Fearful Conservatives Push New Talking Point: ‘This Is A Center-Right Country’
Fearful Conservatives Push New Talking Point: ‘This Is A Center-Right Country’
Last Friday, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer called the United States “the quintessential center-right country,” and wondered why it was “poised to reject” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), “the quintessential center-right candidate.” Last week’s Newsweek cover declared, “America remains a center-right nation — a fact that a President Obama would forget at his peril.”
Ignoring the fact that a progressive majority won back Congress in 2006 — and that Democrats are expected to make dramatic gains in their majority today — conservatives continue to insist that Americans are fundamentally conservative and perpetually wary of Democrats:
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]
Watch a mashup:
As David Sirota has noted, the idea that Americans are fundamentally conservative is a myth. Indeed, a majority of Americans want progressive solutions to the nation’s problems, supporting universal health care, expanded environmental protections, a higher minimum wage, the availability of safe and legal abortions, federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, and the rights of same-sex couples to be legally recognized. Additionally, a majority opposes the Iraq War.
By insisting that — despite all appearances to the contrary — Americans favor conservatives, the right wing is trying to handicap the progressive agenda before it has a chance of being enacted. But today’s election results are likely to throw an even greater wrench in the “center-right country” myth. The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne disputed the conservatives’ entire premise, on MSNBC:
I disagree the notion that we are still a center-right country. We may have been a center-right country. But I think what you’re seeing here, John McCain is running very clearly against Barack Obama as a redistributionist and a socialist. And if the country votes for Barack Obama, I think the country will be saying not that they move far to the left, but we’re not center-right anymore. They want some government action to solve some of these problems.
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The conservatives only want to employ government action to help the richest…that is the American way to them! The rest of us prefer to see our government take action on behalf of ALL Americans. The right is definitely NOT RIGHT!
November 4th, 2008 at 2:40 pmIf this is a center-right country then why did both major party candidates claim to be advocating a move away from the policies of a right wing administration? And if this is a center-right country then why has the change message of the more right wing candidate seemingly failed to resonate with the voters? Nice try wingers but it looks like the people want some change we can believe in.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:45 pmDr. Hussein: SO true; my fiancee mentioned to a fellow church member he was an Obama supporter, and was lambasted with a comment about how “he would be supporting the murder of 200,000 babies”. I told him if the topic is brought up again, he should ask exactly what the president, all by himself, will do to change a law decided upon by the SCOTUS. Since Roe v. Wade was decided, we have had conservative administrations in place 2/3 of the time. Republicans had control of Congress many of those years also. If conservatives really wanted to do something about abortion it would have happened already….can you say WEDGE ISSUE?
November 4th, 2008 at 2:46 pmLike “socialist” and “marxist” and all the other meme-pejoratives, one should not throw around terms – like “center – right” – without being able to adequately define them.
If not, we get to taze you. Deal?
November 4th, 2008 at 2:46 pmWho appointed conservatrons to speak for us?
If Progressives win the majority of races tonight, why shouldn’t Maddow or Schultz claim ‘naming rights’ to ‘what we now are’?
Because that’s what these assholes do; act as if they have some inherent right to define ‘who’ we are.
Larson, Krautsucker, Limpballs, Slanthead, Kristol, Savage, et al, are you listening? Your opinion, as of tonight, means nothing. Nada. Zippo.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:47 pmand they’re all center-wrong
November 4th, 2008 at 2:47 pmactually, if you take out “country” and replace it with “the beltway”, what they say is pretty much spot-on.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:49 pmMcCain is “the quintessential center-right candidate.”?
Uhm, Mr. Krauthammer, I believe the word you are looking for is authoritarian. Maybe even fascist-like.
But “center-right”? I don’t think so.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:50 pmGovernment made most of the mess. It stands to reason, they should be the ones to clean it up and help those who suffered by their actions. Other than that, I don’t expect our government to help me, just don’t tilt the playing field so heavily against us.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:50 pmUm…OK — how can ANYONE define what the “center” is (let alone “center-right”) when it keeps changing? What used to be a centrist position on — oh, say, school integration — is now considered to be far-right, for example.
Generally, it’s the left who leads with societal changes. It was the left who ended slavery, gave women the right to vote, and guaranteed the civil rights of everyone regardless of color or nationality. It’s the right who wants to return to the “good old days”.
The simplest way to define the center is to say it’s in the middle. Our society is always gradually moving in the direction of the left, meaning that the “center” is always edging toward a location that was considered “far-left” at one time. No matter where the “center” is at any given time, many presidents will attempt to find it a govern from it (or from a point nearby) since he will find it’s easier to build consensus from that point (this doesn’t apply to presidents who never felt the need to build consensus, like Dubya).
The problem with such an ambiguous “center” is that different people will define it as different places. Regardless of our ideology, most of us think that we stand pretty close to the center unless we know we’re extreme. Pat Buchanan thinks he’s just right of center. Yet to a liberal, he appears to be WAAAAAAAAAAAAAYY out in right field — on the other side of the foul line. I’m sure Bill Kristol thinks he’s just right of center, too. Ditto Charles Krauthammer. It’s the only explanation for why they think people who are actually at the center are the “far-left”. It’s all subjective.
I’m actually waiting for any of these conservapundits to explain how it is that the country is “center-right” when so many people are “far-left”.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:51 pmIf by the country, they mean the pundits, then yeah, center-right is correct.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:51 pmMcCain is “the quintessential center-right candidate.”?
True enough . . . if it’s the third Wednesday of the month and he’s in Florida.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:54 pmCenter right. Center left. Center center. Center, left, right, left, right…
November 4th, 2008 at 2:54 pmThey all sound like they’re trying to talk themselves through a field sobriety test.
They’re gonna have to come up with some fancy rhetoric to continue with that meme after tonight’s landslide.
If you break it down issue by issue, this is a center left country.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:55 pmmisshusseinmolly Says:
I’m actually waiting for any of these conservapundits to explain how it is that the country is “center-right” when so many people are “far-left”.
Don’t hold your breath, MsMolly.
I am convinced these reichwingers don’t actually know what half the words they use even mean, like “fat-left” or “radical left”.
They know to use them as rhetorical devices to scare people, by evoking Stalin’s regime, the Soviet Union, or Pol Pot’s Cambodia. But assigning these terms an actual, concrete meaning, is beyond the cognitive abilities of most functionally illiterate reichwingers -but I repeat myself.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:56 pmRich republicans pay the way to convince religious people that they support their ideals when most of them seem to do anything but. It’s the easiest way to get a huge amount of people on their side. It certainly has worked well for a long time and I imagine they’ll keep doing it despite what is said here.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:57 pmThat would be “far-left”, not “fat-left” above ;-)
November 4th, 2008 at 2:57 pmMay I simply state on this historic day that Charles Krauthammer is a neocon @sslicking wad of shit that disengaged from Dick Cheney’s filthy tighty (once) whities, rolled out of his pant leg, sprouted two fingers and has been gleefully typing right wing editorials ever since. This piece of vomit thinks that George Bush’s legacy will be vindicated by future historians as some kind of genius. Good luck with that Krauty!
November 4th, 2008 at 2:59 pmKrauthammer is delusional. I mean, seriously, the man is a nut.
Check this.
Among other stupendously nutty comments:
Keep in mind that he’s talking about John McCain, who is suddently the “most serious foreign policy thinker” in the Senate. Krauthammer needs to adjust his meds.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:00 pmThis is simply a lame attempt to create the impression that they still count. They had total control of this country for the past six of eight years. The country is a total disaster and yet, these self-declared experts still don’t get it. A majority of Americans do not want what these clowns are selling as the vision of America. Their failed vision of America has been rejected and they need to move on to being part of the future not holding on to the bush/cheney past.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:01 pmummm…. i think you meant school SEGREGATION. At least I hope you did. I haven’t really been checking the polling on the attitudes on integration cause I thought it was pretty much settled. =D
November 4th, 2008 at 3:03 pmWingnuts claim we have a ‘far left liberal media’ while claiming ‘center-right’ values. That just doesn’t add up, eh?
Are they also saying the Cheney administration was ‘center-right’?
RIGHT…
November 4th, 2008 at 3:04 pmWRONG – AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!
The United States is DEFINITELY A CENTER-LEFT NATION!!!!!!!
1. The majority of Americans are Pro-Choice.
2. The majority of Americans are Pro-Gay Marriage (or at least Civil Union).
3. The VAST majority of Americans are Pro-Universal Health Care.
4. The Vast majority of Americans want us OUT of IRAQ -YESTERDAY!!!!!!!
5. The VAST majority of Americans HATE GEORGE W. BUSH.
6. The majority of Americans are Democrats.
7. The majority of Americans are voting for the next President of the United States of America – BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA!!!!!!!
PERIOD.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:05 pmtoday’s the day that
newsweek wakes up
to the fact that it
has become irrelevant.
T
November 4th, 2008 at 3:06 pmconservatives continue to insist that Americans are fundamentally conservative and perpetually wary of Democrats…
if they are it’s because they don’t know any better, they’ve been brainwashed for years by the over saturation of right-wing media…
i am especially hoping for the best news of AL FRANKEN’s
campaign – along with OBAMA’s too, of course…
but, if it weren’t for franken and AirAmericaRadio getting the toe-hold on lefty radio and getting the TRUTH out there, i’m not sure we would be here at all… at least as informed as we are… TP and the other great blogs followed along and there was just no stopping it…
the choke-hold of righty LIES is done.
thank the gods!
November 4th, 2008 at 3:08 pm.
“This is a center-right country…”
… And that’s what the problem has been.
.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:13 pmFred and his ilk must accept the fact that this is a progressive naton that was hoodwinked into allowing the thugs steal electios, dumb down the consituency, and force their radical extremist policies on us by using fear and smear. The public woke up and the FAUX folks need to understand the last time the republicans overreached this far was the Great Depression. They did not gain another majority for a long, long time. They are a dying breed unable to accept the writing on the wall. They may very well be a chapter in history but maybe just one page.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:14 pm… in 1994 after two years of calamitous Democratic rule…
what was so calamitous about it?
November 4th, 2008 at 3:16 pmseriously, can/will someone refresh my memory…
i was dealing with 2 young pubescents at the time and probably wasn’t paying attention…
He may be ‘right’.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:17 pmWhat I do know is that out of control spending and debt and preemptive war are not ‘conservative’.
I detect the smell of piss from Pundit Land. :-D
November 4th, 2008 at 3:17 pmUh-oh… RHF is here again.
For god’s sake no one bash Hillary!
November 4th, 2008 at 3:17 pmNew KoolAide trucks must be late and they are feeling the withdrawal…Center-Right..a COMPLETE hoax…
Hopefully, they can center right themselves into oblivion using D. Perino as their highest-lightest floating scum on the new pond on the pig farm in crawford OR BETTER YET – the Hague !!!
southrnbelle @23 above has it completely correct..
November 4th, 2008 at 3:19 pmMost Americans are perfectly happy with the OCCUPATION of both Iraq and Afghanistan, brutal occupations that have murdered hundreds of thousands, put tens of thousands in wheel chairs, made blind, limbless, and put in foreign controlled prisons, contradicting the myth they have any sovereignty .
November 4th, 2008 at 3:22 pmThe new Democratic leader said on 60 minutes ” we need troops in Iraq to protect out interests “, so ask who profits from the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and what will change when ” combat troops come home ” , absolutely NOTHING . Even a joe six pack can figure out wait a minute, combat troops comprise about 25% of troops in Iraq , that leaves 75- 100,000, NOT including the murderous mercenaries .
And after the Taliban went to Houston, Tx. to Unocal HQ to get trained in oil industries, they were refused an open pipeline request, 9/11 happened and the invasion of the region commenced .
Obama knows DAMN WELL , the U.S. has launched a RESOURCE WAR, won’t be leaving Iraq , WON’T be leaving Afghanistan ( to ensure the Caspian Pipeline will be built ), occupations there and thousands of places around the globe, that will cost BILLIONS .
The right / left fight is just a convenient distraction, while our rights are taken away, privacy taken away , (obama THX for your warrantless wire tap support ) and our money is taken away for thousands of BASES around the globe .
The Globalists are winning , they control the choices we supposedly have, they control the message with their blood thirsty agenda, with help from the CFR .
Whoa
You know, I actually remember when republicans could mount a serious debate about what what was better for the nation’s growth, bottom up economics or trickle down. Now everyone knows that with tax loopholes and the fact the most of the people receiving the huge tax cuts for the rich don’t even pay income tax because their income is from dividends that the wealth just does not ever make it down, all they have are talking points with nothing behind it. Which is quite hilarious when slack jawed yokels who vote republican and couldn’t possibly reap any rewards from a republican administration use these talking points, because it is evident that they only know what they hear, and only hear what they want to believe.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:26 pmThese fools are so far right, they didn’t see from a distance when the rest of the country ran in horror away from their heinous ideology. They still think there is a whole population of Reagan Democrats waiting for them just over the horizon.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:28 pmThe center right in America would all fit nicely into Utah, and I suggest we do exactly that with them.
“Utah”:
November 4th, 2008 at 3:30 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHlmCoKIRvU
deebaser Says
November 4th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
ummm…. i think you meant school SEGREGATION. At least I hope you did. I haven’t really been checking the polling on the attitudes on integration cause I thought it was pretty much settled. =D
____________________________________________________________
Actually, I meant “school integration” — with the “centrist” position of about six decades ago being against it. And such a position nowadays would be considered extremely far right, with only KKK members admitting to being against it.
But yes — I could have said “school segregation”, with the mainstream of America supporting it in the middle of the 20th century.
Six of one, half a dozen of the other…
November 4th, 2008 at 3:30 pmFunny I never heard any of those dirtbags even mention the “center” until they starting losing all those races. They’re trying to intimidate all the newly elected into taking the actions they promised to take.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:33 pmkaty Says:
——————————————————————————–
… in 1994 after two years of calamitous Democratic rule…
what was so calamitous about it?
seriously, can/will someone refresh my memory…
i was dealing with 2 young pubescents at the time and probably wasn’t paying attention…
Well, the Macarena was sweeping the country.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:33 pmNote how the markets love socialism. The Dow is up 260 today.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:37 pmOne man’s socialism is another man’s economic recovery. It’s pick your own talking point day. Yeah.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:38 pmIs it “socialist” to attempt to prevent more hard-working, tax-paying citizens from becoming welfare recipients?
WHAT THE FCUK is wrong with Wingnuts?????
Will they become the ‘Morlocks’ of our future or what?
November 4th, 2008 at 3:42 pmFunny I never heard any of those dirtbags even mention the “center” until they starting losing all those races.
Interesting too how ALL the political advertising here in N. Texas has both parties NOT mentioning their political affiliation???
November 4th, 2008 at 3:42 pmwhat is it going to take for these morons to accept the fact America has rejected their ideology? A freakin’ exorcism? Linda Blair spitting split pea soup at pat buchanan?
November 4th, 2008 at 3:44 pmIn the Republican county of outside of Chicago I live in nobody is mentioning their party in their ads either. But my congresswoman, that b tch has totally rewritten her history.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:45 pmWhat is it going to take? How about poor ratings. Countdown and Maddow are kicking the pants off of Billo.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:47 pmIt wouldn’t hurt if Limbaugh’s bosses realized how overpaid he is and got rid of him on some morality clause.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:50 pmShayne Says:
“In the Republican county of outside of Chicago I live in nobody is mentioning their party in their ads either.”
If waahhhpublicans were literate they would draw the parallel between that phenomena and Hester Prynne’s scarlett “A” in The Scarlett Letter
November 4th, 2008 at 3:51 pmCheck out the “Blast The Right” podcast. Jack Clark covers this very subject several times, and it backs up Sirota’s views nearly entirely.
One part that was particularly fascinating was the reasons why this myth is perpetuated. One is that people think the positions they have on issues (which are progressive) are the norm, and according to faux news, the norm is conservative. They just haven’t put their views in perspective. Another is the demonization of the term “liberal” by the wacko right.
I’m confident that eventually the public will flush the “center-right” label.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:53 pmLast Friday, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer called the United States “the quintessential center-right country,” and wondered why it was “poised to reject” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), “the quintessential center-right candidate.” Last week’s Newsweek cover declared, “America remains a center-right nation — a fact that a President Obama would forget at his peril.”
Why are they saying this?
Because it is part and parcel of the grand strategy, one tine of the trident. The other two are: The election was stolen by voter fraud, and Obama’s a Secret Mooslim/Commie/Enemy Of The State.
You do have to love this threatening bluster, though: “[A] fact that a President Obama would forget at his peril.” Does Krauthammer really think that Obama should pay obeisance to the “centre right” that elected him?!?!? Or what is Krauthammer getting on about? Perhaps this? WTF?!?!?!?!?
Cheers,
November 4th, 2008 at 3:58 pmThey say it; that makes it so!?
November 4th, 2008 at 4:02 pmHa! They make me laugh.
The nation wants health care, better wages, jobs, a safe environment, and a secure old age — everything that is antithesis to the GOP.
Between 2001 and 2007, how well did the repubs remember those left of center ? you know – the ones they are now saying are unamerican ?
McCain is hardly “center” right. Even the repugs are hinting that he is nutso.
Bush II is the descendant of President Pierce (worst president in history) and of Prescott Bush (with a lot of evidence that he tried to overturn the US Govt in the 1930s in favor of the Nazis) – and his policies have led us where ?
There is an extreme difference between seeing that we are a related community versus being a Leninist commune.
November 4th, 2008 at 4:15 pmRight On! Only Kucinich of all the Democratic and Republican candidates proposed single-payer national healthcare. Sixty-five percent of Americans want this and think it is highly important.
In addition to all the issues mentioned above, about two-thirds want a significant reduction in military spending and increase in education spending. And this is without knowing that military spending is truly about $950 Billion every year and that we have 750 bases in 120 different countries.
Listening to years of British news, I realized that they give the left-of-center a fair share of time while the US does not. Noam Chomsky was right when he said that Bill Clinton was the best Republican president in modern history and Nixon the last liberal.
November 4th, 2008 at 4:25 pmThe Old Depression Democrats and the New Depression Democrats will not be Center Right. They will be rightly Left!
November 4th, 2008 at 4:30 pmThat’s funny. This “Center-Right Country” is about to vote for “the most Liberal Senator” for President.
November 4th, 2008 at 4:38 pmAnd push RIGHT back at em. 666lates says it best:
“That’s funny. This “Center-Right Country” is about to vote for “the most Liberal Senator” for President.”
Never again let them control the discourse. A simple “no it’s not” will do.
November 4th, 2008 at 4:41 pmI agree that the demonization of the word “liberal” by the right wing has a lot to do with this.
November 4th, 2008 at 4:53 pmHere in Louisiana, the Republican opponent of incumbent Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu has been running a T.V. ad that states that not only is Mary Landrieu corrupt (she is not) but she is also a liberal.
As if to say that being a liberal is worse than being corrupt.
There’s a grain of truth to what they say. It seems as though they have come awfully close to admitting that the “leftist bogeymen” they’ve been screeching about are, as I’ve said for years, a fiction. There is no such thing as a prominent, American, “leftist”. “Leftwing” movements are born in countries which have suffered the horrors of war, or brutal oppression, and only exist in the minds of Reichwhiners like Lush and Bill0.
November 4th, 2008 at 5:31 pmI agree. We are a center-right country. And Obama is a pretty moderate candidate. The reality is that McCain is not center-right, nor are the Republican party. They have pulled everything so far to the extreme right that everything looks left wing to them. There isn’t really any viable left wing in this country. There is no active Communist party, no Social Democrats even (except for Bernie Sanders, and he’s pretty moderate for that). I can live with centrist politics. It’s the rightards that will kill us.
November 4th, 2008 at 5:47 pmNo this country is not a “center right country” it is a center center country. That is the definition of center.
If you are center right, then you are right-wing compared to the nation at large.
November 4th, 2008 at 6:22 pmI would say that Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush have put forth policies varying between the center and the right.
But the American people want to be governed with left-of-center policies. They just don’t all know that the policies they want come under that label. Very few people really know what Kucinich proposes. I believe if they really did, they would vote for him. But the MainStreamMedia isn’t going to give him equal time and he isn’t going to raise the necessary $500,000,000.00 for media time.
November 4th, 2008 at 9:09 pmSo?
November 4th, 2008 at 11:48 pmYou can call this country a duck wearing a corset if you want. You can call it a pineapple upside-down cake. The fact remainst that only elections determine the the direction of the nation. This election has determined the truth of the matter.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:06 amTHEY WISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 5th, 2008 at 9:00 amThe 18 Stages of Rightwing Grief:
1 Shock and Awe
November 7th, 2008 at 4:42 pm2 Shock and Denial
3 More Denial
4 Pain and Guilt
5 More Pain
6 Denial
7 Anger and Bargaining
8 More Guilt
9 More Pain
10 Depression, Reflection, Loneliness
11 Denial
12 More Denial
13 Pain and Anger
14 Emasculation
15 Another Republican Great Depression
16 Denial
17 More Pain
18 Numbness
Valid points from the right abound. Ignorance from the left yet again.
Valid Point #1: Obama is moving center-right as fast as he can. Obama won the Presidency by a mastery of mobilizing idiots to vote for him in targeted areas to get the Electoral vote. Most battleground states were won by 1% margin.
Harlem blacks didn’t even know that Sara Palin was John McCain’s running mate when asked by Howard Stern if she would be great as the first woman vice president of Obama.
Valid Point #2: Those same “liberals” outlawed Gay Marriage everywhere it was on the ballot.
Some counter points.
Counter Point #1: No one is trying to ban abortions or especially scientific education, they are trying to control the types of abortions allowed – first. There were no ballot initiatives to put intelligent design into the class rooms. And it’s unimportant to most Christians anyway. Regarding Abortion, the laws are always over-turned by their inadequacy of the law to fit within the narrow definitions of Roe v. Wade. So the laws are usually never passed, because when they are they are overturned and people don’t want to bother with that like what happened in Nebraska or Colorado.
Counter Point # 2: About 62% of the US is against Abortion for any reason.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:20 pmWhere do you guys like MapleStreet get your information like Prescott Bush trying to institute Nazism in the US? How pathetic. Prescott Bush’s Bank along with Ford Motor Company and GM and Thousands of Other US Companies, were in 1942 audited for “trading with the enemy” that is … IT.
There was no further involvement with Prescott Bush and Nazism in any way and it certainly wasn’t intentional but brought-up by the vague laws of ‘42 Trading with the Enemy Act.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:22 pm