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I'm a political agnostic with socially moderate, somewhat libertarian view, a positive view of capitalism and markets (working in financial markets), but a recognition that government has an important practical role. Now that places me more or less in the middle, however I can see that there are reasonable positions well on either side of me, BUT...
Watching this election (and our own political machinations) I can't get over the degree to which many people accept the rhetoric of both sides despite it being totally at odds with their actual behaviour.
For example, the Republicans go on and on about small government (which I think is no bad thing), however this bears no relationship to their practical policies. They promote huge government - enormous military, a security state with astonishing powers of arrest and detention, a police state feeding off an unwinnable war on drugs and endless middle-class welfare.
On the other side, the Democrats go on and on about 'nice things' (most of which I agree with), but again this doesn't seem to mean anything in practice. Guantanamo Bay is still there, they're not getting out of any wars, there is no real attempt to stop corporate interests controlling the political process and offshore extrajudicial killings are regarded as fine.
We have the same thing here. There is a rhetorical orthodoxy that the Liberals are the hard-nosed party of economic rationalism and Labour is the party of social responsibility, but I can't see any evidence in policy implementation that either has actually been the case for a very long time.
Oh well.
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