And to that point…what is a centrist?
What is a “moderate”?
I attempted to discuss that question this past summer at my weblog Random Fate, and in light of Joe’s post below discussing the founding of The Moderate Voice it seems appropriate to review my personal view of what constitutes a “moderate” and how that is not the same as a “centrist”:
You will not always see centrist positions taken by me either here or in other venues where I write, but I do try to adhere to the spirit of moderation:
A moderate can be of any political stripe or agglomeration of beliefs. The defining characteristic of a moderate is a willingness to acknowledge that beliefs other than those held by the moderate cannot and should not be dismissed out of hand.
It is all about discussion and a recognition that we are fallible humans with no one ever being completely 100% correct all of the time. Inability to acknowledge that fallibility can be fatal, and that refusal to recognize their own human failings is what I find most troubling about ideologues of any persuasion, left, right, or other.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.