> In Jesse's case, it means someone who is pro-choice and pro-drug
> legalization, and pro-gun and anti-big government. Centrist in the
> sense of using strong (and cheap) emotional single issue appeals
> from both the right and left armories, which seem naturally opposed
> only because current party logic makes them impossible to combine
> in a Dem or Repub campaign, and the combination of which
> corresponds more closely to the majority opinion.
Certainly, but he also said he's against capital punishment, which the polls show have majority support (even if it is now falling below 70%). I remember a recording of a talk by Sister Helen Prejean where she said that there are politicians who confide to her privately that yes, she's absolutely right about the evils of the death penalty, but they're afraid to challenge it for fear of the charge of blasphemy against the prevailing law & order orthodoxy. Jesse's also against three strike laws and mandatory sentencing, though I don't know what public opinion has to say about either. Maybe Jesse can get away with transgressing the law & order fanaticism because he's an ex-Navy SEAL, or have I just missed the public exhortations against him from the anti-crime hawks?
Kelley writes:
> the problem with centrist is that it elides historical analysis of
> these opinions and policy orientations.
I thought that was the point. It's political Zen.
-- Shane
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