Sagar Sridhara, PhD

A person’s political views is often viewed as being conservative or in pursuit of libertarianism. In the broad spectrum of political ideologies, centrism logically lies at the center. As I have come to discover over the many years, the principles of centrism and centrists themselves are often grossly misunderstood. My idea of centrism is neither a moderate conservationism nor a libertarianism. The term ‘Centrism’, to me, offers a stable, well-reasoned, balanced view of the world to an ever-more diverse group of people with heterogenous background. The facts on the ground should set the priorities straight in an agenda without being befuddled by sentiments or religious fanaticism. ‘Logic makes sense’ should be the mantra of aggressive centrism.

As we have seen over the many years, the economic woes of the poor have not been completely addressed. Although the various modes of governance offers the ‘right’ solutions to address poverty, let’s admit it, the progress has not been as promised. With democracy and communism vying to be the near-perfect model of governance, neither has been phenomenal in addressing economic inequalities, that seem to grow every passing year.

The current French president Mr. Emmanuel Macron entered politics as a left-leaning centrist. His election to the top post was celebrated across the world against the backdrop of a wind of populism. Although Mr. Macron initially promised revolutionary reforms, the recent set of events, such as his lack of actions in substantially addressing the yellow-vest movement, is a big blow to his image. Mr. Macron tried to instill the idea of ‘One France’ in people while reacting to the unfortunate fire incident on the famed Notre Dame cathedral in France. While the richest families in France rushed to announce a whopping 700+ million dollars in donations to rebuild the cathedral, the rest of France boiled with anger for their failure to respond to growing economic imbalance. The plights of those in the yellow-vest movement apparently comes second to rebuilding the cathedral. The Notre Dame fire has definitely highlighted the French president in poor light for not being able to address economic inequality in the French society. Mr. Macron’s failure to implement the revolutionary ideas he promised is viewed as a failure of centrism itself. The idea of aggressive centrism is what is truly needed to rescue Mr. Macron from the abyss he is currently in. It is critical to fiercely implement an economic model that works for all. If the three richest families in France can declare ‘a donation’ of 700 million dollars within days of Notre Dame fire, they can certainly withstand and contribute to the true welfare of France: its people!

Centrists are able to view the same subject matter with different perspectives and possess the mastery to skillfully handle the possible fallouts. Yet, they falter in securing the confidence of the general public, for the promises seem too unreasonable & vague. Centrism is often perceived as weak and unsuitable for the current world, thanks to the blunders of those, whose political careers failed to flourish in the mess they themselves created: poor governance, emotion-driven & lack of will.

The core principles of centrism require the establishment of vantage points to understand and appreciate different perspectives on a particular issue. In a way, centrism works at a rather slow-pace to fix several sticking points by systematic build-up of facts, logic and sense. The ideologies such as populism that promises a quick-fix to all problems is inherently aggressive and devilishly appealing. Drawing parallels from my own scientific career, it is rather immature to derive a scientific theory from a crude hypothesis by performing a single experiment with possible unintentional design bias. Centrism requires a strong voice!