>>On Fri, 9 Feb 2001, Kelley wrote:
>>
>> > At 08:36 PM 2/9/01 -0500, Michael Pollak wrote:
>> >
>> > >Is possible in your scheme for there to be centrist populists?
>> >
>> > what on earth could that possibly mean?
>>
>>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.
>>
>>Michael
>
>i'd say that this makes him more an American libertarian than "centrist".
>i wouldn't say that pro-drug legalization is a majority
>opinion. pro-choice-- does this mean that he's for unrestricted access to
>abortion? if so, then he's definitely nowhere near the mainstream opinion
>there. he's not "pro gun", he's pro-second amendment, btw, (particularly
>if you want to label it "pro-choice" as opposed to "pro-abortion) and,
>again, the 2A and public opinion is pretty complicated. the last time i
>looked, most people supported *some* restrictions on guns. so it depends
>on what you mean by "pro-gun".
>
>i don't see what the point of calling it "centrist" is. all that's been
>identified is something that's pretty old in polisci lit: people tend to
>be socially "liberal" and economically "conservative".
>
>the problem with centrist is that it elides historical analysis of these
>opinions and policy orientations. what would have been "centrist" in 1970
>surely isn't what is "centrist" today or what was "centrist" in 1900.
>
>all in all, however, i'm still lost as to exactly what the damn dispute is.
>
>kelley
>
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