Opinion | We Can See the Left. We Can See the Right. Is There Still a Center?

"Of those 14, according to the Voice of the People study, 11 concerned " 'hot-button' topics that are famously controversial -- gay and lesbian issues, abortion and Second Amendment issues relating to gun ownership." "

This is a Positive Sentiment.

"In the case of abortion, for example, the principle of compromise recognizes that the majority of Americans favor keeping abortion legal, but also favor some limits on abortion."

This is a Negative Sentiment.

"In support of his position, Fiorina has marshaled data showing that there are large numbers of voters who say that neither party reflects their views; that many of the most polarizing issues -- including gay rights, gender equality, abortion and racial equality -- rank 19 to 52 points below voters' top priorities, which are the economy, health care, jobs and Medicare; and that the share of voters who describe themselves as moderate has remained constant since 1974. "

This is a Negative Sentiment.

"One could, Cass continued, find a massive center on all sorts of issues that the nation has long since reached a consensus: on support for a progressive tax system, old-age entitlements, women's right to vote; opposition to communism, child labor, and so forth. "

This is a Positive Sentiment.

"Retaining a core right of abortion that respects both autonomy of adult individuals to make reproductive decisions and the value of potential fetal life is the approach that will seem acceptable to the majority of Americans and consistent with the Constitution. "

This is a Positive Sentiment.

"What should the Biden administration prioritize?"

This is a negative sentiment.

"Michelle Cottle argues that Biden has an easy opportunity to "jettison the skeezy practice of rewarding big campaign contributors with ambassadorships.""

This is a positive sentiment.

"The pre- and postelection extremism of Trump and his loyalists have spurred a modest backlash on the right that could, over time, prompt the party to abandon its notions of betrayal and victimization.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"Could Joe Biden end up being the last centrist Democrat in the way that George W. Bush might have turned out to be the last centrist Republican?"

This is a negative sentiment.

"The country's conservative party is wedded to an extreme position -- with an astonishing 59 percent of Republicans convinced as recently as March 5-9 that Joe Biden is not a legitimately elected president, according to a YouGov poll.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"I wonder if we look back a decade from now if Biden turns out to be the last of a kind."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Ian Johnson writes that the administration's tough stance on Chinese relations "complicates doing what is really needed: engaging, with realistic expectations, with the other side.""

This is a positive sentiment.

"I was never a fan of W, but looking back, you can see how the party was shifting away from the center inexorably toward the cultural and economic populism Trump catalyzed."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Frank Bruni, Opinion columnist, writes of the president's quiet, effective approach: "This new, self-effacing Biden is an exorcism of Donald Trump.""

This is a positive sentiment.

"Frank Bruni, Opinion columnist, writes of the president's quiet, effective approach: "This new, self-effacing Biden is an exorcism of Donald Trump.""

This is a positive sentiment.

"Is the future one where Republicans look more like Trump, and the Democrats tilt away from Biden's center toward the more culturally progressive wing, one which might drive more centrist voters away?nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"Is the future one where Republicans look more like Trump, and the Democrats tilt away from Biden's center toward the more culturally progressive wing, one which might drive more centrist voters away?nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"The fact that Joe Biden was the Democratic nominee and won the presidency in 2020, when there were many great candidates left of him, is evidence that a political center is not only viable but desired by the public.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"Does Joe Biden's victory in 2020 represent the last gasp of an exhausted moderate tradition or does a potentially powerful center lie dormant in our embattled political system?nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"Think, for instance, of the various different "third ways" that secured impressive electoral victories in advanced western democracies at several junctures over the past few decades: from continental European Christian Democracy in the second postwar period, to Tony Blair's New Labour in the aftermath of the Cold War in the U.K., up to -- I would argue -- Biden's successful run in the 2020 primary and presidential races in the U.S.A.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"In a postelection report, Michael Dimock, Pew's president, and Richard Wike, its director of global research, wrote that among both Biden and Trump voters, roughly 80 percentnnsaid their differences with the other side were about core American values, and roughly nine-in-ten -- again in both camps -- worried that a victory by the other would lead to "lasting harm" to the United States.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"In a postelection report, Michael Dimock, Pew's president, and Richard Wike, its director of global research, wrote that among both Biden and Trump voters, roughly 80 percentnnsaid their differences with the other side were about core American values, and roughly nine-in-ten -- again in both camps -- worried that a victory by the other would lead to "lasting harm" to the United States.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.