I post on my phone so it will be hard to address everything but I will try.

Taxes: cut waste before increasing taxes.  Also close loopholes before increasing taxes.  Increasing taxes hits upper middle and low high people, not uber wealthy because they will exploit loopholes.  I'm actually a fan of a flat tax or federal sales tax (e.g. consumption tax).

Gun laws: on paper I agree...  if we believe thr government can pull it off.  But I remember how well the ACA website went.  I would be fine with implementing but it would need to be done slowly to offset government incompetence.  

Immigration: paradox.  We claim we need workers but also claim people don't have opportunities....  how about we look at what FDR did and give those without opportunities jobs in which the can build needed skills and advance themselves?

Climate: absolutely defeated attitude.  Large sections of the world aren't even that industrial.  I don't see us curving pollution in time to have an impact, especially given population continues to grow.  If not Climate WW3 will end this planet.  

And the pendulum isn't swinging.  I don't know how to fix it.  I just don't think the answer is give all power to one party.  That will only swing the pendulum in one direction.

If I'm honest I think both parties are nuts.  Neither have practical solutions.  Banning abortion doesn't fix anything.  Debt forgiveness doesn't fix anything.  

Taxes-What are some examples of the waste you’re speaking of? I don’t think it’s an either/or situation, we can and should increase taxes on the uber wealthy while also closing loopholes and increasing tax enforcement. We are starting to see that with the increased IRS funding which has been used to crackdown on tax avoidance and has been giving regular updates on how much back taxes they have recovered.

Immigration-I don’t think people are saying opportunities don’t exist, they are saying opportunities aren’t spread out equally but many of the things Democrats propose are designed to address that. Things like increased access to affordable healthcare because you can’t be a productive worker if you’re not healthy. Increased minimum wage because even cashiers and fast food workers deserve to afford the bare essentials in life. The PRO Act which makes it easier to form & join a union which helps prevent worker exploitation. Things like paid maturity/paternity leave & subsidized child care because people shouldn’t have to choose between having a career or having a family. The Equality Act which protects the LGBT community of discrimination. Increased federal funding for education because access to quality education shouldn’t be dependent on what community you were born in. Criminal Justice & drug reform to protect minorities from police brutality and getting locked up for minor drug offenses. Increased funding for infrastructure to ensure commuters are driving on safe roads/bridges/railways and have affordable & reliable electricity, HVAC & broadband. Increased funding for housing construction to stabilize rising costs.

And bills like the Infrastructure Act , CHIPS Act & Inflation Reduction Act are creating jobs in the types of fields you seem to be advocating for. They are creating jobs for engineers, bricklayers, pipe layers, electricians, plumbers, assembly workers, steel workers, linemen, etc. High wage jobs in the trades that often times don’t require a college degree.

Gun laws & climate change-for someone who talks about and prides themself on how hard they worked to get where they are, you seem to very eager to just give up on political issues that are hard to accomplish. Did you give up when things were tough while you were working on your education/career? No, you dusted yourself off and worked harder. Will we ever completely end gun violence or stop climate change? No, but that doesn’t mean we don’t try to limit the effects of them. I have to assume you don’t have kids based on these views because as a father of 4, I don’t have the luxury to just say “It’s going to be really hard to prevent mass shootings in schools and mitigate the effects of climate change for future generations so it’s not worth fighting for!”

Also, we have seen recent progress on these issues. After years of fighting we finally got the Safer Communities Act & climate provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act which obviously don’t solve these issues but they are steps in the right direction and we continue to make more positive steps by voting in people who will fight for these issues.

The way you get the pendulum to swing is by having one party have a series of wins which causes the other party to moderate their positions in order to regain votes. It’s not currently doing that because of the examples I gave previously like partisan gerrymandering, senate filibuster, electoral college & restricting voter rights which has given the Republican  party the ability to win races without a majority of votes & obstruct while in the minority and therefore have no incentive to moderate themselves.

If I may, this is my idea of these policies in America. (Glad I'm not a politician) My ideas may be extreme. I've also added the policies President Biden and Trump have (they should be viewed as quotes). If I do miss any policies they have lmk :)

Taxes on Citizens: None. Remember before WWI? There were no taxes. The founding fathers even went to war over a $2 tax. I understand that the governments need money to ensure things work, but why doesn't the government become self sufficient. And only in war times may taxes be implemented to be redacted once the war is over (is that why we have so many wars?).

• Trump's 2024 policy is to lower taxes for all brackets, to make sure we are not at the mercy of a foreign supplier of energy, bring back manufacturing power.
• Biden's 2024 policy is to resuscitate the expanded child tax credit, increase taxes to 20% to the one-hundredth of the 1%.

Gun laws: None as they violate the 2nd Amendment. If a criminal wanted one, they would've gotten one anyway (and still do), making it difficult for citizens to protect themselves. It's necessary to learn/teach how to hold, use, shoot a gun and when to use.

• Trump's 2024 policy is to defend the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
• Biden's 2024 policy is to enact universal background checks, increase scrutiny of sales in gun shows and other unlicensed venues, ban assault weapons.

Rights: All should have the same rights, and treated the same, any discrimination, racism shouldn't be tolerated. American citizens should be pushing to protect all our freedoms and rights. But that does not mean people can blatantly claim discrimination or racism. Victim-mentality is ruining good people's futures and trapping them.

• Trump's 2024 policy is to nominate highly qualified prosecutors, judges, and justices who believe in enforcing the law, not their own political agendas. Uphold religious liberty, including the Constitutional right to pray in public schools, restore free speech, open Civil Rights investigations in any school district that has engaged in race-based discrimination, keep men out of women's sports.
• Biden's 2024 policy is to protect LGBTQ+ rights, allow access to gender-affirming care, implement protections on transgender students and restrict transgender women in competitive women's sports.

Immigration: Legal Immigration is great! All for it. Anything illegal is a violation of law, and needs to be punished/dealt with fair judgement.

• Trump's 2024 policy is to shut down the border, re-end catch-and-release, restore Remain in Mexico, eliminate asylum fraud, deliver a merit-based immigration system that protects American labor and promotes American values.
• Biden's 2024 policy is to increase funding and resources for border patrol and enforcement, provide a path for people in the United States to apply for legal status and eventually citizenship, create a smoother and expanded visa process for foreign graduates of American universities.

Climate Change: Is real. Solution, plant greenery, and tax companies, and imports from other country's, that misdispose of CO2 gases, bio-waste, etc.

• Trump's 2024 policy is to eliminate the Green New Deal, implement a 4-year national reshoring plan (no longer relying on China, one of the biggest pollution makers, for essential medical and national security goods).
• Biden's 2024 policy is to reverse offshoring of manufacturing.

Pendulum swings are due to pride. "I can do it better".

And yes both parties are nuts.
Abortion is a sensitive issue, the best policy is (in my opinion), it is between the father, mother, and God to decide.

• Trump's 2024 policy is to let the states decide, supports families, make it easier for mother's to have babies (availability of fertility treatments in every state), in favor of exceptions of rape, incest, and the life of the mother.
• Biden's 2024 policy is to restore Roe v Wade.

Debt forgiveness does not fix problems, if people weren't smart with their decisions they must face the consequences. And if they weren't smart, that doesn't fix their not-smartness. Which is why it is important to teach people about topics like money handling.

• Trump's 2024 policy is to N/A.
• Biden's 2024 policy is to forgive college student loans.

Personally, I feel like there is a large, inherent difference between the parties and the state of legislation in its totality, but I'll digress. 

As for the democrats not being a centrist party, while it is a big tent which includes some who are further to the left, I disagree. That conclusion is largely based on comparison to other governments and parties. If the USA is your only frame of reference (which has historically been pretty dang politically right leaning), I could understand that conclusion, but the Democratic party I'd argue exists to the right of most center left parties, like the Canadian Liberal party (with NDP being the Progressive Left party). While political compass tests are far from definitive, I do think it is pretty eye opening to see how they place different politicians:

The founding fathers were not solely bothered by the existence of taxes. You're ignoring half of the phrase. No Taxation Without Representation. That's not being bothered by taxes. It's being bothered by being taxed, and having no say in what the government is doing with those taxes. The latter is something most people agree with.

A lot of things were added because things changed. People needed to be educated at a far more consistent level than was available, so we have more education systems. The great depression showed a need for safety nets. 
People today are more specialist and less self reliant than in the past. People don't usually grow their own food today. We're doing things that couldn't be imagined even 100 years ago, but that comes at the cost that people are less flexible. 

Where's the evidence that lowering taxes will make sure we're not at the mercy of a foreign supplier of energy and bring back manufacturing power?

The glory days of manufacturing in the US, had far higher tax rates than today. 

Yep, I did leave out that. Thanks for reminding me :)
There were actually more taxes in place at the time, the Tea Tax Act was just the final straw. Along with the pushing aside of what people thought were natural rights they had (hence why the US Constitution has natural-born rights).
And I do appreciate how the world is, but like I said my ideas may be a bit extreme. Also I probably should have specified that there should be no income tax.

I added that policy from Trump here because my mind was thinking if America was not at the mercy of any foreign supplier (energy-wise or manufacturing), then the prices of the items wouldn't be high. There would be no outside competitor, just pure American goods vs pure American goods. And since we are a capitalistic economy there would be a push to sell their object at the best-lowest price without the American company losing money.

I also talk about how the US government should learn to be self-sufficient (I didn't give examples how, so I'll give one here: Produce Government Food, like make a deal with a farmer, and sell the food overseas. Something along those lines. Or they are held accountable for where the money goes, I actually did like RFK Jr.'s idea of a governmental blockchain).

I saw this recently and thought this was pretty cool to look at.

I hope that made sense. That was at least what my mind was thinking. Thank you for the question. :)

Outside of curiosity who in this thread has lived in a capitalistic country and a socialistic country?

Just out of curiosity which countries are considered capitalistic and which are considered socialistic?

I suppose it is some what opinion?  I grew up in the US.  Moved a few years to Europe and came back to US. Ir changed my political beliefs a good chunk.

I've grown up US, Californian, lived in Idaho and México, and moved back to California. México opened up my eyes on how special the US is.