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centrist is one of those perspectival words--in a gop that has redefined conservatism in part by generating a wholly self-serving way of looking at the political spectrum, such that moderates like clinton and obama (who is a bit to the left of clinton in words, but we'll see in action--clinton was to the left of clinton in that way) are cast as "socialists"...make it hard to have a rational discussion. you say "socialist" with reference to obama, and i just laugh at you. i say moderate with reference to obama, and you may well laugh as well.
when i feel like doing it, i lay the french political spectrum over the american: the populist conservative language of the republicans maps more or less directly onto that of the front national (switch the french referencepoints for the american and the match is eerie).
the front national is neo-fascist.
from that kind of extreme rightwing viewpoint, a moderate looks like a democratic socialist and a tepid trade union supporter probably maps as a stalinist.
it all works if you don't have the faintest idea what these terms mean.
but this is a discussion i am tired of having.
addendum: neo-cons operate with a view of foreign policy that has nothing---at all---in common with the blinkered worldview of populist conservatism.
for example, it is most unlikely that a neo-con would have thought, as palin apparently did, that africa is a country.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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