What does it mean to be “moderate” or a “centrist”? As far as I can tell it means to support supranational institutions, globalisation, mass immigration, social liberalism and some sort of Wilsonian interventionism. This is “moderate” only because it has been modish. In many ways it is a radically modern and subversive worldview, which seeks to democratise that which has never been democratic, diversify that which has been more or less homogeneous, integrate those which have been separate and revolutionise that which has been traditional.
I would not say the “liberal world order” these ideas have produced has had no achievements. Some of its competitors are worse. It could postpone its decline with more restrained attitudes towards, say, migration or democratisation. But it won’t because “centrists” tend not to be rational pragmatists but varying forms of progressive ideologues.
