What is the Center-Right?
Great question.
I used to think I knew. Now… I’m not so sure.
Wikipedia, in a long-winded, but useful definition says:
“The centre-right also referred to as the moderate right, describes adherence to views whose views (sic) leaning to the right but closer to the centre on the left-right political spectrum than other right wing variants.
The centre-right claims that inferior quality behavior, such as laziness and decadence, will lead people to inferior situations in comparison to others.[1] The contemporary centre right, unlike the far-right, usually claims that this is not innate and that people can end their behavioural inferiority through changing their habits and choices of behaviour.[2] There was a shift in attitude of the Western world away from aristocracy from the 1830s to the 1880s, with the decline of influence of aristocracy and the rise of capitalism and the rise of influence of middle-class bourgeoisie.[3] This general economic shift towards capitalism affected moderate right movements such as the British Conservative Party that responded by shifting away from being supportive of the traditions of aristocracy to being supportive of capitalism.[4]
The International Democrat Union, an alliance of centre-right political parties, including the British Conservative Party, the Republican Party of the United States, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, Christian democratic parties, amongst others across the world, is committed to the principles that “democratic societies provide individuals throughout the world with the best conditions for political liberty, personal freedom, equality of opportunity and economic development under the rule of law; and therefore being committed to advancing the social and political values on which democratic societies are founded, including the basic personal freedoms and human rights, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; in particular, the right of free speech, organisation, assembly and non-violent dissent; the right to free elections and the freedom to organise effective parliamentary opposition to government; the right to a free and independent media; the right to religious belief; equality before the law; and individual opportunity and prosperity”.[5]“
OK, I like it. If nothing else, it looks like a good start at describing something I had never paid much attention to… My political beliefs…
But I digress. Back to the question. What is the Center-Right?
For an overly simplistic, but quick answer, I like the Wiki-take… Paraphrasing here – Being center-right is leaning to the right, but closer to the center than “other right-wing variants”. OK, Sounds good. Sign me up. But what does this really mean? For that we need a lot longer answer.
Unfortunately, the longer answer is pretty hard one to pin down. By definition, to find the center-right you first have to find the left the right and the center.
Rot Roh…
Herein lies the problem. In today’s hyper-politicized, purposely divisive world of political opinion, the left is getting lefter every day. To counterbalance, the right is getting righter (but not as much, in my opinion, as the left is getting lefter…). This widening of the chasm has meant that far too many good, upstanding Americans have let themselves be sucked into the… Gasp! Center.
Yep, being that the center is still a wussy, meaningless, irrelevant, wasteland of non-opinion, appeas-nik attitudes and defeatist compromise, being right-of-center is even more important than it was before.
As a matter of fact, we think that “We the People” are still center-right, we have just forgot how to think, act and live that way.
In follow-on posts, we’ll take a look at the core values, principals and beliefs that define what it means to be center-right and also expose and defeat any attempts to circumvent or otherwise modify any of these core values, principals and beliefs.
CenterRightVoice 