The center is a myth.

It sounds SO good because everyone WANTS to get along. But politics is about fighting for what you want (if you're honorable, what you want is what's good for the country) and when you don't get what you want, you walk away with as much as you can get and fight for the next chunk of real estate with your very next political breath.

Neither side will quit. Nor should they.

Which principle, upon which you stand, for which you feel passion, are you simply going to walk away from in the name of "getting along"?

Not one.

And it doesn't make you extreme to be that way either. Most people are already "centrist" in the only way being "centrist" makes any political sense...

...most hold views along a spectrum of degrees over any number of issues. That's not "centrist". That's more like "heterogized".

And the "heterogized" politically active are going to fight tooth and nail for every single issue about which they feel passion.

The repair that the government is sorely in need of is the means to make debate fair and fruitful, open and clear.