Hopefully this is the right forum here to post this on.
I’ve always been kinda apolitical and never really thought much about whether democrats or republicans are in power. I figured America will always be a centrist country and be broadly fine and on a kind of autopilot no matter what. Well, obviously i was wrong.
I immigrated to this country a long time ago (1997) and are now seriously thinking about leaving. I don’t have a family. I’m not wealthy but i think i have enough money and skills that would in demand in whatever other country.
So my question is this: What countries in the world have societies/politics that never veer too far to the right or left? I heard in Europe, Switzerland is somewhat like that. Canada maybe? Are there any other?
“Centrist” has no universal meaning, so this question is kind of unanswerable. You have to be specific about what kind of government you want to live with. Which means that to make any such decision, you have to think about what policies you prefer. Which means, you can’t go through this exercise and remain “apolitical.”
German politics has been dominated by Christian Democratic Union pluralities in the post WWII timeframe. They are center right. Because of the general taboo against forming coalitions with the far right parties their coalition partners tend to moderate them more. Frequently their major partner in forming a government is the second largest party, the center-left SPD.
The states of the former East Germany are not so centrist though. They have seen increasing support for the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in recent years. A faction of the party is even under surveillance by federal intelligence officials due to the anti-Nazi laws. That faction has a number of members who sound like they might engage in mid 20th century German cosplay if it were legal. As an immigrant looking for someplace centrist, the parts of the country voting a quarter to a third AfD are probably not for you.
Also, while I love America and never plan to leave, I’ve never really thought of it as centrist. We were founded in a shooting war, and the rifles might have been lowered, but they have never been put away. From the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812 to slavery vs. abolition and the Blue vs. the Grey. From the internal conflicts caused by America’s involvement in WWI to the radical intellectualism of the 20s and 30s (the part of American history that absolutely fascinates me), to Jim Crowe, the civil rights movement, a series of assassinations in the sixties, Vietnam, the Chicano movement, the rise of the NRA, and that brings us right to today, American society and politics has always been a game of push and pull.