I was invited to contribute a piece to Third Factor (an interesting magazine with a superb editor) — as a counterpoint to one wherein a Democrat expressed some disillusionment.I spent 53 years as a Republican, even considering myself very conservative. But today’s so-called “conservatism” is the antithesis of my beliefs and values.
Is it me that’s changed? In part. I feel I’ve grown in wisdom, my understanding deepened and broadened. Yet my Republican party changed more. Fell off a moral cliff.
It wasn’t overnight. My article explains my long grappling with ugly tendencies in the party. Mirrored now by grappling with unattractive things among some Democrats. But the latter pale in comparison.
Today I consider myself a radical centrist. Transgressing shibboleths of both left and right. Yet I believe my program should appeal to reasonable, rational people. Which seems radical today.
My political peregrination still feels weird to me. I imagine going back and telling a former self: “You will support a candidate with a passionate intensity like never before. To literally save the country from a monstrous regime. A Republican one. And the savior will be . . . Joe Biden.”
“May you live in interesting times” is a Chinese curse.
Read my article here: https://www.thirdfactor.org/robinson-radical-centrism/
