>>He wants to be ‘the smart guy in the middle’<<
You nailed it. That is the wording I was looking for. It accurately articulates my view.
The sad thing is that if you are actually smart and informed, you are anywhere BUT the middle.
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Indeed! Huge Bump.
And your positions do not vacillate with the slightest breeze. Intelligent people base their stable, unchanging bedrock values, and thus their political orientation, on years of reading, studying, life experiences and other human interactions.
The so-called moderate, the “independent” voter are vastly overrated in importance.