What is a Centrist?
Centrist- n. One who takes a position in the political
center; a moderate.
That is the technical definition of a centrist.
One who takes a political position in the center. What is the center? A centrist is someone who does not hold themselves
to the party politics of the right or left. Being a centrist allows you to have your politics a la carte, to have the freedom
of political thought. A centrist can support some liberal principles and some conservative principles while having the freedom
to disagree with both. A centrist cares about finding the right workable solution to a problem regardless of whose idea it
is or whether it is from the right or the left or from anywhere else. A centrist puts solutions ahead of politics. A
centrist values and practices non partisanship. Centrists usually agree on an efficent government, fiscal responsibility and
restraint, and freedom of choice on personal issues, and a strong diplomacy and national defense. Check out
these great centrist quotations and take note of the strong American leaders who have said them. You can also learn more by
checking out our ACP Press & Media Center.
Why Centrism?
Centrism allows you to have your politics a la carte and the freedom
of political thought. There are good liberal principles and good conservative principles but also many negative ones as well.
Just focusing on one or the other closes off many options to political thought and solutions. Most Americans are Centrist
and Moderate, they just might not know it yet. The liberal and conservative movements have gotten off track from positive
principles by caring about scoring “political points” against the other. Neither the left nor the right has a
monopoly on righteousness or correct thought. Each side gives a pass to their own that they would never tolerate from others.
Centrism offers people an opportunity to work together for real solutions that make sense. While Centrists will disagree with
each other on certain issues, Centrism brings people together by being open to political thought and ideas. Being pragmatic
and open minded when it comes to political thought can bring about new ideas and merging of existing ideas to help solve critical
issues America faces.
Why do American political options need change?
Originally our nation did not have political parties and George Washington
had a noticed disdain for them. Our nation did quickly develop them however. They developed because people of a like mind
tend to join together for a common cause that is human nature. Political parties are not bad but they can and have been misused
and corrupted over time. Political parties offer organization to ideas and movements, they bring people together to cooperate
through strength of actions together when as individuals or small groups it would be difficult.
With that being said why do America’s
political options need to change? The current two major party system only offers liberal and conservative viewpoints. There
is nothing wrong with believing in liberal and conservative viewpoints, there are good points to both. The problem is by just
focusing on either ideology it closes off your options to pragmatic about issues and finding solutions to them. Both the Republican
and Democratic parties have lost their way, they have both at times abandoned positive principles they claim to hold dear;
like increasing economic opportunity for all, equal protection and right under the law, fiscal responsibility, smaller more
efficient government. Both the Republican and Democratic parties are two sides of the same coin. They each disagree with each
other on almost everything but the one thing they agree on is that they don’t want any other major challengers to their
status quo. In almost every election across the nation the Republicans and Democrats usually each have fifty- fifty chance in each one.
Our current political problems of gridlock will not be changed by just one man or woman, they can inspire change but
they will not be able to do it themselves. Our government and its gridlock problems are because of the competing overriding
ideology of many, many political leaders in Washington, our state capitols and local governments. It will take a movement
of Americans getting active, educated and aware. The American Centrist Party is here and will be here in the future to be
a tool for Americans to demand and bring about a better government and in turn to help bring America better days. Only by coming together and not closing off our options can
we truly make a difference.
How can Centrism change and work in American politics?
Centrism is all about positive pragmatism. Centrists
keep their political thought and options open. Centrist political officials can take the positive aspects from any political
thought and disagree and fight against those that are negative wherever they may originate from. Centrism is all about finding
workable real solutions to issues without regard for political ideology. Centrism can unite Americans by encouraging them
to be open and to take each issue as it comes instead of relying on sticking to inflexible political ideologies of the left
and the right. Most Americans are not entirely liberal on all issues or entirely conservative, they are centrist. Centrism
can bring about true change by offering an alternative that most Americans can agree with or understand instead of the political
bickering now offered by the left and right. Centrism offers a choice and alternative by allowing Americans to use their reason
and beliefs for real workable, cooperative solutions to America’s
issues.
Check out the following centrist quotes by these American
leaders, you might be surprised to know some of the strong American leaders who have said or written them:
"I am a man who believes with all fervor and intensity in moderate progress.
Too often men who believe in moderation believe in it only moderately and tepidly and leave fervor to the extremists of the
two sides -- the extremists of reaction and the extremists of progress. Washington, Lincoln . . . are men who, to my mind, stand as the types of what wide,
progressive leadership should be."
—Theodore Roosevelt
“We want the Republican out
of our bedrooms, the Democrats out of our wallets and both out of our First and Second Amendment Rights.”
—Alan Nathan, the Aggressive
Centrist and host of Battle Line
“The problem with both parties
is that each gives a pass to their own for that which they will never tolerate from others.”
—Alan Nathan, the Aggressive
Centrist and host of Battle Line
"I was no party man myself, and the first wish of my heart was,
if parties did exist, to reconcile them."
—George Washington
"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party
of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such
addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go
there at all."
—Thomas Jefferson
"I have always sought for the middle ground."
—James Madison
"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into
two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble
apprehension, it to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."
—John Adams
"The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever
they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere."
—Abraham
Lincoln
"We [must] hold the just balance and set ourselves as resolutely against improper
corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other."
—Theodore
Roosevelt
"Just as Lincoln
got contradictory advice from the extremists of both sides . . . so now I have to guard myself against the extremists of both
sides."
—Theodore Roosevelt
"Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars,
but remember to keep your feet on the ground."
—Theodore Roosevelt
"We stand in the presence of an awakened nation, impatient of partisan make-believe."
—Woodrow
Wilson
"Government is not warfare of interests."
—Woodrow Wilson
"The future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great
public is interested more in Government than in politics. The growing independence of voters, after all, has been proven by
the votes in every Presidential election since my childhood and the tendency, frankly, is on the increase."
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Partisanship must end at the waters edge."
—Harry S. Truman
"I shall seek the support of the people of both parties. I can do this honorably
because I am an independent and therefore in a position to serve the people regardless of their politics or mine."
—Governor
Earl Warren
"It is time that the great center of our people, who reject the violence and
unreasonableness of both the extreme right and the extreme left, searched their consciences, mustered their moral and physical
courage, shed their intimidated silence, and declare their consciences."
—Senator Margaret Chase Smith
"It is only common sense to recognize that the great bulk of Americans, whether
Republican or Democrat, face many common problems and agree on a number of basic objectives."
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Extremes to the right and left of any political dispute are always wrong."
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
"The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters."
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Extreme opposites resemble the other. Each believes that we have only two
choices: appeasement or war, suicide or surrender, humiliation or holocaust, to be either Red or dead."
—John F.
Kennedy
"This is a time for courage and a time of challenge. Neither conformity nor
complacency will do. Neither fanatics nor the faint-hearted are needed. And our duty as a Party is not to our Party alone,
but to the Nation, and, indeed to all mankind. Our duty is not merely the preservation of political power but the preservation
of peace and freedom."
—John F. Kennedy Undelivered Speech, November 22nd, 1963
"Extremists on the left tend to be just as critical of pragmatism as extremists
on the right."
—Richard Nixon
"Idealism without pragmatism is impotent. Pragmatism without idealism is meaningless.
The key to effective leadership is pragmatic idealism."
—Richard Nixon
"When we put aside partisanship, embrace the best ideas regardless of where
they come from and work for principled compromise, we can move America
not left or right, but forward."
—Bill Clinton
"The choice we offer is not conservative or liberal. In many ways it’s
not even Republican or Democratic. It’s different. It’s new.
And it will work."
—Bill Clinton
"I'm too fiscally conservative for the Democrats and too socially liberal for
the Republicans, like 75% of the American people."
—Governor Angus King
"To be locked into partisan politics doesn't permit you to think clearly."
—Mayor Rudy Giuliani
"Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American
politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton
on the left, or Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell on the right."
—Senator John McCain
"The United States has only one party - the property party. It's
the party
of big corporations, the party of money. It has two right wings; one is Democrat and the other is Republican."
-Gore
Vidal
