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I too have struggled myself figuring out where it is that I fall on the somewhat arbitrary political spectrum. I grew up in a Republican household, shifted my views more to the left as I grew older and began looking at things differently and thinking for myself, found Libertarianism (which was a nice initial realization that there's more than just the two broad sets of left-to-right of ideologies), then kept sliding leftwards leading up to the 2016 election, mostly due to how I feel about the Republican Party in general at this point. Since then, I came across the books "The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics" by Ted Halstead and "The Centrist Manifesto" by Charles Wheelan. These two books honestly held the first set of ideas, not ideologies per se, that really made sense to me and reflected how I viewed the current state of US Politics. So... I now consider myself a Centrist, and more accurately, a Radical Centrist (see the bottom of this post).

Yes both sides have good ideas, yes both sides have bad ideas, yes Centrists may "borrow" ideas from both sides. However, Centrists are not necessarily simply the Republican- and Democrat-lites that the wings want people to believe. Framing everything in this mindset of left vs right, red vs blue, my team vs yours is counterproductive and if it continues the way it has been, this country will never get anything done. There are more than just two broad sets of ideas that exist, and that includes the moderate-to-extreme flavors of each of the two broad sets that are pervasive today.

In my opinion, Centrist thought and policy should use sound reasoning, logic, and science to work out the most pragmatic solution to any issue, regardless of what ideas turn out to be the best for the most people. No policy decision is going to make everyone happy and every solution is going to have a loser. The optimal solution to any issue is therefore that which minimizes the negatives and maximizes the positives.

Both the right and left have had good and bad ideas, but overall, neither sets of ideas nor the people who've been driving them for the past few decades has been working. We need brand new, 21st century-minded ideas based pragmatism, reason, and science. We must create policy that fosters innovation, promotes free markets, provides a solid social safety net that incentivizes people to better themselves, and is global-minded. We need people in power who are willing to compromise and also willing (and welcoming!) to be proven wrong. We need people who will do what's best for the country and for the world in general, not what's thought to be best for the loudest and most active tribes of one party or another.

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Radical Centrism per Wikipedia:

> The "radical" in the term refers to a willingness on the part of most radical centrists to call for fundamental reform of institutions. The "centrism" refers to a belief that genuine solutions require realism and pragmatism, not just idealism and emotion. Thus one radical centrist text defines radical centrism as "idealism without illusions", a phrase originally from John F. Kennedy.

> Most radical centrists borrow what they see as good ideas from left, right and wherever else they may be found, often melding them together. Most support market-based solutions to social problems with strong governmental oversight in the public interest. There is support for increased global engagement and the growth of an empowered middle class in developing countries. Many radical centrists work within the major political parties, but also support independent or third-party initiatives and candidacies.

I would argue that history and economics are probably better ways to get a view into politics than trying to learn about politics directly. I listened to this course about economics:

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/economics-3rd-edition.html

The Freakonomics Podcast can be pretty good (in moments, there's a lot of fluff), because even though I suspect the two main contributors are liberal, Stephen Levitt, when he's on says a lot of reasonably objective things about why people behave the way you do and why some policy that's left or right is inefficient.

And then a lot of my American History came from this book which is part of a series: https://www.amazon.com/What-Hath-God-Wrought-Transformation/dp/0195392434 Really gave me a pretty good sense of how bad politics used to be and it also paints a picture of the frontiersman conservative ideology, that you can draw a line from how they felt about politics back then to why some Conservatives feel that way now. We think in terms of "Liberal" and "Conservative" but that's not really a great divide, because there are dozens of voting blocs in the US and they've all been better or worse represented by one of the political parties at various points in times.

You can download it free here, but the new version will be released in two weeks.

It absolutely is. Yes norm breaking is bad. But this specific aspect of departing from norms is how tyranny takes over a democracy.
Take an hour and read Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny.

It's Even Worse Than It Looks Was.

There is a book called "Everybody makes mistakes... except me" "Mistakes were made (But not by me)". It outlines different cognitive biases and the rationalisation process of individuals to justify their mistakes instead of owning up to it. It was years ago when I first read it but iirc one topic it mentioned is doubling down on the belief when challenged and we all know too well about that in both personal and sociopolitical level.

The book is eye-opening and personally I think it made me wiser and more mindful of my thoughts and decision making than before and therefore I really think that people should read it even just a couple of chapters to improve their decision making based on sound judgement rather than by emotions. I know too many people who behave based on emotional and irrational instincts and it grates me when they impose their irrational, instinctual beliefs. All too often, many people lack the introspection and we would go a very long way if people would read the "Everybody makes mistakes..." "Mistakes were made" book.

Edit: So, initially mentioning the title of the book was mistaken, but not by me.

Edit: also grammar