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Does the US Need a New, More Centrist, Political Party?
Many of us are increasingly fearful for our political situation here in the US.
It’s already bad, and there seem to be daily signs that it is getting even worse.
Back in 2020, when Howard Schultz tried to throw his hat in the ring as an independent candidate for president, I was frankly dismissive of his effort, and even of the idea of trying to find any middle ground in our heated political divisions.
But when we consider the possibility of a centrist party, I think the answer all depends on what kind of centrism we’re talking about.
In many ways, our current political divisions can be traced back to the failed presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater, launched in 1964, when he famously asserted that, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”
And even though he suffered a loss of historic proportions in the presidential race that followed, the seeds had been sown.
For in the years that followed, extremism gained a foothold in both of our political parties, and both parties sought political advantage by characterizing their opponents using the words and positions voiced by their most extreme elements — and by seeking to make room in their own parties for their own extremists, in order to gather together the largest…
