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David Ellison says 70% of Americans are centrist. Surveys tell a different story
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2026
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politics
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Ok, but what does that mean? "Republican" and "Democrat" are not ideologies, they're political parties. And very broad parties, at that. Because of our de facto two party system, both parties usually try to be "big tents." So neither party ever has exclusively one ideology.
What is the guiding ideology of the Republican party (or rather, what was it before the party became the cult of Trump)? What is the guiding ideology of the Democratic party? I think it used to be Neoliberalism, or "Third Way" Liberalism. But what is it today? Is it still Third Way Liberalism, like during the Bill Clinton era? Or is it more traditional Social Democracy?
In a lot of ways, the Third Way was meant to be a compromise between Neoliberals and Social Democrats, but are either of those sides willing to compromise today? Should they compromise? It seems to me there are aspects of Neoliberalism and Social Democracy that are mutually exclusive. For instance, Neoliberalism usually wants lower taxes, but Social Democrats want a strong social safety funded by a progressive tax system, which usually means higher taxes, at least for income earners near the top. Well, taxes can't be both lower and higher at the same time, so which is it? You can compromise and just lower taxes a little, and have a smaller safety net, but while compromise seems like a good thing, it usually just ends up with watered down policies that no one is fully happy with.
So where are the majority of Americans, ideologically? Is there a majority ideological consensus? If so, what is it?
The majority of Americans are non-ideological in that they either align with the ideology of the state or have an incoherent hodge-podge of heterodox ideas.
You're probably right. So if most Americans are either non-ideological or heterodox, what would the orthodox ideology be?
Currently in flux, but it has been neoliberalism. Trump's second term has been shifting the orthodoxy towards neoconservative fascism. When I say that someone is non-ideological what I mean is that they do not have a personal commitment to any particular ideology, but that doesn't mean they don't have an alignment. People who don't have ideological commitments often align with the state and have a loosely connected set of orthodox views, and if they don't then they instead have a loosely connected set of heterodox views.
I agree. I wonder what will follow. Neoconservativism and Fascism are both failed systems. It's only a matter of time before they fail this time, too. I wonder if the failure of Neoconservativism/Fascism will lead to so many crises that there will be a collapse of the current global order, specifically US hegemony. Could that lead to the Chinese model becoming the new preferred paradigm?
And as far as here in the US, well, maybe when this is an over there won't be a US anymore. But if there is, I wonder what the next dominant ideology will be.
I wouldn't dare speculate lest I end up as crazy as Professor Jiang.
Lol, yeah he's quite the prognosticator. He also seems to be getting pretty popular, which I think is a little concerning.
Look man, we have a right wing party and an ultra far right wing party...1/3 of us think the right wing party is so far left it's either communist or "national socialist" and majority of the rest of us consider that right wing party to be reasonably left/progressive. You really can't figure out where we lean ideologically?
"Right-wing" isn't an ideology. I agree that most Americans are right of socialism, and probably even social democracy, but that encompasses a lot of ideologies.