Why are there never Republican centrists? Why do Republicans never move to the center?

[Statistical]

I mean Democratic party is actually two parties. The Democratic party and the centrist party. I am not here to bash centrists (I actually tend to be socially liberal and fiscally conservative).

It just is strange that some % of Democratic party is really centrists. However the Republican party is almost always unified. So it might be something like 50% Republican, 30% Centrist, 20% Democrat.

Anyone have a good explanation on why that is? Reason I ask is Obama moving to the center wouldn't be so bad IF (and this is not happening) you saw large numbers of Republicans also moving to the center. It would almost be a hedge your bets kinda move. We want 10, they want 1. Move to 5. 5 is worse than 10 but far better than 1. What is happening is we move from 10 to 5. They stay at 1. Now the "center" is 3 and that is where the negotiations START. A little capitulation and the final bill ends up a 2 or maybe a 1.

A related question anyone know who would be consider the most "liberal" Republican (using that term loosely). A republican that is the closest to a 5 on a scale 1 to 10.

[EstimatedProphet]

1. They don't have to.

[mmonk]

2. They did at one time. But since they have to move over

due to the Democratic Party's move to the right, there's no center to move to so it's further right instead.

[DenverDad]

22. Agreed

The "center" tent is full, with Dems.

[gateley]

3. I think those are the ones the old school refers to as "your grandfather's Republican

party." Gone.

[w8liftinglady]

6. My dad was totally for social programs-especially college funding

You are right...they are a dying breed

[gateley]

13. I think the difference is they were sincerely fiscally conservative -- not greedy. nt

[CrispyQ]

4. ...

[Statistical]

15. Exactly. n/t

[grasswire]

5. there used to be

I'm thinking specifically of Senator Mark Hatfield from Oregon -- a man who stood openly and firmly against the Vietnam war.

Previously, the "right" had its own sector in the John Birch Society, which was widely reviled.

I believe this current level of insanity started with the Nixon crowd, who were/are paranoid and authoritarian in nature. Even though Nixon himself had some centrist leanings, the paranoia and authoritarianism opened doors for people like Ed Meese, Cheney and the neo-cons.

[Gman]

7. Easy answer: they want to make it out of the primary

then they delete their primary website with all the crazy shit and pretend to be of normal mentality in the GE. It's gotten to be that their base knows their just faking it with what they say in the GE.

[LeftishBrit]

8. There are - or were.

Some I know of include former Senators Jeffords and Weicker, Supreme Court Justices Stevens and Souter (both nominally Republican!), and quite a number of others. But what I call 'The First Law of Republican Politics' states that any Republican can be defeated in a primary by someone further to the Right. And this has happened to too many. At least ever since 1946, when the progressive Republican senator from Wisconsin Bob LaFollette Jr was de-selected by his party in favour of Joe McCarthy! And it ends up with the party being dominated by the RW nuts. (E.g. didn't the Delaware nutter O'Donnell defeat a more moderate Republican in the primary?)

[sadbear]

9. Wasn't Mike Castle of Delaware considered a centrist?

See what happened to him?

[FLPanhandle]

10. The old Republican center has become independents

Their party shifted. I know of a couple of previous moderate republicans who are now democrats. They still have the same beliefs, it's just that the Republican party has left them behind. A couple more are now independents.

[CrispyQ]

23. A merge that leaves the liberals behind.

The dems become more & more infiltrated by saner conservatives. The new democratic party is the old republican party. The new republican party is the batshit party. The liberals better get organized or we're going to have even less representation than we have now.

[cali]

11. Olympia Snow and Susan Collins are centrists.

[yurbud]

24. and that's about it

[Selatius]

12. The Republicans are only like that because they purged out their moderates.

As a result, the Democratic Party absorbs the ones who were pushed out, and the result is a Democratic Party that is splintered.

[notesdev]

14. centrist = corporatist

I'd rather an ideological opponent than a banker-owned snake

[yurbud]

26. GOP ''centrist''= corporatist in state with few toothless, bible-thumping, third grade drop outs

The Taliban shtick doesn't go over, so they have to use a different wrapper to get elected, but they are as reliable on core economic and foreign policy issues as their foaming at the mouth Southern brethren.

[pansypoo53219]

16. because moderate WILL vote strictly republikkklan,

even if they are total whores to fux gnews/limbaugh or the talibornagain. cause democrats are just bad. they don't THINK.

[bullwinkle428]

17. Author Thomas Frank ("What's Wrong with Kansas") was discussing this on CNN last night -

he said the reason is because "Democrats are CLUELESS when it comes to playing the political game!"

He said if this was a Republican administration coming off big losses in a midterm election, there's no way in hell they would go with new people that were viewed as "centrists" - they would just go harder to the right, and dig their heels in.

[BzaDem]

18. Simple. Twice as many people identify as conservatives than liberals. This means conservatives have

to win over very few moderates to win, whereas liberals have to win over a huge portion of the moderates to win.

One can discount labels all they want (and say that self identified moderates and conservatives actually support liberal positions). That may even be true in some instances. But what really matters is that whether or not conservatives support liberal positions, they vote for Republicans and the right each and every time (almost unanimously).

If someone supports liberal positions, but votes for or enables Republicans, it doesn't actually matter what they claim to support policy-wise. It is literally irrelevant. Talking about what policies a Republican-enabler (from either claimed ideological side) supports is like talking about the sound a tree makes when it falls, when no one is there to hear it. Conservatives almost unanimously vote for Republicans, liberals almost unanimously vote for Democrats, and there are twice as many of the former as there are of the latter. Until that changes, the dynamic won't change much.

[Erose999]

19. If you buck the GOOP party line you get a primary challenger.

as happened to Mayor McCheese in the last election. They sent a carbon copy of Rush Limbaugh out there to tell him to "straighten up and fly RIGHT".

[sabrina 1]

20. I think the Republican Party is completely bought

by the Corporate World. To even run for office now on the Republican ticket, you have to have corporate funds. To move even slightly to the left, towards even the current center, would lose them their corporate backing and there's always someone else ready to take that job which is now a lifetime job. They are rewarded for their work for Corporate America even if they lose. They go on to the next phase, very lucrative lobbying jobs etc.

The same thing is happening in the Democratic Party now. That is why real progressives cannot even compete financially. The Party Leadership supports the 'centrists' every time over real progressives.

Corporate America owns our government. Until that changes, the move to the right in both parties will continue.

I don't know how it can be changed, but there is no one actually representing the American people anymore. That is obvious by how Congress ignores the polls that overwhelmingly support things like 'Medicare for all' or raising taxes on the rich.

The takeover is so complete, all they fight about in Congress now is how much each party can outdo the other for corporate rewards. It's as if they are competing for a big job, and we the people rarely factor into the equation because protecting the American people's interests is not part of the job description.

[Volaris]

21. I think that none of them are elected to office anymore,

but they ARE out there. The ones I know are ALL socially Liberal, Economically Centrist (I.E.--hate the Debt and dislike the Federal Reserve), and Constitutionally, accepting of the fact that Govt. has a purpose (a GOOD purpose btw) and that States Rights and Construction-ism don't always get to work in your favor. And ALL of them that I know voted a straight Dem. ticket in the last two elections, out of spite for what W., Rush, Beck, Fox News, and the Conservative leadership of the GOP have been doing to this country and to the GOP itself. The Hope(TM) among many of them was that we would get a Constitutional Scholar in the White House that understood that Congress is NOT the lackey of the Executive, regardless of who the sitting Pres. is, and that the only way to solve problems is to first have the solutions passed through an INDEPENDENT Congress. (and that if the Pres. doesn't like the bill, he can damn-well Veto it.) These people have all been purged from the Republican Party, but they're not yet convinced that they are Democrats. For that to happen, the Dem. leadership that they voted for has to put some policy wins on the board; the repeal of DADT helped, but a lot of them wanted a Public Option, and the Dem. leadership caved. This is not to say that they are Sheep, but if someone would just LEAD THEM, that person would probably have a right nice little voting block to depend on in the next election.
thats what I see form where I sit. Arguments are always welcome.
Peace=)

[L0oniX]

25. ...and why do Dems keep moving to the right? With out the left, that's what happens.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Try history

but there used to exist.

TR WAS a progressive... Hover was the last in the Progressive Movement, I know that is shocking to people.

Ike was a liberal in many ways... even Nixon was liberal in Environmental policies.

The modern Economic Royalists have kicked those people out of the party... and have let the same radicals Ike laughed about, take over the party. Why they remind me of Whigs in many respects.

[old mark]

28. Republicans call their centerists Democrats...Many very rightists think McCain

is a liberal and Romney is a closet Democrat.


mark