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Find out more about Jay: Jay began writing politically themed commentary and founded his blog, Swimming Freestyle, in October 2007. Here he'll write about politics from a progressive perspective. |
Conservatives have been working overtime assuring Americans that the election of Barack Obama was a fluke. Simply a reaction to the disastrous Bush Administration and the resulting debacle. After all, Obama's election couldn't possibly be a repudiation of conservative principles. That's just crazy talk. Across the wide array of cable news shows, conservative pundits have been reminding Americans (perhaps this is what they meant by "drill, baby, drill") that the United States is, in fact, a "center-right" country. Some examples:
FRED BARNES: In a center right country, I don’t think American people really want the liberal agenda. But they may get it anyway because they’re upset during the financial crisis. [Fox News, 10/11/08]
PAT BUCHANAN: The country is center right. As you can tell by the fact Obama’s been moving to the center as fast as he can. [MSNBC, 10/16/08]
JOE SCARBOROUGH: The country is not center left. It is center right. This country is more conservative than it was when we took over in 1994 after two years of calamitous Democratic rule. It is a center-right country. [MSNBC, 10/29/08]
Got that? They're saying "all this Obama nonsense is just fine, but let's not be confused that voters, in reality, agree with our conservative views". (It must be nice to live your life without a bit of self doubt).
Sorry, it just isn't so. And it's a tribute to those conservatives skill at marketing the notion that so many Americans take it on faith that the U.S. is "center-right" when there's so much evidence otherwise. In a post from August:
Yet all the while, public opinion polls were being taken that clearly demonstrated voters would take liberal positions, particularly on social issues.
Consider the results of a June 17, 2008, Rockefeller Foundation/Time poll. When "favor strongly" and "favor somewhat" are combined, one gets the following percentages for policies favored by overwhelming majorities: increase the minimum wage to keep up with the cost of living (88 percent); increase government spending on things like public-works projects to create jobs (86 percent); put stricter limits on pollution we put into the atmosphere (85 percent); limit rate increases on adjustable rate mortgages (82 percent); provide quality healthcare to all, regardless of ability to pay (81 percent); impose higher tax incentives for alternative energy (81 percent); provide government-funded childcare to all parents so they can work (77 percent); provide more paid maternity/dependent care leave (76 percent); make it less profitable for companies to outsource jobs to foreign countries (76 percent); expand unemployment benefits (76 percent).
Those are liberal positions favored by large majorities. Yesterday, the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy poll results were released, essentially re-confirming voters liberal tendencies.
Here's some other statistics:
And check these out:
The maps are state by state electoral vote results from 2000, 2004, and 2008. There's very clearly a trend toward more blue states, more Democratic votes. The graph is popular vote count from 1980 to 2008. The trend towards Democratic voters is evident. If anything, the Republican party vote seems reactionary; responding to circumstances and not principle based.
It may be a very natural reaction by conservatives to try to make themselves feel better following the spanking they took Tuesday. But repeating this nonsense about the U.S. being "center-right" is just more delusional thinking from them. After eight years of this kind of up is down, day is night doublespeak, one would hope we've learned to disregard them.
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