On the continuation page (as it's too wide for the front page), I've produced a table which attempts to identify possible centrist positions in comparison to Democratic and Republican positions, and those of the extreme left and right.
Some of the Democratic and Republican positions are quoted from official party publications, while some are based on my estimation.
Please leave comments on the possible centrist positions I've identified. Also, help me fill out the cells which are empty, and suggest new issues.
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Issue
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Extreme
Left
|
Democrat
|
Center
|
GOP
|
Extreme
Right
|
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Social
Policy
|
Based
on social theories popularized in the 1960's which overturned traditional
values.
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Incoherent
mix of 1960's values and classical values.
|
Maximize
freedom consistent with reason and classical, time-tested values like
personal responsibility and the work ethic.
No deference to religious authority.
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Traditional
values strongly influenced by scriptural authority and church teachings
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Based
on scriptural authority and church teachings
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Economic
Policy
|
Anti-free
market.
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On
balance, pro-market, with substantial reservations.
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Market
solutions by default, unless obvious problems.
|
Markets
Rule!
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Free
Market Utopian
|
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Foreign
Policy
|
Pacifist
|
Split
between national security realists and neo-pacifists
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Split
between realists and idealists.
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Idealism
is realistic.
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Isolationist
|
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War
On Terror
|
Change
our policies so they're not mad at us anymore.
Rely on criminal justice to pursue terrorists.
|
Fight
Al Qaeda through criminal justice and military means
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Fight
Al Qaeda, through military and criminal justice means.
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Fight
Al Qaeda, through military and criminal justice means, with emphasis on
the former, if necessary risking relations with allies in the latter.
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Fight
Al Qaeda, through military and criminal justice means, with emphasis on
the former, if necessary risking relations with allies in the latter.
|
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Homeland
Security
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Tighten
security at ports, airports, and borders;
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Tighten
security at ports, airports, and borders;
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Tighten
security at ports, airports, and borders;
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Tighten
security at ports, airports, and borders;
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Tighten
security at ports, airports, and borders;
|
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Missile
Defense
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Cancel
deployment and research of missile defense system.
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Continue
to research missile defense system, but it has not performed well enough
to deploy.
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Continue
research; require consensus for deployment
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Deploy
operational missile defense
system
|
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Patriot
Act
|
Repeal
major sections of PATRIOT Act which violate civil liberties
|
Support
PATRIOT Act. Contemplate
major modifications.
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Support
PATRIOT Act but contemplate modifications
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Support
PATRIOT Act
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Repeal
major sections of PATRIOT Act which violate civil liberties
|
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Iraq
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Pull
out immediately.
|
Support
democracy. Don't expect
Iraqis to like us, and withdraw troops as swiftly as Iraqi government
allows.
|
Support
Iraqis as they build their version of democracy.
Withdraw US forces as soon as the security situation allows, not by
an arbitrary timetable. Keep
US forces based in Iraq only at the request of a legitimate Iraqi
government, but consider it carefully as it would most likely foment
continued support of terrorists.
|
Support
democracy. Democratic
countries are nearly always friendly to the United States.
Some troops may be based in Iraq permanently.
|
Pull
out immediately.
|
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Abortion
|
The
fetus is mere living tissue, no different than a tumor, until birth
|
Support
a woman's right to choose, consistent with Roe v. Wade, regardless of her
ability to pay.
Abortion
should be safe, legal, and rare.
|
We're
a pro-choice organization and support the current constitutional
framework. We are open
to common-sense regulation of abortion, including parental/judicial
notification for minors, and bans on late term post-viability abortions
where there is no serious health risk to the mother in carrying the fetus
to term. Prepared to debate whether tax dollars should not be used to
perform abortions.
|
The
unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be
infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution.
|
Human
embryos must be protected from moment of conception, even at the expense
of the life of the mother.
|
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Voting
Rights/Redistricting/
Gerrymandering
|
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HAVA
II
Gerrymander
in California, undo it in Texas.
|
Anti-gerrymandering
legislation. All states
should participate.
see
centrists.org
|
in
2002 when the Congress passed and
the
President signed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). We will continue to do
all we
can
to ensure that every lawful vote counts for all Americans.
Gerrymander
in Texas, undo it in California.
|
|
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Gay
Rights
|
|
Support
full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and
seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families.
Oppose
a Federal Marriage Amendment.
Marriage
has been defined at the state level for 200 years, and we believe it
should continue to be defined there.
|
Support
gay civil unions functionally equal to marriage.
Adoption
is a complex issue, and placement agencies may make appropriate
distinctions necessary for the welfare of the child.
|
Legal
recognition and the accompanying benefits for couples should be preserved
for the union of one man and one woman which has historically been called
marriage.
Support
constitutional amendment that protects traditional marriage
Should
not force states to recognize other living arrangements as equivalent to
marriage.
|
|
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Gays
In The Military
|
|
All
patriotic Americans should be allowed to serve our country without
discrimination.
|
National
security must take priority over social engineering of the left or right.
|
Homosexuality
is incompatible with military service.
|
|
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Nuclear
Proliferation/Securing Materials
|
|
Safeguard
all bomb
making
material worldwide. We need to find it, catalog it, and lock it away.
At
the current pace, it will take 13 years to secure potential bomb material
in
the former Soviet Union. We cannot wait that long. We will do it in four
years.
strengthening
the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is so critical. We must close the loophole
that lets countries
develop
nuclear weapons capabilities under the guise of a peaceful, civilian
nuclear power program.
.
|
|
•
led the Proliferation Security Initiative to interdict dangerous WMD and
their
means
of delivery;
•
strengthened efforts to secure weapons-usable materials and sensitive
technologies
in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere;
resources
devoted to
the
Nunn-Lugar programs and other nonproliferation assistance, including that
made
available
through the creation of the G-8 Global Partnership, which will provide $20
billion
to this effort over 10 years.
|
|
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Free
trade
|
|
|
|
Doha
negotiation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), regional and
sub-regional
initiatives such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the Free
Trade
Area of the Americas, and the Middle East Free Trade Area, extension of
the
African
Growth and Opportunity Act, and the conclusion of bilateral free trade
agreements
with nations such as Australia, Morocco, Chile, and Singapore.
•
completing agreements with 12 countries, and currently negotiating with 10
other nations, to reduce trade barriers –
reauthorization
in the Trade Act of 2002 of preference programs with the
nations
of the Caribbean and Andean regions.
|
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United
Nations
|
|
|
|
The United Nations was
not designed to summon or lead armies in the field and, as a matter of
U.S. sovereignty, American troops must never serve under United Nations
command.
|
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Cuba
|
|
|
|
we support President
Bush’s principled position that the current mbargo on trade with, and
restrictions on travel to, Cuba must remain in place as along
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Social
Security reform
|
|
oppose privatizing
Social Security or raising the retirement age.
We oppose reducing the
benefits earned by workers just because they have also earned a benefit
from certain public retirement plans.
Workers should never
lose all their savings because their employer locked those savings into
the company's own stock.
increase the
portability of retirement savings and help all families save.
|
Closer
to Republican side, but reluctant to fund private savings accounts through
expansion of deficit.
centrists.org position
“The
social insurance nature of the Social Security system is intended to
reduce poverty and hardship in retirement.
Any reforms of the Social Security system must preserve this vital
social insurance function and allocate a larger share of the available
revenues to beneficiaries with the lowest lifetime incomes and the
greatest need.”
|
We support the
President's proposal to create a new Lifetime Savings Account (LSA)… and
to consolidate numerous employer-based retirement plans into a single
Employer Retirement Savings Account (ERSA).…
Anyone now receiving
Social Security, or close to being eligible for it, is guaranteed that
their benefits will not be cut and their taxes will not be raised.
|
|
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The
estate tax
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Confiscatory
rates.
|
The
transmission of huge estates from one generation to the next is
characteristic of an aristocratic society.
Support a meritocracy where a person’s success is primarily based
on their own achievements. Therefore
support an estate tax, but at rates which are not confiscatory, and which
provide exemptions so that family farms and businesses can be passed on
without forcing the heirs to sell to pay the estate tax.
|
The
transmission of huge estates from one generation to the next is
characteristic of an aristocratic society.
Support a meritocracy where a person’s success is primarily based
on their own achievements. Therefore
support an estate tax, but at rates which are not confiscatory, and which
provide exemptions so that family farms and businesses can be passed on
without forcing the heirs to sell to pay the estate tax.
|
Abolish
it.
|
Abolish
it.
|
|
Immigration
|
Open
borders.
|
Open
to amnesty for undocumented immigrants
Open
to drivers liscenses for undocumented immigrants.
|
Willing
to support amnesty for undocumented immigrants only in return for further
reforms making it more difficult for employers to hire post-amnesty
undocumented immigrants.
No
drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants.
|
Divided
between supporters of a
temporary
worker
program
and amnesty for undocumented workers, and those who oppose them.
Opposed to drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants.
|
Close
the borders.
|
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Fiscal
responsibility (budget cuts or other deficit-reduction
measures)
|
"All
entitlements all the time."
|
"Pay-As-You-Go"
rules that require the government to pay for new initiatives.
Live within tough
budget caps-real and enforceable limits on what the government can spend.
Enact a Constitutional
version of the line-item veto to make it easier to root out pork-barrel
spending.
We are committed to
cutting the deficit in half over the next four years.
|
centrists.org policy
centrists.org policy econ_basics
Long Term: Hold the Debt/GDP Ratio Under 50 Percent,
permanently
Short
Term:
Raise Revenues to 18 Percent of GDP and Lower Spending
to 19 Percent of GDP By 2007
A Tax and Budget Reform Commission to re-build the political will
for budgetary restraint and responsibility
Re-Balance Medicare benefits and reforms
Start a Serious Discussion on Social Security Reform
Tax Reform Instead of Tax Cut Repeal
Back to Pay-As-You-Go; CBO and process reforms
Sunshine on the appropriations process
|
Advocate tax cuts.
Eliminate the corporate tax.
we support extending
the pay-as-you-go requirement for mandatory spending only.
we endorse the creation
of a line-item veto …
We endorse creating a
[sunset] commission to evaluate discretionary spending on federal agencies
and programs to ensure that taxpayer funds are being used for the best,
most efficient purposes
|
“Tax
cut mania”
|
|
Supreme
court
|
Critical
legal theory.
|
Loose
constructionism
|
Judges
have flexibility, but only as trailing edge of society consensus.
|
Strict
Constructionism.
|
Restore
the "Constitution in exile" (reverse New Deal era decisions)
|
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Sex
Education
|
Sex-positive
|
Teach
methods of birth control neutrally.
|
Teach
methods of birth control, but recommend abstinence until adulthood.
|
Abstinence
from sexual activity is the only protection that is 100 percent
effective
against out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases,
including
sexually
transmitted HIV/AIDS. Therefore, we support doubling abstinence education
funding.
We oppose school-based clinics that provide referrals, counseling, and
related
services
for contraception and abortion..
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Urban
Sprawl
|
Favor
mass transit over autos.
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Favor
cities.
|
Urban
culture is exciting, but it requires safe cities.
Tough criminal justice is required to make cities livable.
|
Prefer
suburbs to cities
|
Green
Acres is the place for me.
|
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Income
Tax
|
Soak
The Rich
|
We
want a tax code that rewards work and creates wealth for more people, not
a tax code that hoards wealth for those who already have it
We
should set taxes for families making more than $200,000 a year at the same
level as in the late 1990s
We
will cut taxes for 98 percent of Americans and help families meet the
economic challenges of their everyday lives. And we will oppose tax
increases on middle class families, including those living abroad.
raise
the minimum wage to $7.00, increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit and
extending child credits so that parents who work full-time don't have to
raise their children in poverty
eliminate
the indefensible loopholes in our tax code
eliminate
the corporate subsidies that waste taxpayer dollars and undermine fair
competition.
|
Balance
need to reward initiative by allowing those who create wealth to keep most
of it, with need to make work pay for low-income workers through earned
income tax credit.
|
Make the tax relief of
2001 and 2003 permanent
reform the tax code to make it simpler, fairer, and more
growth-oriented:
Build on efforts to develop a tax code that does not punish
taxpayers for saving.
We support legislation
requiring a super-majority vote in both houses of Congress to raise taxes.
|
Abolish
The IRS
|
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School
Choice
|
|
Oppose
private school vouchers
support
public school choice, including charter schools and magnet schools.
|
|
supports
parents who choose faith-based and other nonpublic school for their
children.
expand
school choice, funding for new and existing charter schools…
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Environment
|
|
protect Nevada and its
communities from the high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca mountain
climate change is a major international challenge that
requires global leadership from the United States, not abdication.
|
|
we link the security of
private property to our environmental agenda because environmental
stewardship has been best advanced where property is privately held…
Republicans are
committed to meeting the challenge of long-term global climate change by
relying on markets and new technologies to improve energy efficiency.
strongly oppose the Kyoto Protocol and similar mandatory
carbon emissions controls that harm economic growth and destroy American
jobs.
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Health
Care
|
|
Our goal is
straightforward: quality, affordable health coverage for all Americans
provide all Americans
with access to the same coverage that members of Congress give themselves.
every expectant mother
should get quality prenatal care; every child should get regular
check-ups; every senior should be able to get safe, affordable
prescription drugs; and no hardworking family should ever lose everything
because illness strikes a loved one.
provide tax credits to
Americans who are approaching retirement age and those who are between
jobs so they can afford quality, reliable coverage. We will expand
coverage for low income adults through existing federal-state health care
programs.
We will enact a real
Patient's Bill of Rights to put doctors and nurses back in charge of
making medical decisions with their patients-instead of allowing HMO
bureaucrats to decide what a patient needs.
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adopt
Centrists.org position:
“Health
care is a difficult issue. There are no easy answers -- no
"magic bullet" policies that will solve all the problems and
make the issue go away.
”We can’t make progress on health care issues without a compelling
vision for how the health system should work, and a step-by-step program
for moving toward that vision in each major part of the health system.
Health care by its nature
requires more government involvement than many other sectors of the
economy. In general, the
government should not directly provide health care or health insurance --
those functions are best left to the more flexible private sector:
private hospitals, doctors, suppliers, and health plans. However,
government can and should compel the private health sector to provide the
information necessary to make health markets work. We also believe
government has an important role preventing monopoly and collusion or
other forms of market failure in the health sector. Finally,
government incentives are often needed to bring "pools" of
people together for the purpose of acquiring fair, reasonably priced
health insurance.”
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We reject any notion of
government-run universal health care…
reform the broken
medical liability system
We must attack the root
causes of high health care costs
Health Savings Accounts
and Association Health Plans, provide economic benefits while also making
health care more consumer-driven and increasing access to high-quality,
affordable health care.
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