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I had a minor epiphany recently with regard to how I would identify myself politically. For many years I have referred to myself as a "radical centrist". That name, while sounding interesting on the surface, really said nothing, and was not an accurate representation of my political beliefs. I believe the centrist part to be accurate. After all, I believe very strongly in the Constitution, including all of its amendments. I believe that we need a strong, efficient military; an outstanding education system for all our citizens and universal health care coverage. I also believe in our way of life, in that, I do not want to see major changes in the way we live our lives. Clearly, the radical label just doesn’t fit.

So what does fit? How can I accurately describe what I stand for in a label that is not confusing, and not political doublespeak? The answer came to me when I realized that the reason that many centrists (such as Bill Clinton) appear to be farther to the left then they actually are is because the media has us confused as to what constitutes a radical change in our way of life. For example, when President Clinton changed the military’s policies on homosexuality, the media along with the religious right, tried to stir us up about it. They tried to tell us that it would destroy our way of life. The media tried to convince us that allowing gays in would do irreparable damage to our military, and to the fabric of our society. Clearly, this has not been the case. There are many other issues which we are told are bound to bring about the destruction of our society. Drugs, abortions, "frivolous lawsuits", nudity, terrorism, assisted suicide, gay marriage and "foul language" are just a few. Defeat these evils, the talking heads tell us, or we are bound to go the way of the Roman Empire.

The problem here is that these things will not cause the decay of our society! Our way of life is safe from everyone but ourselves. The only path to the destruction of “the American way” is if we allow ourselves to succumb to the fear and hatred that the ideologues and fanatics portray. If we surrender our freedoms by creating the so-called "Patriot Act" in order to feel a bit safer from terrorists, then our way of life is threatened. If we allow ourselves to codify bigotry and gender bias in order to "protect ourselves" against gay marriages, then we are surrendering what we as a country stand for. When we allow our debate to be silenced by those invoking patriotism as a weapon is when we have yielded the freedoms that many before us have died to protect. I defy anyone to come up with a rational explanation of how a gay couple getting married, or Howard Stern saying the word “fuck”, or Janet Jackson’s exposed breast, could possibly infringe on anyone else’s rights. They cannot! These things do not infringe on anyone's rights and they cannot hurt us, no matter how much the media and the religious right tells us otherwise. We think progressively enough to know better. And therein lies the answer.

Clearly, I am a Progressive Centrist. I believe in our way of life, and I am a progressive enough thinker to know that these things that are posed to us as threats, are in fact not. I do not want radical change, but I want continuous improvement! Progressive Centrist; as soon as it came to me I knew I had stumbled on the proper moniker. Clearly this term sums-up what I feel and how I think about our politics without any Orwellian Newspeak such as with terms like “compassionate conservative” (most who use that moniker are actually neither). In fact, the term described my convictions so well that I knew I could not have been the first to use it. A quick Google search proved that assumption correct. In fact, it appears that the term was actually first used in a book called The Emerging Democratic Majority by John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira. Although I have not yet read this book (my copy is on order), I have read extensively through John and Ruy’s blog site at http://www.emergingdemocraticmajorityweblog.com and feel that they share many of the same political ideologies that I do. In fact, I would go out on a limb and say that the majority of Americans share those same beliefs.

Progressive Centrists, it is time to take back our country!