• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Civic Ed>
  3. civic ed>

Sentrism: A new word for a needed brand of politics

Dave Anderson
October 03, 2019
Sentrism: A new word for a needed brand of politics

"The concept of centrism actually comes from the positioning our politicians have on the political spectrum," writes Dave Anderson.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Anderson is editor of "Leveraging" and ran for the 2016 Democratic nomination in Maryland's 8th Congressional District.

With the House impeachment inquiry officially launched, no one can predict how this will affect the race for president, especially the Democratic primary. Because the inquiry concerns allegedly impeachable acts by President Trump to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate behavior by Joe Biden when he was vice president, Biden's candidacy is now being discussed from every possible angle.

With so much attention on Biden, it is notable that the concept of centrism has received so little analysis. The pundits tell us Biden is a centrist and that Elizabeth Warren, for example, is a progressive; likewise, Amy Klobuchar is a centrist and Bernie Sanders is a progressive. And so on. Indeed, the campaign to date is regarded as a standard battle within the Democratic Party between its moderate-centrist and progressive-leftist wings.

But there are many problems with the way the internal battle has been conceptualized.


Centrists are frequently defined in terms of what they do not support. Thus centrists in the Democratic Party who are running for president don't support Medicare for All. And they don't support the Green New Deal. Instead, these centrists defend more "moderate" health care and climate change policies. This is why centrists are frequently called moderates.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The concept of centrism actually comes from the positioning our politicians have on the political spectrum. The left includes the socialists, even communists, and the right includes fascists. Toward the center you find a space for mainstream democrats. Now mainstream democrats, and this is small d and not capital D for the United States' Democratic Party, have their own spectrum. Thus those to the left of center are the progressives or welfare state liberals; those to the right are the conservative or libertarian democrats. Those in the middle are the moderates.

Almost all Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and also President Trump, fit into the center of the overall political spectrum. There are some exceptions. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example, is a Democratic Socialist. She is on the left of the entire spectrum and is indeed a critic of almost all Democrats and certainly all Republicans. Although Democrats like Biden get labeled as "centrists," there are members of the Republican Party, though not many, who can also be called centrists. The Republicans who are a part of the No Labels Problem-Solvers Caucus, for example, can be called centrists or certainly "moderate Republicans." A co-chairman, former Ambassador to Russia and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, can be considered a centrist.

There is a significant problem with how centrism is conceptualized because it invariably means either a moderate version of the Democratic Party platform, the Republican Party platform — or compromise of both. The problem is that there are some versions of centrism which aim to do more than split the difference between the two parties. This other kind of centrism, which I like to call "sentrism," seeks to create a bold synthesis of the two party platforms or positions on given policy issues. Moreover, sentrism tries to create a following by motivating citizens who reject standard left, right and centrist points of view. This following is designed not to focus on public policies alone.

A sentrist could win the Democratic nomination for president, but only by breaking free of the other centrists. Trump, in many ways, provides a model. He ran as a Republican, but created his own lane in the Republican primary.

Biden could emerge as a sentrist candidate. To do so, he would need to change his campaign from one focused on restoring order and criticizing progressives in his own party to one that embraces an exciting centrist point of view that motivates citizens. What would this sentrist point of view look like? To start, Biden would need to define himself in these terms. Tell the voters: I am not a bland moderate. Nor am I a run of the mill progressive. Although 76 years old, I am a new kind of centrist.

Biden would have to make it clear where a cross-partisan synthesis is used on a given policy; why it is a mistake to call him a moderate; how he can mobilize the millions disillusioned with politics; and why this election is about electing him and not about rejecting Trump.

In Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" the central character Wingfield exclaims, "it's just the shank of the evening" when she is hoping to keep "the gentleman caller" in her house to bond with her shy, physically limited, daughter Laura. So too can we say that for Democratic voters, it is just the shank of the primary.

If voters are patient, they may yet see a vigorous, bold centrist candidate emerge.

The reason it matters how we categorize political positions is that the pundit world and the parties themselves now control the narrative. Millions of registered Democrats and registered independents are feeling stuck between two undesirable choices: a bland, moderate centrist and an exciting, ambitious leftist. Too many citizens don't want to risk putting a vigorous, left-wing progressive in the ring with Trump, assuming he survives impeachment. Just as many are not motivated by the safe bland moderate centrists.

Yet there is a kind of centrism that gets voters out of this choice — if only a candidate will come forth and be that kind of sentrist.

From Your Site Articles
  • The political center is an activity, not a belief system - The Fulcrum ›
  • Let's be clear about when we mean when we say 'socialism' - The Fulcrum ›
  • What does it mean to be a centrist in the Mideast and U.S.? - The Fulcrum ›
  • Problem solvers caucus - The Fulcrum ›
  • The vibrant centrism American democracy needs - The Fulcrum ›
  • Trump and Hogan proxies headline Maryland primary eleciton - The Fulcrum ›
  • What ‘Progress’ should look like, and what we get wrong - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Define extremists in terms of centrists, not the other way around ... ›
civic ed

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

Finding solutions to America’s civics crisis

Thomas Kelly

Stay safe: Black women need tools to end violent relationships

Natasha Crooks

AI leaves us no choice but to learn from the past

Kevin Frazier

Sandra Day O'Connor's legacy has been dismantled

Beau Breslin

America will be just fine without crypto

Tonantzin Carmona

Holiday reads: A handful of books offer to get you in the election year spirit

Rick LaRue
latest News

The danger of technology discrimination

Nakeema Stefflbauer
05 December

Winning proportional representation: Lessons from New Zealand

Cynthia Richie Terrell
Rob Richie
05 December

Johnny’s American future

Debilyn Molineaux
04 December

Are state governments ready for today’s unique challenges?

Kevin Frazier
01 December

2024 caucus-primary and general elections controlled by extremists

Steve Corbin
01 December

A crisis creates clarity for donors

Jack Miller
01 December
Videos
Who is the new House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson?

Who is the new House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson?

Our Staff
Video: Jordan bully tactics backfire, provoke threats and harassment of fellow Republicans

Video: Jordan bully tactics backfire, provoke threats and harassment of fellow Republicans

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Reflection on Indigenous Peoples' Day with Rev. F. Willis Johnson

Video Rewind: Reflection on Indigenous Peoples' Day with Rev. F. Willis Johnson

Our Staff
Video: The power of young voices

Video: The power of young voices

Our Staff
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Dr. F Willis Johnson in rich conversation with Steve Lawler

Lennon Wesley III
29 November

Podcast: Dr. F. Willis Johnson in a rich conversation with Patrick McNeal

Our Staff
14 November

Podcast: Better choices, better elections

Our Staff
23 October

Podcast: Are state legislators really accountable to their voters?

Our Staff
06 October
Recommended
civic education notebook

Finding solutions to America’s civics crisis

Civic Ed
Black woman

Stay safe: Black women need tools to end violent relationships

Faithful & Mindful Living
computer circuitry

AI leaves us no choice but to learn from the past

Technology
Sandra Day O'Connor being sworn in as a Supreme Court justice

Sandra Day O'Connor's legacy has been dismantled

Judicial
digital currency graphic

America will be just fine without crypto

Innovation & Incubation
Three political books: The Politics Industry, A Real Right to Vote, The Primary Solution

Holiday reads: A handful of books offer to get you in the election year spirit

Media