Here’s a piece that counters much of the conservative spin we’ve heard in the days since the election. In 2004, when, Bush walked away with 50.7% of the popular vote, he and his supporters claimed that consituted a “mandate.” In 2008, Obama earned 52.7% of the popular vote, and the right is backpedaling as hard as they can. “Well, sure,” they sniff, “Obama won, and Democrats picked up additional seats in the House and the Senate, but America remains a center-right nation.”
But the Campaign for America’s Future says au contraire:
Sure, this is a center-right country, but only if you substitute addition for analysis. There are more conservatives than liberals — as there has been for years. So add them to the 44% of the electorate that says they are “moderates,” and you get a center-right majority.
But do a little analysis. “Moderate” isn’t a place holder, as voters who describe themselves that way have attitudes on the issues of the day. And when you look at attitudes, rather than addition, there is no question: Conservatives have had their day. This is a center-left, not a center-right nation.
They’ve got the polling to back it up. On all sorts of issues – health care, energy policy, taxes, foreign policy – moderates stand with progressives. Not just Democrats, progressives.
Twenty-nine out of the 31 Democratic congressional candidates who won seats previously held by Republicans in the House and Senate were real progressives who campaigned and won on progressive platforms. Voters didn’t just elect Democrats, they elected progressive Democrats.
The 2008 election means a strong, 38-vote swing to the left in the House of Representatives and a 12-vote swing to the left in the Senate, compared to the current already-Democratic Congress.
There may still be miles to go before we rest, but don’t let ‘em lie to you – we won this one and we won it good.
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In terms of world politics, America’s left is further to the right than any other nations political right. Even with the Democrats in power America is still a right wing nation, almost so by definition of being American.
On all sorts of issues – health care, energy policy, taxes, foreign policy – moderates stand with progressives.
Apparently not on SSM. Or issues of concern to trans* and gender variant people. Or breaking down the prison-industrial complex (starting with getting rid of Arpaio and decriminalizing drug use and prostitution). Or fairness to undocumented immigrants. Or racism, what with all those white moderate GLBT people blaming Black people for the failure of Prop 8.
I guess my idea of what constitutes “center left” differs from a lot of people’s.
I agree with whatever that america is still be right wing nation, even with the democrats in power, but I think the people in america are further to the left then the entrenched parties would lead one to believe.
Right and left are directional terms. One is right or left in relation to some other point or object. Politically, right and left speak to degrees of separation from a center, or as in the entry above, moderate. However, I think that there is no moderate or center in reality but only in theory, as a median point amidst the diversity that we know. The greatest weakness of the political system in the United States and of the polling is that it tends toward polarization. “If you had to choose A or B . . .” And most people say what about C or N or . . . and the pollster says you have to choose A or B to which the individual responds “If I have to choose only between A or B then I choose B.”
I tend to think I am progressive, for progress and change. But there are some traditions I appreciate. I am right of some and left of others.
It is good to know “we” won, and in a polarized culture one does have to choose sides, but I do like to think that “we” can mean all of those living on this planet; at least someday.
I guess my idea of what constitutes “center left” differs from a lot of people’s.
Your idea of what constitutes center left is actually the left.
There’s nothing wrong with being on the left. Say it loud and say it proud, I’m a left winger and I can’t wait until my beliefs *are* actually the center!
But… they are not the center. The center believes that racism is bad, but stereotyping people is all right, because, you know, “those people” really are just like that. The center believes that women should have the same rights as men, but women should be women and men should be men and it’s scary when they’re not. The center believes that Jesus is just all right, oh yeah. The center believes that policemen are inherently the good guys, so anyone who gets sent to jail probably deserves whatever they get.
On the other hand, the center also believes that people who work hard should get fair wages, that people shouldn’t lose jobs over something that they couldn’t control which had nothing to do with their work, that women should be able to enjoy sex too and that both sexes should have access to birth control, that it’s unfair for people to lose their home because they got sick, that it’s unfair for people to die because they didn’t have money when they got sick, that no one should starve, that kids should get a good education no matter where they grow up, and that big business really kind of is out to screw the little guy, so the government ought to be watching it. The center thinks we should all have clean air, clean water, and clean dirt for our houses to be built on, that it would be awfully nice to have cars that didn’t cost so much in gasoline, and that they would rather that their sons and daughters didn’t die so we could secure more access to said gasoline.
You can tell these are the positions of the center because these are the positions the Republicans *pretend* to hold while lying their asses off and actually trying to gut or stop everything on this list.
BTW, while America is economically to the right of pretty much every other developed country, which sucks, we do *not* have a lock on the righty sin of racism… Italy refuses to stop sending Gypsy kids to special ed, France tells Muslim girls that if they won’t go to school with naked heads they can’t go to school at all, German judges tell Muslim women who plead domestic violence that it’s okay for their husband to beat them because it’s normal in Muslim culture, Ireland forbids abortion and will only give birth control to married women, and Native Americans routinely somehow end up dead at the hands of Canadian police and no one gives a damn. Oh, and raped women are ignored and belittled EVERYWHERE. If anything, in some ways our culture is *less* racist than many others, because we hold it as an ideal that anyone from anywhere *could* theoretically become an American, whereas many countries with a stronger ethnic identity really won’t acknowledge you to be one of them unless your grandparents grew up there. We have a long way to go to overcome our problems with racism, but I don’t actually see us being too far removed from the positions of the rest of the developed world, there… it’s just that the minority they pick on is not usually the same one or ones we pick on.
The funniest damn thing I’ve seen from wingnuts in cyberspace, is their recent claim that the Democrat’s overwhelming victory, was actually a victory for center-right or conservative policies.
LOL. After spending 6 months calling Obama a Marxist, they’re claiming that Obama ran on a reaganesque platform.
You really can’t make this shit up.
There’s nothing quite like an extreme right government followed by an economic collapse to push a nation left. But I have to agree with other commenters, America still looks pretty right of centre from the outside. I think given the global spread from left to right, “centre” is a spectacularly broad term. But there is no doubt that America has taken a pretty sharp left turn, and that has to be good news for everyone.
We’re not a center-left nation
I can prove it.
http://jumpinginpools.blogspot.com/2008/11/america-is-not-center-left-nation.html
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