Chico's In The Middle

What are you, some sort of liberal?

I am always surprised when people call me that, though I guess I shouldn't be.

To a lot of folks (at least a lot of folks who communicate with me) a liberal is anyone who disagrees with their hard-right view of the world.

I consider myself a relentless centrist, and now I have proof of it.

I am a certified centrist, according to the World's Smallest Political Quiz, a Q&A sponsored by a libertarian group called Advocates For Self-Government. Answer the five questions and it generates a chart that tells you where you sit or lie or stand...or whatever... on the political spectrum.

If you have more time to kill, you can take the multi-page Political Compass, which purports to measure your political affinities and also generates a chart.

I fall darn close to the center on that one, though on the left side (I think it's because I disagreed with the statement that it's good for kids to be beaten.) The questions on this test change regularly.

One of the problems with being a centrist is that it is soooooo dull.

We need a snappier name for ourselves.

My first idea was the Maybes. but that's even duller than centrist.

How about we call ourselves the Chicos?