Why Are Centrists Scary?

Patriotic Mom (Pam) went ahead and took the World’s Smallest Political Quiz and scored Centrist. I told her I consider Centrists scary. She wanted to know why. First of all, scary might not be the right choice of words, but I like to use it, especially since it gets Pam going. I'm actually more leery of Centrists in the legislature. One on one, I might find more common ground in conversation with a Centrist but, you never know how a Centrist might vote in an election, and that's a concern.

Centrists are what the Main Stream Media call "moderates", those that hold views that are a mix of those from the Left, Right, Libertarian or Authoritarian areas of the political spectrum. In practice, the Centrists are likely a threat to freedom just like the Left or Right.

This might well be overly simplistic as I’ll refer to the Left and Right when so many of our legislators are Authoritarian, but here’s how I see it:

Whether the legislature is dominated by Left or Right, each side will pass legislation to support their cause. Since most legislation either costs one group or another their money or freedom, once the Left and Right have had their turn, both the Left and Right (and everyone else) end up in the end with less money and freedom.

Enter the Centrist, or moderate. Their political philosophy consists of a mish- mash of just about every political persuasion, but likely evolves from what they’ve seen on two minute sound bites on the nightly news or, like many of their colleagues, whoever gave the most to their election campaign.

While they might not vote exclusively for Left or Right Wing legislation, they’ll likely vote to approve some legislation from each side of the aisle. As a result, just like after the Left and Right have been in control, everyone ends up with less money and their freedom diminished.

In the real world it’s unlikely libertarians will be elected any time soon in sufficient numbers to affect legislation. So, I’d much prefer a polarized legislature, hopefully with fairly even numbers on each side (unlike California) where they can get caught up in gridlock over supposedly strongly divergent views. Since most legislative action results in taking people’s money, their freedom diminished or simply in business the government shouldn’t be involved with in the first place, the less that gets done the better. With Centrists, Left and Right Wingers in charge, gridlock is good.

"Given the low level of competence among politicians, every American should become a libertarian. The government that governs the least is certainly the best choice when fools, opportunists and grafters run it. When power is for sale, then government power should be severely limited. When power is abused, then the less power the better."- Charley Reese