It's official: 'center-right nation' is now right-wingers' favorite meme
If anyone were betting on it, I would happily wager that the right-wing talking point that "this is still a center-right nation" was being ginned up and distributed to every conservative talking head on the planet within 24 hours of Barack Obama's election victory, if not before.
I mean, it's coming out of the mouths of nearly every single right-wing pundit who's managed airtime since Nov. 5. It started the next day, and has only gained volume since.
And of course, it's so risibly false that it really tells us much more about conservatives and their grip on reality than anything else.
David Sirota has the goods on just how prominent the theme has become since the election:
As the graph shows, the use of the exact term "center-right nation" spiked immediately after election day (point "0" is the day my column published, point "1" is election day).
While it's true - this trend study doesn't tell us how many of the "center-right nation" references are saying this is "not a center-right nation." But a look through Lexis-Nexis shows it's safe to assume that the vast majority of these references are asserting this is a "center-right nation."
So we're not talking about theory anymore - we're talking about empirical fact. The media has exponentially increased the amount of times it claims that this country is a "center-right nation" - at the very same time public opinion data shows the country is a decidedly center-left nation. In short, we have the two hard data points proving that as the country has become more progressive and validated its progressivism on election day, the media has increased its claims that the nation is conservative.
Of course, this is just the latest wingnut meme. It tells us, though, that the Republicans' longtime operating motto -- "If you can't beat 'em with brains, baffle 'em with bulls--t" -- is very much still with us.
It's bullshit.
It is just the winger way of saying,"We didn't really lose an election by a two to one margin!"
It's the eejit way of saying," All of those voters MEANT to vote for Palin/McCain!"
Or in neocon terms: "NO! NO! It's STILL my turn! What election? Mommeeee! Ngwaah! Waaaaahhh!!"
That's why there are far less "conservatives" in this country then Liberals.
And that must be why not one single senate or house seat change from a Dem or a Repug this year (or in 06 either).
And that is why the right wing has to steal to win an election and when that fails they go to the surpreme court to make sure that they get the victory they don't even deserve.
My favorate part is how they use people like "Joe" the "Plumber" to spew their right wing nonsense and then when they don't need average people like that anymore they just piss on them. - hell if the Repug's had their way they would remove "We the people" from our preamble and replace it with "the mighty corporations, in order to bust all the unions..." - so as long as the repug's are the Anti-America party we will never be a "center right" country.
Here's the irony:
America is a centre-right nation, just not for the reason the wing-nuts think it is.
It's all to do with America's horribly skewed definitions of words like 'liberal' and 'conservative.'
America still has this notion that things like universal health care are somehow 'liberal' ideas when even the most conservative governments in the rest of the world realise that it's a basic duty of government.
Obama may seem like a leftie if you use neo-con ideologues as your point of reference, but by any international standards, he is really quite conservative. And that's not a bad thing, because he's conservative in the genuine sense of the word, not the perverse definition it has taken on in the US.
So the next time you hear someone say the US is a centre-right country, don't go saying, "No we aren't, no we aren't!"
Just smile as you realise that they really don't understand just how right they are.
http://the-billablog.blogspot.com/
Agreed.
Put another way, by first-world standards Obama IS center-right. The people yapping about how the U.S. is a center-right nation are FAR right.
I would actually consider Obama a rightie as Bill was center right and Obama is further right than Bill was.
But yes, the media and everyone like to scare people with the word liberal and they've been doing it for so long (at least all the way back to the red scare in the 20's) that a lot of people have bought into it. They've essentially created the reality that the repubs are the center and anything left of that is far left.
And ever since st. ronnie's landslide victory, the idiot dems came to the conclusion that the country was really center right and why they have been offering us republican light for a while now as choices. The problem with that is that the repubs keep moving ever rightward so repub light keeps moving ever rightward as well. At this point it wouldn't surprise me if the dems were so scared of being called liberals and of letting the repubs fall off the political map that they just instinctively try to become repub light.
Basically we need more than an ever shifting conservative party (dems) and the looney conservative party. We really need to change the way this country votes plus make sure that those votes count plus a party that actually represents the center and the left.
Just using those labels an argument can certainly be made. However, when polling on issues, i.e. woman's right to choose, health care, Bush Doctrine, etc instead of just asking if people are lib or conservative, the results are always that we are a pretty left leaning Nation.
the labels: Progressive and Regressive (for the Repug Party).
Progressives (mostly Dems)are people who are looking forward and looking for new ideas and ways to improve situations - to help people make "progress" toward a better standard of living, for instance.
Regressives (mostly Repugs) are people with their heads up their asses, and when they pull them out they're still looking backward!
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Constitutionalist or non-Constitutionalist. After the Bush administration destruction of America's constitutional structure, anybody who wants it restored is called a "flaming, out-of-control liberal".
I say "social values" bedamned! Give us back the Constitutional government we were born into, with its concomitant benefits for us all. This is what the majority of Americans want, not the rightwingers' horrible unconstitutional governance.
I want to go back to the tax/economic policies of the 90s and 50s.
As a non-American I see your nation as being extremely right. The only liberal I see is in the average person's decadent lifestyle. It's a strange dichotomy. The prisons are over-flowing for no good reason, and you execute people, and have no national health insurance plan, but people live more decadently than the Romans did in their heydey.
far left loon >.<
i just reply that "I am sure you meant to say Obama is right on center."
1-Americans are afraid to be left behind, always want to be seen as right, and often are afraid to endorse progressive ideas in fear that their opinions will get back to HR and they will be out of a job. The language has been influenced further by spinners who are trying to herd the sheeple into their ideological and voting corral.
2-Remember that Lexis-Nexis's info is only as good as the informant. The database contains plenty of garbage, smears, and outright slanders, often the work of some Rethug lawyer or HR with a grudge or a hidden agenda.
The MSM (republican owned) still trying to maintain control. Just another brainwashing method. It's all about the money. After money they want POWER. Any threat to the controllers and we get bull s*it to counter it. In reality,the masses are center. All this left/right is callled 'divide and conquor'. A king will not give up his power without a fight.
I don't mean to be difficult, but I think you're making a serious mistake. Some of this talk about being a center-right nation is silly, it's like a town where everyone is above average or just being plain north without being north of something. To the extent that it makes sense, we need some fixed point. Are we "center-right" (meaning, I guess, centrist or right-wing) compared to the rest of the world? Yes, obviously. Are we "center-right" relative to recent history? I don't see much evidence that we've moved that far to the left. Are we just going to ignore Proposition 8? Yes, the electoral vote makes it look like there's been some significant change, but think about the percentage points. How could King Lear and his batshit crazy hillbilly sidekick even come as close as they did if this country was anything but a "center-right" nation? I think it's a bit premature to start celebrating. If it weren't for McCain's mendacity, his absurd decision to bring Palin on as a running mate, and a series of very unfortunate but perfectly timed events, I don't think Obama would have won and we'd be inundated with the same series of stories about the demise of the Democrats. Reading these posts, you remind me of the character from a horror movie who, upon seeing the still body of some monster declares that all is well, turns to walk away, and then... The monster lives! Don't get complacent. This place is still too "center-right" for anyone's good. Get to work. Now's not the time to stop arguing people into being lefter.
I'll agree with their assertion; the nation is center right.
If true, that means the right is slowly shifting left. So they do believe man is responsible for climate change? So they do agree the war in Iraq is a mistake and an unnecessary drain on our resources? So they do agree religion needs to get out of politics? So they agree they haven't been well served by their Republican representatives or their Republican Party?
Pinpointing the center is tough, but having a general idea of where it is isn't. So how did the Republicans get so off course? Could it be big business manipulated religious and other social conservatives into believing they represented mainstream America when it's clear they don't? Why is easy; they did it to amass even more wealth.
and unless they destroy the web, they won't bring it back.
Some stuff you can't make up!
I feel it's to late to stop the web. The web is world wide and it's faster to smack down the BS. I remember all thoes people in Germany that came to hear Obama speak....wow..I realized the whole world is watching this.
Yes we are, and probably more than you know. Electing BHO got you about 10 million brownie points, and was a goodwill gesture to the world, in itself!!! We are overjoyed!!!
Good faith in America and the American people has shot right up off the meter.
far left loon >.<
But I think the meme is essentially correct.
We won this election precisely because Obama ran to the right (FISA, gay marriage, saber rattling in Pakistan, taxation issues). On every contentious issue, he bought into the Republican framing. For example, in the final debate, he said, and I quote, "I hate paying taxes just like everyone else." His FISA vote accepted implicitly that national security and personal liberty are a zero sum game.
I'm as left as they come, but I am not really upset by this talking point because it looks pretty accurate to me. Look at the Cabinet he's picking. The dude is Bill Clinton with a tighter zipper.
The left wing of the Democratic party is going to be marginalized, again. I'm not any happier about it than anyone else here, but it doesn't help to stick our heads in the sands and pretend it ain't true.
It looks to me like moderate (Rockefeller/Eisenhower) Republicans and independents are going to take over the Democratic Party, and leave the GOP to Auntie Sarah. That means us DFHs need to get behind another party, IMHO.
it's amusing people say Bill Clinton with such disdain, as if his presidency was a horror. LOL.
There are worse things to be like than Bill clinton. *rolls eyes*
It's even more amusing that people "say Bill Clinton with such disdain" when you realize they do it mostly because of previous right-wing meme's.
I keep hoping the people who do it will eventually realize that.
But, as a left winger, I think we could do a lot better.
Clinton wasted his potential bigtime. Perhaps he's the best we can do in this country, but I will remain disappointed.
And, where was Mr. Clinton in the run up to the Iraq War? MIA. Al Gore was all over the place giving speeches.
Not Slick Willy.
Despite your points about Obama and the fact that Obama was excoriated as "The Most Liberal Senator" by the McCain campaign and every right-winger with a microphone (even though it wasn't true)and add to that the majorities achieved in the House AND Senate in 2006 by the Democrats, majorities increased in 2008 even though the threat of a Democratic congress and executive branch was also hammered home my the RNC and right-wingers, its laughable to say the country is not center-left if not out and out left.
I'm sure you well understand that were the exact opposite situation in effect regarding Dems and Repubs, the Repubs would be crowing and, lets face it, threatening everyone that were a strong right nation and anyone who disagrees is a bad American.
when the Pigs squeaked out a victory in '04 they found it necessary to steal Ohio.
But they acted as though they had a clear mandate - other than Larry Craig.
Keep in mind that Obama won because of his broad-church approach.
He could not have won without people who define themselves as conservative switching their vote because they felt the Republicans had abandoned their original principles.
Hillary tried to pander to the right but Obama just appealed to thinking conservatives.
http://the-billablog.blogspot.com/
I got your center right hanging between my legs.
http://vimeo.com/1917372
Piss off George W. Bush you asshole!
Frank Zappa - Make A Jazz Noise Here
"Of course, this is just the latest wingnut meme. It tells us, though, that the Republicans' longtime operating motto -- "If you can't beat 'em with brains, baffle 'em with bulls--t" -- is very much still with us."
Such has it always been and so it will always be. When you know you can't get and retain power by telling what your really all about you have to lie and twist every thing around. Of course enough of that will eventually make you go completely batshit insane.
Generally speaking I don't trust anyone making over 150K a year.
It's just like after the civil war: the die-hard confederates still were not convinced that they were wrong. They just didn't fight hard enough. I've often wondered, what's it like to be on the wrong side of history? Must be difficult to come to grips with.
I love how David Neiwert describes movement conservatives as "nothing if not spectacularly un-self-aware". It describes them so well. They actually remind me of the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Think of the 2006 election as them having their first arm cut off ('tis but a scratch) and the 2008 election as losing their other arm (It's just a flesh wound).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eMkth8FWno
Republicans are truly masters of delusion. Not only have they united in their fact-free fantasy world, they've brought the media along with them.
Compared to Europe, the government is pretty far to the right. Even with Obama as President I don't expect a huge swing to the left, but I do expect to move more towards the center.
Most of the righty blogs and talkers think Bush is a liberal. He his not nor are the righties in his Administration. They are extreme right. Then again, many of these people believe that Hitler was a left winger.
who were split down the middle by a false-dichotomy perpetuated by the media. Right or left, no in between, easy to define labels.
There are some good points about the meme being correct. Remember how "right" the democrats acted after the last election?
jlamkin said it best above,
"Look at the Cabinet he's picking. The dude is Bill Clinton with a tighter zipper."
Sadly for the right wingers, ONLY the right wingers can be swayed anymore by the "say it over and over again to make it true" approach to the truth. It's a very different electorate with theirs dying off. Furthermore, this just makes them look desperate (which they are).
A right winger pulled it on me the other day. My incredulous, "No it's not!" was all it too to both shut him up and get agreeing nods and comments from those around me.
Why keep saying that silly phrase? The far right just looks like idiots and people will see them for the liars they are.
Not only are we living in a progressive USA, we may be living in one for a generation after George Bush destroyed the republican party.
Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity. Albert Einstein
All these ignoramuses are focused on false ideas. While that could still be dangerous, it does put them on extremely unstable ground.
Better they right should froth and seethe about imaginary things than focus there energy on reality.
and they will keep saying it until its true.
manifest
... and I bet it was born the minute Rove was pointing to Ohio on the map stating McCain needed it when it went to Obama that this delusion came to fruition in the blown minds of the right wing pundits. If this is a center-right nation, then the elections would have turned out very different.
Regardless, it would be impressive if there was a way to peg when the right wing pundits started blaming the economy on Obama. I heard Buchanan on MSNBC this morning blathering that Obama has to do something now since the economy didn't rebound immediately after the election. The Dem counter strategist did a poor job of rebutting, but at least he got out that Bush is still president for 2 more months.
These pricks are going to be in denial over Obama's election for the next four years, and F*cks Nooz is leading the dialogue. They can't believe no one (except fascist knuckle-draggers)is buying their horseshit anymore.
The sooner Rupert Murdoch is either indicted and/or deported, the better. It's all about money..the neo-cons have it, they are unwilling to share it or spread it around, it's "I've got mine, screw you." They want cultural warfare, well they started it and we'll finish it.
Democratic Party progressive, Vietnam veteran and proud Union member for 41 years
I used to say the conservatives consider anyone to the left of Hitler is a Liberal but they have moved the fence on me. Now the conservatives figure anyone to the right of Noam Chomsky is a conservative, talk about your big tent. All things are bigger when you have a small mind
The "right" has been so wrong for so long.So,does center right mean we are actually, just to the right of wrong?
It doesn't matter what they do. If they want to be right or right of center, they will build a road to get there.
Just as they refer to anything and anyone being on the left, even the likes of Tucker Carlson, Joe Scarborough, Chris Matthews, they keep moving to the right. As soon as hey get into the gutter, everything else is left.
They do this now when they call this country left-of-center. They just make everything that works well and claim it's 'republican' or 'conservative'. Take fiscal responsibility. Every president, since the 70's, with the exception of Carter, who was the most responsible? Hands down, it has to be Clinton, but they claim it as theirs. National defense, they claim it as theirs without any evidence to back it up. The nation did not need defending since WWII, everything else was aggression. Clinton treated the 1993 WTC incident as criminal, the perpetrators are in jail, The 2001 WTC attack has the perpetrators dead, and the mastermind still on the loose. On foreign policy, which is a disaster since Bush 43. They claim this country has not been attacked for 7 years if you ignore the anthrax thing. But the country was not attacked from 1993 until Bush and Rice ignored warnings in 2001, and there is nothing the repugs did to keep attacks away, but in other countries that suffered.
They claim all three of these as being their strength, and base the claim that the country is center-right on that misrepresentation.
Liars that they are.
All I hear is they hate us - just about everybody. Nobody asks 'why do they hate us?" They refuse to talk to those who hate us. Bin laden said it is because we have invaded their world, Bush has other reasons, like they hate our way of life, our freedom, etc.
If you need funds to pay for essentials, you have a revenue problem
If you need funds to pay for frivolity, you have a spending problem
Fuck those Orwellean assholes! I love telling wingnuts they are full of shit - right to their face!
So is their party of liars, losers, con-men and criminals.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
I do the same,,, allthough in a sublime kind of way. They shout liberal, I counter that I agree because I am progressive. A forward thinker. The shouter has no reply to that. When they say Rush says this, I counter that Rush knows how to make a buck off his listeners. They agree. Got them off the talking point. Move the conversation to something with substance and you find that they have some sudden task to complete.
Why appeasing the right by using the term "center" at all? There is one left leaning and one right leaning party in America. Currently the left is about to take charge and the right has marginalized itself.
If you call yourself "center-left", the right will call you a "far-left loon" anyway, so why appease them.
Besides, what is left in America is still pretty far right in most European democracies, so the scale is relative, something most ill-educated (rich and poor) right-wing morons have no clue about...
I think an important consideration here is that we need to draw a distinction between the Democrats and the American people. True, the Dems are conter-right, while the Repubs are far right. But that says nothing about the American people as a whole. The populace is, largely, center-left; on the whole, the American people support "liberal" policies: universal healthcare (yes, meaning single payer, as poll after poll shows), progressive taxation for social and infrastructure needs, multi-lateral foreign policy co-operation, Social Security, education available to all, etc etc. WE ARE INDEED A CENTER-LEFT NATION.
We just don't have a national center-left political party.
"Of course, this is just the latest wingnut meme."
The republicans have some very reprehensible weapons in their arsenal. And I think this might be one of them. Though it seems like a rather mundane orchestration of just another talking point, it may very well be a form of mind control. It seems silly now, but, Hammer a message, regardless of basis in fact or reality, then eventually it becomes reality.
This article from yesterday's NYT states that "Now, his reported selections for two of the major positions in his cabinet — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state and Timothy F. Geithner as secretary of the Treasury — suggest that Mr. Obama is planning to govern from the center-right of his party, surrounding himself with pragmatists rather than ideologues."
If Obama is governing from the center-right, then lots of Republicans will agree with his plans and policies and won't oppose him, right? I can't wait to see that.
From a comparative politics perspective, the US is center-right. Stop kidding yourselves.
You have 2 political parties: Republicans representing the right and Democrats representing the center-right.
You don't even have a party that represents the center and you are still probably a 100 years away from ever having a credible party representing socialist values like every other industrialized nation has. I guess that's just remnants of the Cold War where everyone was indoctrinated to believe that socialism=communism=unAmerican=satan.
If America was indeed a country of the center you would have the people demanding a political party representing values of the left. And that just hasn't happened The closest to that would have been Nader (who is probably center-left) garnering just 2.7% of the vote in 2000.
Until you prove otherwise you are a country of the center-right. Deal with it.
Canada has 17 political parties:
Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada
Bloc Québécois
Canadian Action Party
Christian Heritage Party of Canada
Communist Party of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada
First Peoples National Party of Canada
Green Party of Canada
Liberal Party of Canada
Libertarian Party of Canada
Marijuana Party
Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada
neorhino.ca
New Democratic Party
Newfoundland and Labrador First Party
People's Political Power Party of Canada
Progressive Canadian Party
Western Block Party
Work Less Party
Hey, they left off the Rhinocerous Party. Yes, we have one of those too.
far left loon >.<
in a post. Here's your proof.
Sounds good to me. Look at how many Dems hate the party, because they're too much like Thugs, but they're shooting for the lesser of two evils. Which is still evil, BTW. I choose neither, myself. But I'm not as lonely in that choice as I used to be.
me-oww!
then you are also a lazy, apathetic nation for not organizing and running a political party that represents these policies (and means it). That is, if the majority of the American people do in fact support these policies.
And BTW - universal healthcare, social security, public education etc. are SOCIALIST policies not "liberal" policies. Stop being afraid of the word socialism, it doesn't bite.
I can assure I am not afraid of the word.
I have been working my arse off toward a lefter society since childhood, so watch who you call lazy.
And I don't know if you are aware of this, but the American Public voted for President Gore and President Kerry, and somehow ended up with fucknuts Bush. By this yardstick, I would say majority opinion has no value here, because of assholes who repeat stupid made up shit.
me-oww!
...repeat stupid made up shit.
That's a good point, and one of the most conspicuous differences between Canada and the U.S. is that Canada has a publicly funded news agency that is mandated to try (not always successfully) to report the facts, rather than just repeating manufactured spin. In fact, that's the one thing that separates the U.S. from ALL the other industrialized nations.
Well, I guess that and 1. not having universal health care, and 2. spending 4% GDP on defense, when all the other industrialized nations (with the notable exception of the Russians) spend 1%.
Anyway, the first step towards counteracting the right wing propaganda that has flooded the media for the last thirty years was to start counterbalancing it with some alternatives. Since money is access, and the right has always had more of that then the left, the obvious place to start was the internet, since it's the cheapest. Blogs like this one are an example. Step two, which was harder, was to try to break into the radio market (the second cheapest). Air America was the first example, and it's been VERY hard slugging. The next step will obviously be the television market, but it will take a HELL of a lot of effort to knock a dent into right wing monoliths like the Murdoch Empire. Olbermann and Maddow are the first examples, starting with cable.
However, the best thing to do right off the bat will be to return the Fairness Doctrine. That will be the tipping point. We have to keep after the Democrats to get them to put somebody in charge of the FCC who will enforce the Fairness Doctrine.
I have to agree with Moose and Pericles. How can "measly-little-old Canada" have 17 parties?
Because the people wanted them, and organized them. It wasn't some magic from above.
far left loon >.<
This is just more propaganda, yea my dick hangs center-right and that's all. Something only the neos understand is if you are not right of center, then you are a dope smoking,no-work, free love and unwashed "hippie", out to sponge off of the government and the citizens. They are still fighting the "hippie wars". beautify America, cut your hair. Different billboard,same group of backward,ignorant fucking rednecks, can't wait until they all die off.-CEO,citizens,eyes,open.
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
We have always been at war with Eurasia
Losing Overwhelmingly is Winning
Blah blah blah.................
Now that these assholes are going to be out of government and offical positions of influence; they are going to have alot of time on their hands to get incredibly stupid. I can't wait to hear what kind of bullshit they come up with after another 2 or 3 election blowouts.
This is just Chapter 1 in the ongoing saga of GOP, conservatard, bizzarro world.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
If only 40% of the eligable voters put George Bush in the white House with a 51-to-49 percent margin... that means only about TWENTY PERCENT of eligable voters determined the out-come.
When larger numbers of eligable voters vote (like, maybe THIS YEAR) that means a MORE ACCURATE reflection of the political nature of eligable voters will be represented by the results. Babe, Rush, Sean... LISTEN UP! AMERICA IS ACTUALLY LIBERAL! Now SHUT UP... SIT DOWN... and GET USED TO IT!
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