Are all centrists flip-floppers?

[Onlooker]

When the Bush campaign calls Kerry a flip-flopper, they're simply acknowledging what Kerry is trying to get across: that Kerry is a centrist. Centrists are more than likely to vote one way, then another, simply because it doesn't take much for them to perceive a good bill as bad and a bad bill as good. The only ones who don't flipflop are true liberals and true conservatives. The Kerry campaign should be able to use this accusation to their advantage.

Further, my guess is that being being a centrist, Kerry was more often approached by those who negotiated bills, another plus for Kerry in terms of his ability to work with the opposing party.

[Caution]

1. Are all PEOPLE are flip-floppers

Yes. People make changes to their opinions and positions over time. As the world changes and as the variables forming the original opinion changes so does anyone's position. I always hated this canard.

On Edit:

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

from the Essay "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

[Union Thug]

2. As Hightower said...

... there's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow lines and dead armadillos.

[chelsea0011]

3. It's funny how this word, flip-flopper, has taken hold

like this is the gospel truth of Kerry. It is regularly used by all the medias. And where did it come from? An ad and Sweaty Eddie Gillespie's rants. Bush has flopped the last three years more than any other President on record, but the media has portrayed him as steady leadership. "You know where he stands", say the media about Bush. But Kerry isn't afforded the same. I thought by this time that the flip-flopper stuff would have disappeared as any political attack does at some time, but this one has legs. Why? Because the media has lashed onto it so the repubs get to keep it going.

[sangh0]

5. And funny how no one ever tells us what the flip-flops are

C'mon Onlooker! If you really think Kerry is a centrist flip-flopper, then you shouldn't have any problems listing the flip-flops. The hard part would be listing flip-flops without repeating Bush* and Cheney's lies.

[nyhuskyfan]

6. I get so annoyed at flip-flopping labels

It's lazy attack politics aimed at an American public that never bothers to look at details and nuances. The Republicans know they voted against the 87 billion dollars the first time it came up, but they found a sound bite that portrays Kerry in a bad light and they run with it. They know the American people aren't sophisticated enough to analyze beyond the quickie sound bite.

What's funny is that they have tried to prortay him as the most liberal senator in Washington in one breath and a flip-flopper the next. Well - if he's the most liberal, that would make him pretty consistent, wouldn't it? Can't have it both ways.

In my arguments, I always say the following things about the "flip-flop" charge.

If you're starting to sink to the bottom of a swimming pool, wouldn't you change direction?

When I was five, my favorite television show was Sesame Street.

If you end up digging yourself into a hole, the first step to getting out is to stop digging.

The only way to never change your mind on anything is if you refuse to ever listen to anyone else's opinion or analysis.

If you make a bad decision and refuse to acknowledge it or correct it, is that conviction or stubborness?

Or a more detailed version (people who follow politics know this is pretty basic stuff, but many people don't)...

Politics isn't a black-and-white simplistic world. A bill goes on the senate floor that has any number of provisions in it and/or any number of different ways of paying for it. You can have a bill that offers to build a new library, but if it does so by closing hospitals and orphanages (or by saying that pharamaceutical companies should be forever immune from lawsuits), it isn't a very good bill. If you vote against it, it doesn't mean that you are against libraries. Also, a good economic bill in 1998 when the economy was booming wouldn't necessary be a good bill today. A national security measure in 1984 or 1998 is different from one today.

[sangh0]

4. As a Democrat, I believe

that there is little to be gained by slicing and dicing the American people into minute demographic segments, and then pit the "good ones" (ie liberals) against the "bad ones" (ie. "centrists"). Though it may work for the Republicans, like President Bill Clinton, I believe that when the American people are united, the American people win because the when the American people are united, the Democratic candidate wins.

[leyton]

7. Um, no.

I'm a centrist, and I'm not a flip flopper. There are a few issues where I ride the fence just because I haven't formed a solid opinion, but centrism is more about not buying into one side or the other wholeheartedly.

Not sure if this is a slap at centrism or not, but I guess probably not.

[Onlooker]

10. I didn't mean it as a slap at centrism

What I meant is that a politician who is a centrist will have to flipflop on occasion as bills get modified. For instance, if a centrist favors no additional money for corporate subsidies, a liberal favors cuts, and a conservative favors increases, the centrist will play both sides for the best deal.

[leyton]

11. Ah, I see what you're saying.

In this case, I agree with you completely. This is unfortunately why Senators can be skewered so hard when they run for President, and this is how our distinguished nominee is getting attacked.

8. The characteristic of flip flopping has nothing to do with politics

Some people flip flop.
Some don't.

It's a character trait, not a trait related to where you are on the political spectrum.

[Imperialism Inc.]

9. Do all desperate politicians come up with silly names like

"flip-flopper" to call their opponents?

I honestly don't feel the public is going to give a crap about that label. We've got terrorism, war, environmental problems. I can't see the public looking at all that and then saying, "oh, but Kerry is a flip-flopper."