"Before indulging in the luxury of political conviction, run the numbers."
True centrists are not ambiguous, neither-this-nor-that figures. They are cold-blooded pragmatists who maximize their own interests while deriding the ideological dogmas of both extremes.
1. The Hunt for Efficiency
When the economy is ailing, they employ the right-wing's deregulation (the sword). And when wealth disparity reaches a critical threshold, and the scent of revolution is in the air, they utilize the left-wing's welfare policies (the shield). For centrist pragmatists, ideology is not a religion, but merely a toolkit stored in a warehouse.