Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Commentators often talk about the mythical center in politics but it's never defined, and it's assumed that these people are the deciding factor in many elections where The Left and The Right are otherwise evenly matched. The center can be defined as several things: social center, economic center, ideological center; but often these undecided people have no clear agenda and simply vote for the candidate with the best bio in the Voter's Pamphlet. However, with respect to liberty, there is a clear way to define The Center.

The unique attribute of America is individual liberty with The People as the beneficiaries, making decisions for themselves and reaping the rewards or suffering the consequences of their own actions. On a Left-to-Right liberty scale, the extreme Left has no liberty since the needs of the group are paramount, and on the extreme Right, only the aristocracy have liberty since liberty requires opportunity, which is usually related to wealth. So The Center would be where the most individual's rights come first, simply said: the most liberty to the most people. In fact, this is an easy measurement for any State action: does a new law or regulation increase most people's ability to make decisions for themselves or not? For example, protecting speech though at the expense of the liberty of the people who don't want you to say things that offend them, or redistributing opportunity would increase liberty among the population as a whole but at the expense of the liberty of those who take great pride in hoarding wealth.