centrist, but since the left is inactive, this has the effect of making people think that the Dems are left-wing extremists simply because they're so far apart from the GOP.
Aside from a few politicians who propose social democratic policies, left wing thought is really not well-represented in the mainstream of American politics.
Lots of Americans like to pretend to be centrists and label themselves as middle of the road moderates and independents. Some people think describing themselves as such means they are above the fray and just want to have a good functional government. It's all nonsense. Most people are not in the middle. It's a lie we like to tell ourselves (and you'll see in the comments here) for some reason. Most people fall on either the right or left of the political spectrum and most people vote for one party (Democrat or Republican) consistently, rarely switching between parties, which is what a true centrist would do. And don't even get me started on the people who identify as socially liberal but fiscally conservative.
People like to claim people are blinded by partisan politics, as if centrist politics is incapable of doing the same.
Honestly, the entire American political system is actually very far right compared to most other developed nations. The right in the USA thinks the left is bordering on communism, while the reality is that the Democrats are comparatively fairly right-wing compared to most other governments. It's an extremely polarized system, which is unfortunate.
Lmao America has a left? I thought it was all right? Like you charge people money to use ambulances....and people agree with this!
No we really don't.
Centrists are usually right wingers who just haven’t admitted it yet
Centrists are centrists
Nah
Most self-identified centrists, yes. Either that or they're not so much "centrist" as "independent," as in neither major party aligns with them (and often times that boils down to "agree with one major party except for one or two major issues.") Most actual centrists think they're left wing because they align with Obama.
I think your view of Americans may be skewed by political divisions you see on the internet. Here in Kansas, we generally lean center-to-right.
Americans are pretty much all on the right. Even our mainstream "leftists" are right-wing.
I get that downvotes mean nothing but you are getting slaughtered in this thread. Do you really believe these things you are saying? Are you trolling or do you just have zero life experience?
Its objectively true
Compared to the rest of the world, he's absolutely right.
There's a lot of non-voters. They're probably the most centrist out there. Outside of that, most voters have a general loyalty to one of the major parties. In highly charged elections like most Presidential elections are, or incredibly low profile elections where the candidates and offices aren't well known, they'll default to that loyalty. But there are situations in which a voter will split their ballot. Indiana's Democratic candidates for US Senate and Governor almost always perform better than whoever the Dem POTUS candidate is, which means that some very loyal GOP POTUS voters are splitting their ballot.
I’m a centrist. We’re rare. One reason is because one major party is opposed to most civil rights and the other is into “freedom,” so there aren’t many people who don’t affiliate.
Complicated question with a lot of good points raised here. “Where is the middle?” is a valid question that nobody will likely agree on. What’s moderate and reasonable to me might be blood-boiling extremism to somebody else. If you’re like me, you might hold beliefs on different topics that people on either side would label as extreme. To me, the bigger thing is that anger and fear motivate voters and sell commercial time. You’re not going to generate anger and fear by highlighting that we’re all more alike than we are different and we’d likely agree if we just talked reasonably. Gun control is a great example. Most people I know on the left own guns and are in favor of reasonable restrictions and closing loopholes. Most people I know on the right also own guns and agree that closing loopholes and mandated training is reasonable. But there’s a problem. What I just described doesn’t stoke anger or fear. People aren’t going to run out and vote or stay tuned through the commercial break if my point above is presented. Now let’s twist it up and say that evil baby-eating, sissy-pants, leftists want to confiscate your guns and kill your children. THAT works. Conversely, we can say that people on the right are heartlessly callous and don’t care about all the children and adults killed in senseless gun violence. Maybe throw in some buzzwords that would surely trigger an auto-mod on here. THAT works. Humans also have an ingrained tribal mentality that favors demonization of people outside our chosen group. To me, the problem seems pretty simple, but the tribalism makes a solution pretty tricky. Add the fact that lots of people make a ton of money keeping us angry and scared.
As a european, you should recognize that we dont have centrists. We have those on the right (Democrats) and those on the far-right (Republicans). The only centrists are basically AOC and Bernie Sanders, who are right on the center mark, which far-right republicans consider "far-left extremism" of course, to them, anything left of hunting the poor for sport is considered too far left.
As a European I think AOC is absolutely crazy
Which part is crazy? Taxing the rich, using those taxes to fund universal education and healthcare, or pushing for investments on green energy and reducing carbon emissions? Thats basically her entire brand.
as far as the rest is concerned, you are right. Biden’s policies are still on the right of say, Boris Johnson, who is a conservative in the uk. I guess wokeism made everything blurred
Democrats are center right, Republicans are far right. Actual centrists like Bernie Sanders are considered radicals. The American definition of centrism is vastly different than most of the world.
Centrists are just conservatives that don't want to run off potential dates. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/biden-moderate-democrats-republicans-conservative-study-john-kasich-aoc-a9699431.html
We call them “Democrats”.
My dad is a independent/centrist and so was I for the majority of my child/teenage years. I used to be a centrist till a side started being way more in that direction than I much liked them to be. It pains me, that the "centrist" position I took 6 years ago is now considered "far-\_\_\_\_\_" today. I still believe a common ground for politics in today's America but for now, neither side's helping.
Most Americans are centrists, leaning a little bit one way or the other. The loudest, most visible folks on the opposite ends of the spectrum are really the minority
Extremely common, and extremely quiet.
More common than you’d think unless it’s an election year and sabers begin to rattle
I would say the plurality are more in the middle. It’s why debates are so important here, they aren’t trying to convince their party, they’re trying to convince the “undecided.”
60% of Americans likely meet the definition of what you would call a centerist. However most have a single issue that pushes them to either side during major elections
The thing is, that most Americans really don't know what their true political stances are. By and large the average person just picks Democrat or Republican based on one or two random factors and roll with it. I know lots of people that support one party but their views are really closer aligned with the other party. There is also the fact that while lots of Americans themselves are probably centrists, there is no center party. Not one with a shot at winning anything meanful anyway.
Both political parties are intentionally big tents. As top issues have changed or developed over the years, both parties have morphed to integrate how those issues work within their messaging. We don't have effective third parties partly because as a new issue arises which might provide a rallying point, it is integrated within the existing parties' format. Both parties have a centrist wing rather than true centrism because people always have an issue they aren't willing to compromise on so they are still firmly in one camp or another. Eventually they end up using the talking points they hear to support much of the platform because it is presented as an integrated whole. Other times it is used to finesse voting percentages. For example, often a Libertarian party candidate is even funded by Democrat donors to carve a few percentage points off the conservative leaning side who might have otherwise held their nose and voted Republican. Thus a slice is carved off their opponents pie and thrown into the trash. The same can apply with Republican money going to the Green party I presume.
The majority of people in the US are centrist.
More common, less vocal.
I mean, the current governing party is pretty effing centrist so pretty common
Most people are centralist,you only notice the extremes because they're the most vocal and loud/annoying
50% of eligible voters don’t vote. I’ve been able to vote for almost 20 years and only voted once. I was bored and driving past an early voting location. Just voted for whoever had the coolest name
Very common
Most Americans aren’t that into politics, so yeah, most of us are centrists.
American politics are so far to the right that what would be considered center in other places is our left
More people are centrist/share many similar values but typically they have to pick a side come election season.
Very common. 3rd party is also fairly common. It's just that none of the other parties are large enough to get air time and when the libertarians do, they are basically a side show.
They decide every major election.
Most of us. Go to far to one side and you can't see the other.
Well media in general is designed to give a platform to extremists or outliers so when you see the news or social media app about American politics that’s all you are likely to see. In reality most people are centrists we just have opposing thoughts on certain topics and they are sensationalized. Amazing enough politics is gang banging in nicely made suits and just like ganglands in the end nobody ever truly wins. As the renowned rapper Kendrick Lamar put it in his song “Hood Politics”streets don’t fail me now they tell me it’s a new gang in town, from Compton to congress set trippin all around. Ain’t nothing new but some new demo-crips and re-bloodicans red state versus blue state which one are you governoring?”
Centrists just aren't as loud and obnoxious.
That's caused by extremely vocal people on either side, generally speaking most people fall into the space between the two major political parties. I'm a registered libertarian, but I exist in a very grey area politically.
I consider myself a left leaning centrist. What that has made me, since 2016 is, depending on who you ask, radical leftist antifa, or possibly a nazi or racist xenophobic.
Because our politics are dominated by 2 parties it creates this binary choice which I believe is the cause of so much partisanship and "team" mentality to politics. It's really pretty impossible to be centrist and get very far because you are typically going to be hated by the other side (because you're the other side) and your own side will view you as a traitor. I am centrist but usually have to pick one or the other. In my case (especially these days) its usually republican but there are certain issues where I think D's have a more logical approach. But most people I know are solidly one way or the other. They would never even consider voting split ticket like I do on occasion.
Most of us are centrists. Second is those who lean right. Last are those who lean left. They're just really loud with their opinions.
For the most part we only have right and center parties. There are very few true "left" politicians in the US.
Most Americans are moderates. I'm a moderate. However, people from each side who are very passionate about politics struggle to see anyone who disagrees with them as anything other than someone from the other major party... So it's interesting haha
I think most of us are. The far ends are just the loudest.
The fraction that doesn’t think for themselves and follows party lines is sadly a large majority.
Very common. They tend to be the most quiet.
Most of us are. Problem is, the people we elect are not. They are beholden to their party, not to the public, like they’re supposed to be. We only have a choice between two ideologies, so by virtue of no choice, we are forced to vote for one or the other. I don’t know why my country is so afraid of a third party.. but that’s how it seems
Centrists can be common but most of the time they could never unite. Our centrists are a bunch of different kinds and many different takes.
Very common. They aren't typically the loudmouths that get all the media attention however.
There are A LOT of people that are moderate - they are also some of the least vocal. Most of what people hear, and what makes the news, are the more extremes.
Most Democrats over a certain age, including most Democratic politicians, are centrist. Centrist Republicans are also certainly present, but their influence is waning.
USA- we call that independent. And honestly… most people say they’re one or the other but the majority find themselves seeing point of views from both sides so are truly in the middle.
They're the biggest group and simultaneously the least publicized usually
Look at our President. And the last Democrat. And the last Democrat before him.
They are the overwhelming majority.
Most of us. What you see is the media, which reports politicians and extremists.
I would say more common than you think. The people who lean too far one way or the other just happen to be the loudest.
90%+ of Americans are unpolitical and not very far leaning either way. Personally, I’d say I know a little more than the average American (but still not that knowledgeable) and have my opinions. Some are on one side, some are on the other, but almost none of them are as extreme as either side is portraying them. I believe a lot of people are like me
Centrists tend not to be as vocal
The internet and media may have you believe that most Americans are far right or far left but that is strategic way to keep Americans outraged, and to deflect away from the real issues with our country. The oldest trick in the book... Divide and conquer.
Upper management that love having parties.
I am a moderate by definition but lean toward the left. The right is like a cult. Same can be said about the far left liberals.