I am a
radical centrist, however, I describe it differently from
wharfinger. To me, being a radical centrist is being a
moderate by virtue of the extremes, in other words, believing some of more
liberal and more
conservative politics. Unfortunately, this leads to
everyone hating you, as they either see you as being wrong on half of the issues, or as a friend of the enemy, for believing in some of their "
extremist" notions.
I have never
understood some of the
uproar about my positions. For example, I am in favor of
raising taxes (majority jacking them up, I come from a rich family and there is no way in hell that we need the amount of money we have), especially for the rich, but I am also in favor of cutting the budget (I don't feel like there is room for many
social programs in a
capitalist society, excluding
public education), so that we can pay off the
national defecit. I catch flak from
liberals for cutting spending, but I catch flak from
conservatives for raising taxes. I'm also extremely
pro-choice and in favor of the
death penalty. I don't understand why these positions should be
out of line with each other, but many people treat me as if they are. Although every political test I have ever taken has described me as a moderate, I cannot politically relate to my other
moderate friends, and this is why I consider myself a radical centrist and not a moderate. Contrary to what
wharfinger says above, I do not believe that being a radical centrist is at all like being a moderate.
In the end, there are many ways of defining a radical centrist, a moderate, a liberal, and a conservative, and they're all both correct and incorrect depending on the situation. Defining yourself politically in this current age and time requires you to think in
shades of grey, but then to define yourself in
black and white, and as long as we
subscribe to this way of thinking, we'll always have problems understanding others opinions.