We’re A Center-Left Nation, Now
For the past few weeks, the punditocracy (especially the rightwing ones and their media familiars) have been repeating the very wrong assessment that the US is a center-right nation. Why is it wrong? Because a center-right nation would not elect a center-left President (you know, the one who was supposed to be the most liberal Senator?) AND add to a bunch of mostly center-left Congress. CNN provided this poll shortly after the election:
Bob Borosage (conservative) and Stan Greenberg (liberal) have been doing joint polling all season for NPR and they conducted their own election night poll which points out that the moderate portion of the electorate is orienting itself to a center-left position, but shows how that position might be solidified:
Progressives needn’t be defensive about the majority that is dubious about government spending. Making government work effectively is at the heart, not the capillaries of the progressive agenda. This test doesn’t distract; it focuses us on our task. No progressive majority can ever be consolidated for long if it doesn’t demonstrate that government can be an effective ally for everyone.
And that is all moderates are looking for. They aren’t skeptical about the need for government. By large margins, they think regulation does more good than harm. They want investments made in education and training. They favor a concerted government-led drive for energy independence. They far prefer a health-care plan with a choice between their current insurance and a public plan like Medicare, rather than one that would give them a tax credit to negotiate with insurance companies on their own. Their concern is less that government will do too much and more that government will fail to do what it must and waste their money in the process.
Besides, Tod Lindburg from the Hoover Institution (Platinum right wing credentials) says that you can draw the obvious conclusion from majorities of voters actually voting for more liberal candidates:
Here’s the stark reality: It is now harder for the Republican presidential candidate to get to 50.1 percent than for the Democrat. My Hoover Institution colleague David Brady and Douglas Rivers of the research firm YouGovPolimetrix have been analyzing data from online interviews with 12,000 people in both 2004 and 2008. It shows an overall shift to the Democrats of six percentage points. As they write in the forthcoming edition of Policy Review, “The decline of Republican strength occurs by having strong Republicans become weak Republicans, weak Republicans becoming independents, and independents leaning more Democratic or even becoming Democrats.” This is a portrait of an electorate moving from center-right to center-left.
None of this is to say that things can’t change and can’t change quickly — the Reagan administration is instructive, I think — but there shouldn’t be much doubt that the Obama landslide wasn’t a comfortable ratification of conservative policies.
Tags: 2008 Election
Partisan realignment, yes. Ideologically, no.
There’s a reason Obama’s not rolling back Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell yet.
There’s a reason Obama’s not rolling back the Bush tax cuts yet.
If this were a left-leaning nation, those two things would be automatic.
Not rolling back the tax cuts is a function of the failed Bush economy that needs to be fixed.
And no one knows yet about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Which, frankly, isn’t very high up on the list of stuff that Obama campaigned on.
Neither one gets to ideology and neither one addresses the gist of any of the articles I linked to either.
Good God, who cares?
Put whatever labels on it you want to make you happy.
Use all this meaningless subjective shorthand to polarize to your heart’s content.
None of it is instructive, informative, nor prescriptive, in the slightest.
It is really sad that a country this diverse would be politically/ideologically boiled down to inherently-relative opposite linear directions that, by definition, are not even fixed positions.
Nick Gillespie summed it up best :
“Liberals and conservatives will continue to try and define everything in terms of right and left when the proper lens, now more than ever, is choice versus control.”
This country not been successfully governed from the left in decades. There is a reason for that.
And we have been successfully governed by the right?
Truth is… you guys have chosen to run on God and abortion. You are fixated on tax cuts for the rich and fear of what “Democrats” would do. Now these tactics may have worked in the past, but they aren’t cutting it now.
Healthcare is a huge concern for Americans. Republicans chose to ignore it entirely. They also ignored skyrocketing college tuition as well as the skyrocketing price of food, heating bills, etc.
2008 wasn’t a year for ideology. It was a year for solutions. John McCain and Republicans offered none. They became the “can’t do” party. Their message seemed to be… vote for us and we won’t change a thing.
“And we have been successfully governed by the right?”
From the center-right, yes — highlighted by the Clinton-Gingrich years.
As far as your laundry list, I don’t have the energy today to go point-by-point.
Pandora – I’m really curious about how you envision the healthcare issue being resolved, or even improved, by the government. I’m not being snarky. I’ve just never been able to rationalize a scenario that will make our shitty healthcare system anything but worse once the government becomes involved in it. In fact, I can’t think of too many things off the top of my head that have improved once the government decided to get involved. I’m sure there are some things, but nothing seems to spring to mind.
Also, channeling Dom and Tyler, it is important to realize that government health care means government CONTROL of health care. What of that?
BTW, Tyler, I couldn’t agree more. I’ve never understood the bitter partisanship on either side of the aisle. The delicious irony that I’ve been dubbed ‘Bitterique’ on this site, of all places, is not lost on me.
It’s not a game, people, it’s our fucking country. Get your heads out of your asses, stop assigning labels and blame and start learning how to work with those with whom you may not fully agree to improve things for everyone. Try to focus on the big picture, not the petty minutia. Until you do, nothing will change.
The right thinks the US is center-right because “center-right” is all they hear in the “center-right” media. … and I suspect that’s the only people they hang with.
I’m not especially interested in or inspired by calls for less partisanship by those who were delighted to indulge in it when they had some stake in the game. Or, he or she who has never indulged in any partisanship online is certainly welcome to throw the first stone.
And for now — we aren’t talking about government run health care, we are talking about requirements for everyone to get some health insurance. Some will be subsidized by the government. most will not be. Not unlike the Massachusetts plan. Which has its problems, but “government control” is not one of them.
“And for now — we aren’t talking about government run health care, we are talking about requirements for everyone to get some health insurance.”
I have to say that’s pretty naive for you. You’re usually more sophisticated than that.
Not only that, but traditional insurance is the main problem here, so when the guys with guns tell you you have to buy it (the pure definition of control, by the way), it’s not improving the situation.
It isn’t naive — it is what both he and Hillary campaigned on. Hillary with mandates, and Obama without. You, however, are trying to debate a conservative worst case scenario strawman which isn’t even on the table. Sort of like the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine.
And you were a fan of the Romney Mass health care plan, why is that a problem now that Obama is talking about making that a nationwide effort? Other than the fact that you are NOW in favor of eliminating insurance all together. Which quite flies in the face of the current problem. And insurance companies know that some major change is coming — they’ve already offered to cover everyone if there is a mandate. This doesn’t go far enough, but they are concerned enough to indicate that they want to deal.
I am a fan of Romney, not necessarily of the plan as passed, and certainly not of the plan as amended post-Romney.
“they are concerned enough to indicate that they want to deal.”
They should be. They’re part of the problem.
Hey Duminique,
I’ve never understood the bitter partisanship on either side of the aisle.
Maybe it is because your party has run this country off the tracks, but I guess that goes on the long list of things you don’t understand. Like why who is President makes a difference:
“The only thing that’s really going to change is the name of the president.”
Duminique on the 2008 election
While Clinton governed, he was labelled “center-left”. But because he was so successful, he has been rebranded “center-right”. This is part of the right-wing branding movement – when Republicans succeed, they are “conservative”. When Democrats succeed, they are “center right”. When Republicans fail, they are “not conservative enough”. And when Democrats fail, they are labelled with every perjorative under the sun.
X hit the nail on the head. I’ve even seen clueless conservatives opine that Obama won because he ran as a conservative (these are the same people who called him the most liberal senator). We’re a center left nation and the last few years of conservative failure have cemented that position. People actually want government-run healthcare and they want to the government to step in to prop up the markets.
“People actually want government-run healthcare”
Which people? I can give you 10 polls that say otherwise. Even Cassandra in #14 says that government-run health care is not on the table.
I don’t think the post is inherently devisive, nor does it assign blame. It summarizes some polling data on government regulation, investment in education, government direction in energy independence and the desire for alternatives to private health care and medicare.
Also, it’s not at all a stretch to infer a leftward lean in the electorate from these benchmark issues, so I don’t know why the issue of ‘labels’ would trigger anger.
An important line in the post is, referring to the people polled is…”Their concern is less that government will do too much and more that government will fail to do what it must and waste their money in the process. ”
This is probably a significant fear for the critics on this thread, and it’s very rational. The derangement and disconnect between our government and our society has been a bipartisan effort ( although I believe little Bush raised the bar greatly)
Anyway, I find the data reported encouraging, since it indicates a shift away from the center-right mantra; ‘government bad – everything else good’. But a lot of shit’s going to hit the fan under the watch of this new administration, and this congress. And they won’t have any excuses.
“And for now — we aren’t talking about government run health care, we are talking about requirements for everyone to get some health insurance.”
Wait… so your solution for healthcare is to make sure everyone pays into a broken system, guaranteeing profits for the health insurance industry? ..and if they can’t afford it to have the government pay for it from the penalty tax that is thrust on those in between affordability and eligibility?
Wow.. I want my business to be law, so I can guarantee profits. Where do I sign up?
“I’m not especially interested in or inspired by calls for less partisanship by those who were delighted to indulge in it when they had some stake in the game.”
Apart from the fact that this is a typically dismissive comment from you (I’ve noticed a disturbing trend whereby many in the blogosphere simply choose to attack the person rather than address the issue,) if you’re directing this comment at me it couldn’t be more off-base.
I have changed my political party three times in the past two years. If that doesn’t prove to you that I am hardly a partisan, you’re clearly obtuse. I have moved towards the right, but I’m hardly a hard-core republican. I’m pretty far right in terms of government intervention and fiscal policy, but I pretty far left in terms of social issues. I would respectfully suggest that you (and others on this site) resist the urge to pigeonhole others in terms of their political beliefs. It gives you the appearance of being irrationally closed-minded.
Oh, and for the record, Obama’s victory did nothing to diminish anyone’s ‘stake in the game.’ That’s a remarkably arrogant comment, even for you. I’m pretty sure, as citizens, we all continue to have an equal stake in the game.
I have changed my political party three times in the past two years. If that doesn’t prove to you that I am hardly a partisan, you’re clearly obtuse.
Maybe not partisan, but it clearly proves something.
Actually, I think that Dom needs to go find out what her OED says about the word “partisan” before using it again.