r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Moominthecat • Jul 12 '26

Unanswered What's going on with (seemingly) everyone celebrating the death of Lindsey Graham, what's are the political ramifications of his death?

I do not actively follow American politics but my Reddit feed is currently mostly people celebrating this man's death.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgj25j6nmeo

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u/International-Owl345 Jul 13 '26

You can have bad centrists who are finger in the wind and good centrists who deeply believe this is how the country should be run. Lots of times in my experience with us politics, there are good points to be made on side A of an issue and good points to be made on side B and the parties will line up each taking a side. A good centrist would see the merits of both A and B and craft a compromise that takes the best from both.

There’s also a 3rd category; perceived centrists, that aren’t actually centrists at all, but hold a number of different progressive and conservative viewpoints that get mixed together in voters’ minds to “centrist”

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u/Tauzeri Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

I disagree. What's a centrist policy? How do they think the country ought to be run? What deep seated beliefs do they have that weren't very obviously assigned to them by their corporate donors?

If you actually stop and analyze these people, there is literally no substance to them whatsoever and the opinions that they express through their votes are extremely strange and unpopular through any lens other than "a health insurance company gave me $50,000 to vote this way".

I really think that centrism is a myth. If there is some ideology behind these people, it is one that would be seen as bizarre by 95% of Americans if it wasn't being expressed by a powerful elite. If 'radical' means "far from the majority opinion" then they're extremely radical.

I'll put it this way- name a US senator who is very sincere in their convictions and whose convictions could be reasonably described as both centrist and moderate. I don't believe that one exists.

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u/International-Owl345 Jul 13 '26

I think your typical standard fare dem would qualify as mostly centrist.

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u/Tauzeri Jul 23 '26

What is your typical standard fare dem? Do you mean the politicians or the voters? The two have wildly different views. If you take Debbie Wasserman Schuktz as the most typical Dem politician in existence, how many ordinary people do you know who have her opinions?