I really hope you're correct about a centrist group forming. One of the huge distortions of American politics, is that the center isn't explicitly represented,

I really hope you're correct about a centrist group forming. One of the huge distortions of American politics, is that the center isn't explicitly represented, though that's the actual politics that runs everything. American society is largely and increasingly not well modeled by 2 clusters of opinion. I've seen studies and polls indicating that there are two diverging clusters of opinions and positions, with the left part moving further left, and the right clump moving more slowly right.