Centrism
On June 26, 2024, under the title “The Center Must Hold,” Yair Zivan gave voice to the centrism that over the past couple decades I have increasingly come to call my political stance. As I read it, I realized I’d been seeking this sort of clear exposition for quite a while.
Centrism has a set of core values, a set of beliefs that underpin the entire political approach: a focus on moderation and pragmatism; an embrace of complexity; a deep and unwavering commitment to liberal democracy, including the essential institutions that uphold it; an understanding of the value of compromise; a belief in equality of opportunity; a positive liberal patriotism; and a trust that through balancing the tensions that exist in every nation, we can make people’s lives better.
Centrism doesn’t look for total victory over one side or the other, but rather for the most effective approach to dealing with complex and ever-changing challenges. Most often, that means managing the never-ending tensions between competing sets of values. So, for example, seeking to maximize the benefits of globalization that increase our quality of life while also protecting local industries; managing the need to provide security without abandoning our commitment to civil rights; balancing the need for free markets, which encourage entrepreneurship, risk-taking, and innovation, and the necessity of a social safety net that doesn’t allow people to fall into abject poverty; managing the need to embrace the technology that will define the future and the importance of protecting society from its most harmful effects.
Centrism isn’t a failure to take a stand. Instead, it affirms that for a democratic society to survive and thrive
- my (sometimes far-from-center) priorities and your priorities both need to be taken into account and addressed in good faith;
- solutions will sometimes be messy and temporary;
- a dose of humility is necessary;
- that policy disagreements produce opponents, not enemies;
- how we reach a solution is typically as important as the solution itself;
- that compromise can be a virtue.