--- title: There Is No Longer a Center in American Politics description: Why the center is dead in American politics, why it's bad that there will soon be an "uber for" everything, and more. canonical: https://time.com/4083103/center-dead-american-politics/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-22T16:01:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:01:11.473Z article:section: Ideas og:title: There Is No Longer a Center in American Politics og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4083103/center-dead-american-politics/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There Is No Longer a Center in American Politics twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # There Is No Longer a Center in American Politics by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Oct 22, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Oct 22, 2015 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**The center is dead in American politics.**](http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-center-is-dead-in-american-politics) By Ryan Lizza in the New Yorker **2\.** [**There’s a downside to the “Uber for everything” economy.**](https://medium.com/message/the-trouble-with-the-uber-for-economy-d2a6fa1bd28f#.eb2fvxhmr) By Zeynep Tufecki in Message **3\.** [**Could a free trade zone on the India-Pakistan border reduce tensions there?**](http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-21/india-and-pakistan-can-do-business) By the Editors of Bloomberg View **4\.** [**Here’s a better highway barrier — one that blocks sound and sucks up pollution.**](http://www.fastcoexist.com/3052375/this-living-bamboo-highway-barrier-blocks-traffic-noise-while-it-sucks-up-pollution) By Adele Peters in Co.Exist **5\.** [**The ‘Asian’ population in California is wildly diverse, so why are they all lumped together as one ethnic group?**](http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-asian-veto-20151021-story.html) By Frank Shyong in the Los Angeles Times  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4083103/center-dead-american-politics/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4083103/center-dead-american-politics/"},"headline":"There Is No Longer a Center in American Politics","datePublished":"2015-10-22T16:01:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:01:11.473Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4083103/center-dead-american-politics/","keywords":["Innovation","Pakistan","India","Clinton","Uber","Biden"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4083103/center-dead-american-politics/","name":"There Is No Longer a Center in American Politics"}}]}] ```