I bring this up because I've been struggling with how to reconcile my deep-seated conservative convictions and my equally unapologetic fondness for brown liquors and not taking myself too seriously. I may just be making excuses, but I think there's an intellectual case to be made for people like me who think there's such a thing as right and wrong but who also get a kick out of Cheech and Chong. Call it Moral Centrism, a phrase I just made up and which I may abandon after thinking it through. We are all familiar with the problem of centrists in politics. All moderates think they're centrists, which is what usually but not always gives centrism such a bad name.
Moderates believe in splitting the differences.
The mean-spirited conservatives don't want a federal program designed to guarantee that small children never again get splinters. The impractical liberals want to implement the program, costing billions, right away. It should come as no surprise that these are the politicians I despise the most. These are the ones who actually arrive at a middle position because they believe it is the right way to go, without ever going through the hassle of splitting the differences. On gun control, for example, a lot of people believe that guns should be legal but hard to get.