Centerfield

The MM blog moved months ago for personal reasons of the author. You can now find him here, as full of opnion as ever. TMV moved so hard and persistently left and so tolerant of trolls that the more right-middle bloggers decamped, and even we moved it from our "center" section to our "politics" section. (They haven't linked to SF since--I will continue to link to them as I find posts of interest.)

Still some excellent moderate blogging going on, and some intelligent sites left, right, and center that are more interested in good posting than running obscenely nasty echo chambers.

If you go to sideways mencken, he links to to the main page of the centrist coalition instead of the blog. In boith of thoseplaces, there'ss till a link to the mighty middle, which is a linkbot. Or whatever you want to call that. Do you know, is there a name for those sorts of pages, a sort of content free, computer composed page of links. I hate those things.

With Unity08 gone you can always join the preexisting effort to Draft Mike Bloomberg at - http://www.uniteformike.com

I'm sure there's a specific term for "abandoned" pags with established domain names that the current domain owner just fills with generated links while it's parked, but I don't know what it is. Yeah, I hates them too.

I rather like Marginal Revolution, though it's an econ, not a politics blog.

There's a scarily booming industry in domain squatting. The set-by-Congress monopoly that manages the Internet domain name service, Network Solutions, feels sympathy to them and sets its rules accordingly so that it's easy for legit owners to lose their domains and it's even easier to hijack them. Their contract has been renewed multtiple times, of course, despite serious performance issues and hordes of complaints.

Our Congress is so helpful, eh? Especially on tech issues.

Not only that, but Network Solutions itself now snatches your domain as soon as you search for it, so you must register it with them. http://flyawaysimulation.com/article2233.html

I think things will change. The Democratic Party is in a battle and most candidates do not want to bring up centrism for fear of sounding Republican Lite. The Republicans are in their own world and talk of centrism favors McCain and Rudy who many conservatives don't want. Until we are a bit past this seven years of B.S., centrism is still a dirty word. Don't dispair; centrism and moderation will sway the Independents and figure in greatly to the election whether their blogs were very vocal or not. Once moderation and rationality return, both Parties will be refining their centrist credentials for the election in 2012. If we witness the same B.S. for another four years, the middle will speak out and the PC will be for those in the middle.

What good is centrism when half the population is batshit crazy/misinformed? What, you're halfway between making sense and being a loon?

I'd rather make sense. But I'm unable do so, since I'm suggesting that one side is right and the other side is loony. So I'll settle for being a db.

Oops, I guess flamers aren't welcome here. Look at the silly words coming out of my mouth. I have nothing constructive to add, So hopefully I'll go away quickly.

Centrism isn't a dirty word, it's just devoid of meaning.

When you have two parties with completely different goals (not just different means to the same end, but different ends), what meaningful position could be staked in the center?

Socially conservative democrats and socially liberal republicans cannot be grouped together as centrists in any meaningful way, for example, as they are still polar opposites.

Really, what's the point here? It seems that centrism is some sort of polite middle ground that doesn't want to offend anyone and therefore never takes a meaningful stance on any issues. Awesome.

Really, what's the point here? It seems that centrism is some sort of polite middle ground that doesn't want to offend anyone and therefore never takes a meaningful stance on any issues.

Yeah, that's not very close. But if you're convinced that there's no common ground where reasonable liberals and reasonable conservatives can converse rationally, there's nothing I can say that will make you believe otherwise. Maybe it's because you're convinced that the folks on the fringes are representative of the way most folks think.

That's not true, by the way. America is split roughly into 3rds between conservatives, moderate independents, and liberals.

And contrary to your view that centrists seek to be polite and offend no one, I'm proud to say that I have been accused of being an evil hateful conservative _AND_ a foolish hippie liberal on multiple occasions.

The point? Well, for me anyways it's not to form a political party with a platform. It's much more modest than that. It's to find other folks with sensible views to talk about politics in a nonsuperfical way, to have a decent conversation that doesn;t devolve into a flame war within a matter of 4 or 5 posts.

That doesn't always happen. But I've had good conversations with both liberal-leaning and conservative-leaning folks. And that, for me, is a pleasure.

The fringes have their parties to keep them warm, and they have their frothing cesspools at places like DailyKos and RedState. It's a little bit more lonely for us folks in the middle who care about the way the country is run. So the goal of centerfield for me is pretty modest.

Awesome? Maybe not. I hope that sarcasm and insults work out well for you elsewhere in your attempts to have a decent conversation on the internet.

Try Donklephant.com and its blogroll. They get good traffic for a centrist site.

As for centrists, we don't construct a world of easily followed beliefs. The biggest blogs are the ones that tell their readers the world is easy to understand, the answers are obvious and those who disagree are idiots, evil or both. Centrists don't tell their readers what to think and, as such, don't generate a devoted lemming readership. But those who do frequent our small little corner of the blogosphere tend to be a lot more fun to converse with.

Thanks Alan. In the wake of this thread, I've been reviewing blogrolls and trolling for active centrists.

I'm breaking them down by categories

active and passably centrist, active but smell fringy, deadand gone, reincarnated

When I've done a little more reviewing I'll post an update of the results. Donklephant is one of the ones I found was alive and well. I'll check their blogroll too. At a glance they have at least one deadletter office listed, too.

I'm afraid that the problem with centrists is that we disagree with each other over specific issues all the time. Towards the ends, people agree with each other and feel a unity. In the middle, one person could be socially liberal and economically conservative while another is the opposite.

So, those two people are both considered centrist, yet they will generally disagree about everything. Even when we do share some common ground, it's also possible that we consider the areas where we disagree more important. So, basically, I think the centrist group is highly volatile and members gravitate toward one side or the other when it's time to actually mark the ballot.

I think you're right about that Justin, its certainly true to some extent. As a result we don't have the same kind of brand as the wings do.

But I don't think we're without common ground, And I do think we have some brand strength in our ability to have substantive discussions and acknowledge when folks who think differently than we do make good points. There's a bit of intellectual honesty there.

As a result, I think centrists tend to have a better understanding of most issues than wingers do, and can frame issues in ways that allow people to join in the discussion.

As our old friend Pat over at Stubborn facts is fond of saying, the system we have is supposed to work in such a way that folks with differing views work together faithfully and respectfully and with the interests of all of the people at heart, so that we come up with reasonable compromises. The idea is that in the end, while some folks may be unhappy with the outcome if they get only half a loaf or less, they are satisfied that the process is legitimate and so the resolution should be respected.

Centrists are ready to remind folks of this. Especially given the sorts of tough fiscal issues we face with healthcare, medicare, and social security. Politicians need to feel the license to tell folks things they don't want to hear without fearing crucifixion, to prepare them for some brokered compromises.

Maybe not in the middle of a re-election campaign. But what realistic hope do we have of even incremental progress on these issues when people only tune in to their choir's preachers and listen to what they like to hear...which is that they are right and the blame belongs solely to the bad guys on the other side.

There are three main kinds of centrists. There are procedural centrists who are most interested in civility and genuine compromise (that's the kind of centrist this site used to attract -- haven't been here in a long while, so I'm not sure what the story is here these days). Then there are radical centrists who are most interested in new policy ideas and major reforms, no matter where they come from on the political spectrum (Mark Satin of the Radical Middle is a good example). Then there are the weenie centrists who are just interested in splitting the difference and calling it a day (these are the safely boring types who often end up getting elected).

All three types share one thing: a dislike of the wingnuts from both parties and the partisan demands for fealty to one side or the other.

If the radical centrists could put together a workable platform then the other types of centrists might come along. But the radicals can never agree on anything -- probably because none of them want to give up their independent thought for a larger objective.

We're left with "centrist" being an amorphous label that is more-or-less analogous to "practical libertarian" or "middle-of-the-road independent" than anything else. Where there is no platform there is no traction. But, with the way this 2008 election is shaping up, there may be more demand for indpendent/centrist voices -- even without an organized front.

How about considering the following rather than the Centrist label as possibly a misnomer.

Have studied politics and issues for many years.
In fact, was raised to be in office or advise at senior levels.

You just might be what I term, the Smart Independents--Applied Logic & Cost efficiencies-- Grouping?

Isn't that what smart people are really interested in?

Or are you political party person?
In my view constrains views, solutions, etc.

AND

I have been debating about posting or a blog for
Smart Independents --Applied Logic & Cost Efficiencies subgrouping

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As a co-blogger over at the Moderate Voice, I think of myself as a moderate independent who looks for seeds of truth and pragmatism regardless of the partisan source.

I focus on process reform: Public Finance of Campaigns, redistricting reform to make elections more competitive, open primaries...

Perhaps promoting these reforms could be the common bond of Centrists, Moderates and Independents? While I do have my own preferences for the direction of National Policies, at the very least I would like to have elected representatives who are open minded, practical, cooperative, collaborative, and un-beholden.

I imagine a PAC that raised money to alert the voters in each congressional district which candidates support non-partisan election reforms.

While he doesn't have a huge audience and was pretty quiet in 2007, Jeremy at Charging RINO has perked up a bit. I am very pleased to see him posting more frequently. Pete's old site, Central Sanity still is chugging along and while his letter to the GOP got a disappointing response, the fact that he is still posting on the Moderate Voice says something.

Finally, (I know this is going to upset some people) The Daily Dish is huge. Yes I know many would peg Andrew as an Ariana Huffington type, yet, his type of small government conservatism, respectful of civil and human rights yet restrained against Nanny Statism, seems to fit my definition of the Center.

Sadly, one of my favorite sites, GOPProgress folded last year after drifting rightward. This will be a long struggle, some ups many downs but still a worthwhile fight.

There's also The PoliGazette http://poligazette.com
Midtopia http://midtopia.blogspot.com and of course my blog Dyre Portents http://crapomatic.blogspot.com