What do you call someone who is neither politically left nor right?
Im just becoming interested in politics, and I realized my political beliefs are neither left-winged or right-winged, but somewhere in between. I am more liberal than democrat so if theres a term for that specifically than that would be nice to know aswell, if not then its besides the matter.
Are you a liberal, a left-leaning centrist, a right-leaning centrist, a conservative or something else?
I call myself a Conservative Libertarian. For the most part, the policies of the Conservatives overlap nicely with those of being a Libertarian, although I do differ from my fellow Libertarians on National Security. We do indeed need a strong military and need to be able to rapidly project force around the world. I am also pro-life. Libertarians are supposed to be about personal responsibility, yet when they make a sexual choice mistake, they are all too happy to avoid the responsibility, and make the unborn baby pay the price with it's life. UPDATE: Because unlike Conservatives, I favor drug legalization. The War on Drugs has been a costly and pointless failure over the last 40+ uears. The War has harmed many more folks than it's helped. I also don't care what someone does sexually one way or another, as long as I don't have to watch, unless I want to of course ;-). I also would like to see a federal government A LOT smaller than it is now. Conservatives will chip around the edges, maybe cut it 10%. Maybe 20% if they are aggressive. I'd like to cut it 50%. Lastly, although I have nothing against religion, I dislike how much some Conservatives push it. Folks like Santorum scare me.
What exactly is 'centrist' ideology (I know about left and right wing, but what does a centrist believe?)?
Both extremes (left and right) are wrong - the truth lies in between, and the process of working through their differences produces a successful balance. Our system is based on centrist ideas of accomodation and compromise.
Are you far right, far left, or centrist?
Yes to all three at the same time. I am both federalist and anti-federalist in the same breath. Take away the labeling, take away political party affiliation labeling and what you have left is the individual. Engage them in conversation and listen, really listen,to them, it may surprise you to learn that they are not all that different than you. Yes there are those that are so hell bent that to get their way they put people down and speak in such vulgarity it makes sailors blush, but those are a fringe and extremely difficult to engage those in same and rational discourse.To give an example of all sides acting as t the same time consider the following.There are those in our society the need and deserve our assistance, however if you are able but unwilling to work, do you need to eat.Now before someone starts yelling I'm some terrible ogre which I am not.I firmly believe that we are to take care of the widow and the orphan, the aged and the infirmed assist those that are unemployed to find employment (that includes teaching new skills to find employment). But, and this is a big but, those individuals that leech off of society, only take but add no value back, I have no use for and do not want to support, i only do so because of law.I hope this helps seeing that we are all and ought not to be pigeonholed into one.
What would be the term to describe someone who is neither left wing, nor right wing, nor libertarian?
There are a lot of snarky answers that come to mind, but out of respect I assume you mean someone who votes, and takes positions on issues. Generally, the term moderate or centrist would apply. In regard to a Democrat like this, it might be Third Way or Blue Dog. In regard to a Republican, it might be RINO (Republican in name only). There is the Howard Schultz movement, No Labels. On this topic, there was a sadly revealing column in the NY Times recently that "explained" why Chris Christie was not a moderate, by listing several positions he had held and complaining that only some were progressive.
Why do people on both the left and the right criticize centrists?
When we look at politics across the world we see that at the moment it is markedly polarized in most places. Everyone belongs to a ‘Tribe’ as it were, the Right or the Left. This is the environment we as human beings are socialized in as we learn about politics. So from the get-go, we are taught the animosity that is part of political debate.In modern times, we’ve seen people unfriending family members over their support of Donald Trump and other similar things. Then you have centrists who are an isolated minority who are trying to pick out the good in both sides and work out compromises. They don’t belong to any tribe and so neither is particularly friendly.Best case scenario they think you are stupid for understanding their arguments and demonstrating you understand it while not fully agreeing. Most people put their ego before societal progress and that’s just a sad truth.Many see centrists as fence sitters, we’re the equivalent of agnostics to most and often centrism as a belief has involved passivity. They say there are two kinds of evil people in this world, people who do evil things, and people who see evil things and do nothing. That perceived passivity is a perfectly legitimate reason to criticize centrist I think.People scoff at the idea of an alt-centrist, but really that is what is slowly appearing in society. Moderate people with opinions strongly in the middle getting sick and tired of the left and right’s tug of war.Another problem that can arise in centrism is it’s not really a specific ‘team’ it’s really almost like limbo and there are definitely causes on the right and left that centrists will support that will differ with other centrists. Part of centrism is not merely having every opinion perfectly balanced between the right and the left, but also being able to agree with points from both sides. It can be a really unpopular position to play the role of Switzerland in some circumstances and I can understand why people would resent the seeming wishy-washy nature of not committing to a tribe.
Is "Liberalism" right-wing or left-wing?
It really depends on the specific liberalism.I think there are two definitions of liberalism that encompass all liberalisms.“Humanism applied to political-philosophy.”“The collection of political philosophies which place the abstract human individual at the center of all political action.”This latter definition is broad enough that it can include both right-wing and left-wing positions, depending on how the liberal defines “human" and what makes one essentially human.Often this ends up being a game where liberals disagree on some supposedly universal “human nature” and which “human rights” should be afforded to “humans.”If the liberal believes that hierarchies are a natural feature of “humanity” and this can't be changed without abridging individual human liberty, they lean to the right.If the liberal believes that most hierarchies are social constructs, interfere with individual human liberty, and therefore must be countered or deconstructed then they lean to the left.Most liberals have a combination of right-wing and left-wing views on different topics.In practice, liberalism spans from Conservative liberalism on the center-right to Liberal socialism on the center-left. With a bunch of liberal positions in between.