Whenever I tell someone I’m an Independent and a Centrist, invariably one of the first things I get asked is “well what exactly do you stand for anyway?” and many times the person(s) will follow up before I even get a chance to respond with some kind of negative comment in a condescending tone about compromising and how compromising can be a bad thing and you’re a fool if you think you could get compromise on principles-based issues, especially ones involving life and death decisions.
Being a Centrist Independent does NOT mean compromising and finding half measure solutions to every problem. That is a myth promulgated by the two party system over the years to try and force people to pick a side, because that’s the only way the 2 party system survives….by making people pick a side that they then self-identify with and stick to 100% of the time (or at least the party would like them to). It is in their interests to denigrate and disparage those in the middle as “compromisers” and question what kinds of principles we stand on in an attempt to bring undecided voters over to their side.
During the Civil War President Lincoln noted that both sides prayed fervently to God and believed that God was on their side, but pointed out that God could not be both for us and against us at the same time. And he was right then and he is right now. God is not a Democrat or a Republican, Conservative or Liberal or Moderate. And while I hope one day in the very far future to meet The Almighty and get first hand confirmation of just where he or she stands on the issues of the day, I think the better bet is that God simply wants us all to work together to fix our problems, and treat each other with respect and kindness and love in the process as much as possible.
I remember watching the Tom Selleck movie Mr. Baseball years ago and the Japanese actress Aya Takanashi that played his love interest said something to the effect of “Japan takes the best of the rest of the world and makes it better”.
To me, being a Centrist Independent means being completely free to shamelessly, unabashedly, and unapologetically “cherry pick” the best ideas to solve problems, regardless of where they originate on the political spectrum. It is pure folly, hubris, pride, whatever you want to call it, to think that all the good ideas come from one side and that all the other side is good for is saying “no”.
Being a Centrist Independent means getting the best of both worlds. It means having your cake and eating it too. It means being able to navigate and mingle equally well and without reservation amongst peoples of all creeds, belief systems, and origins.
As a Centrist Independent, I’m an opportunist looking for the best overall solution both short term and long term to make a more perfect union. Period. After all, isn’t that the main goal of everyone in the political arena….to continually make our country better than it was the day before?
Are there principles involved there? You bet there are! Major ones…..fairness, respect, caring, responsibility, citizenship, and trustworthiness….the six pillars of character just to get started.
Wanting to keep a solution-oriented mindset is a principle.
Wanting to put your nation’s overall well-being first over party concerns, ego, or other lesser agendas is a principle.
Wanting to be pro-active in solving problems before they become bigger and more costly is a principle.
Wanting to be as inclusive as possible so that everyone from all walks of life and all backgrounds is involved and a stakeholder is a principle.
And yes, compromising where possible is also a principle. It was one of our founding principles as a nation. If it were not for compromise, the big questions of the Constitutional Convention could have never been solved….what do we call the executive branch? Do we even have to have an executive branch? Is one branch to be subservient to the others or all equal? How are the representatives for each legislative body to be chosen? How is the executive to be chosen? The list goes on.
Can there be bad compromises? Of course! The 3/5ths compromise allowing slavery to continue in our newborn country was an abomination, as was the Missouri Compromise of 1820. All both of them did was simply delay the fight over slavery for 70+ years after our founding and resulted in the horrible tragedy of our bloody Civil War that we are still feeling the after effects of even today.
And there can also be times where people stubbornly stand on principle to the detriment of the nation. In short, as a Centrist Independent, I recognize that there are times when we must stand on principle, and times when it is in everyone’s interest to compromise.
But neither “compromise” nor “principle” are dirty words. What is potentially dirty is how they are executed.
And while I’m on the subject of dirty words, let’s tackle “political correctness”. It has become very vogue over the last few years to bash on political correctness. And usually the people doing the bashing have essentially been lamenting that they can’t say whatever vile, misogynistic, hateful thing they want to say.
It finally occurred to me a few years ago that it has never ever been about “correctness”. It is about “respect”. If you are making sure that you are being respectful, then it seems to me that correctness will take care of itself and not even be an issue.
The last “dirty word” I want to address is actually a very dirty word when it comes to solving problems. And it really isn’t even a single word, but goes by several aliases….”simple solutions”, “sound bytes”, etc.
I remember in a documentary about the office of the Presidency that President Carter said that once problems get up to the level of the President, there are no easy solutions, and many times you have to pick the lesser of two bad solutions, or which one will do the least amount of harm and what you think is the right thing to do for the most Americans or something to that effect.
We live in an age of “instant gratification” and between the Internet, social media, TV, newspapers, and radio, the people that win elections more and more are the ones that have the best presentation skills, the slickest persona, and the ability to convince the masses that their simple solutions are the answer and that they are the savior.
DON’T.BUY.ANY.OF.IT……there are RARELY easy answers to problems. Many of the problems we face internally and externally as a nation are complex, inter-connected, and have taken years, if not decades and centuries to get to the point that they are at, and if they were easy to fix, they would have already been fixed by now. It doesn’t mean they aren’t fixable….just that the solutions will more than likely be complex, multi-faceted, require in depth explanations, and time and patience to implement.
But getting back to “the big question” what exactly I stand for, the short answer is I have very specific and well-informed opinions and beliefs about every single issue and topic of the day, and many of them are way more important than those that the media or the 2 party system would have you believe are the most pressing issues of the day.
Perry Waag 