this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
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It depends on what you mean by being "centrist". In America the Democratic party IS the centrist party. If it wasn't for the small contingent of progressives in the Democratic party, they would actually just be a normal conservative party, but the party as a whole is still right of center, if not smack dab in the middle of it.
On the other hand, the Republican party has fully embraced the extreme far right tenants of fascism and are merely arguing over who gets to be it's leader. There is nothing "centrist" about them or their policies
Typically in my experience, most people who say they are centrists aren't moderates trying to find a balance, they are just conservatives who don't want to feel guilty about voting for the fascist party.
It's not a guilt thing for me. I've never voted for them, and I don't think they're fascist anyways. Not most of them, at least. The term's been pretty overapplied, which helps to radicalize.
I don't support either American political party. They're playing this radicalization game with each other, making it an effectively two-party system, gerrymandering, and doing whatever else to keep themselves in power. I'm planning to vote third party in the next election to at least take a step towards disrupting that.