Pemalite said:
Because you typically remove biases (I.E. Republican or Democrat preferences) as you don't care for either... And instead place an emphasis on better mandates to the benefit all.
You see the big issue with those who are hard democrat or hard republican is that they typically don't like to "haggle", "negotiate" or "reason". - It is their way or the highway so to speak... Even when faced with a more logical, cheaper, safer option. .. And contrary to popular belief, we do not live in a binary world, there are many shades of grey inbetween the black and the white.
It also means you will typically support a policy based on it's merits rather than the team waving the flag... I.E. Universal healthcare can be a cheaper and more effective system... And there are real-world examples of that working across the planet. |
I believe "Moderation Bias" is a very real thing first of all, and I think you are describing it pretty well. A lot of people see being a moderate or a centrist as a virtue, so they will either over-estimate how well they fit into that category, or assign some non-inherent value to middle of the road positions. As such, I would disagree that you remove biases when you stand in the middle. You just hold onto a different bias than those who stand on either side of you.
Further, I think we've seen in American politics lately that your second point isn't really as true in practice as it may seem in theory. Progressives and people on the left such as Bernie Sanders may not like to compromise, but they have accepted a lot of compromise within the Build Back Better bills (both the infrastructure bill that has passed both chambers and the social infrastructure bill which has only passed the House). On the other hand, those who seem least willing to compromise are those who stand in the middle. They are pretty clearly stating "Do it my way or you get nothing" (assuming "their way" isn't just doing nothing in the first place).
I also disagree with your final point that being a centrist is about merit based policy making. Much of the time, a centrist is just someone who fears change, even if that change would be beneficial. "Radical Moderates/Centrists" really aren't much of a thing, which is what you seem to be implying. Centrists largely favor either keeping things the way they are rather than making large or sudden changes, regardless of whether evidence indicates that those large changes would be beneficial. Like I said before, the centrist position holds no inherent value, the same as any other position.