McCain adviser admits America is ‘center-left.’
McCain adviser admits America is ‘center-left.’
As ThinkProgress has chronicled, conservative pundits and even some traditional journalists continue to insist that America remains a center-right nation. Today in a Washington Post op-ed, Hoover Institution fellow and former informal adviser to the McCain campaign Tod Lindberg rebuts this myth:
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.
Lindberg acknowledges that “the percentage of voters describing themselves as ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ has held relatively constant over many election cycles.” However, he notes that “the views behind those labels” have shifted to be more liberal.
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So, obviously, thank the Good Lord, America ain’t all center left, yet.
Yes, this shit actually exists out there, people.
November 16th, 2008 at 2:54 pmIt was never center right so this shift is even more ominous for the conservatives.
November 16th, 2008 at 2:54 pmSo this guy is to be congratulated for acknowledging reality? Geez!
November 16th, 2008 at 2:57 pmTod Lindberg had better watch out now, Bill O’Liely will be sending Faux Security to visit him soon for getting out of the talking point boundaries.
November 16th, 2008 at 3:03 pmBut, but, but FOX News said…….
¶ AIO
November 16th, 2008 at 3:05 pmSomeone please tell Tod Lindberg to shut up. If the wingnuts find out that most of America disagrees with them on the issues, they’ll ramp up their already distinctive “Distract and Disguise” strategy for future election campaigns.
November 16th, 2008 at 3:08 pmJust speaking as a self-educated British observer, it seems to me that the divergence between the way people label themselves, and the attitudes they actually have, is the result of the contradictory way that the term ‘liberal’ is used in US political discourse. Specifically, the formal meaning of the word remains essentially ‘free market capitalist’, but the people who should logically be calling themselves ‘liberals’ now call themselves ‘libertarians’, and claimed in a famous essay that they had been forced to do this by — of all things — ‘the left’, which according to this essay had managed to discredit liberalism by associating it with profligacy.
November 16th, 2008 at 3:11 pmAt the risk of repeating myself, from the previous post…
All these ‘left wing far left liberal’ chicken litle’s should read Obama’s books. He’s a left centrist, with emphasis on the centrist.
November 16th, 2008 at 3:19 pmIt’s only in contrast to the neocon right wing mentality that he looks leftist
And some of the shift is surely caused by Repugnicants waging war on borrowed money, failing to exercise prudent regulation of corporatocracy, and generally being responsible for messing this nation up dramatically.
November 16th, 2008 at 3:20 pmActually, the country isn’t shifting left so much as the GOP is going hard right, and we on the left are being dragged into the center.
I don’t care where I fall on some arbitrary scale, but keep going right, GOPers, so we can retain control of government and implement winning strategies while we fix your messes.
PEACE
November 16th, 2008 at 3:24 pmRUCerious Says:
It’s only in contrast to the neocon right wing mentality that he looks leftist
Attila the Hun and Hitler were leftist to the neocon mentality. Just saying.
November 16th, 2008 at 3:31 pmWayne, heh! Watched Mongol last night, was reminded of Cheney numerous times…
November 16th, 2008 at 3:36 pmWhy doesn’t he tell this to the Sunday bobble-head circuit?
November 16th, 2008 at 3:39 pmLOL, don’t buy it at all. It is not that America is center left, it is that the GOP pissed off the moderates in the American center right.
November 16th, 2008 at 3:40 pmWe should get rid of “left” and “right”
Should the government regulate anything? Banks have shown the answer is YES. Industries have shown that deregulation has had a detrimental effect on the environment. Scientists know that climate change is a factor in our lives. It IS possible to rely less on foreign oil.
You can have your government look out for the lives of it’s citizens, or you can have your government look out for the corporations.
That’s it. No “left” or “right”. Just “for the better” or “for the worse”.
November 16th, 2008 at 3:57 pmIt is center left where it counts, in all the places except the fly over trailer parks and rural counties in the dixie region. Most people can still use their brains and haven’t allowed FAUX and Rush to brainwash them.
November 16th, 2008 at 4:06 pmThis whole right-center-left paradigm is totally meaningless anyway.
November 16th, 2008 at 4:34 pmIt’s a bit of a false argument. “America” hasn’t moved dramatically in any direction. The GOP, on the other hand, has devolved from conservatism to radicalism and become unpalatable to the vast, moderate, majority. A lot of the current strength of the Democratic party is by default.
What’s amusing, so long as no one starts shooting, is how the Reichwhiners have turned on each other for not being radical enough. Rather than learning from the overwhelming repudiation of their more extreme views, they are jettisoning all decency in what promises to be a witch hunt in the GOP ranks.
November 16th, 2008 at 4:41 pmNot good enough. What the Hell’s this “center” stuff?
How to Tell Your Party Is Dead:
November 16th, 2008 at 4:51 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qi4ezdmO08
Ah, another catch all word that has no meaning the way “right” and “left” have been twisted by eight years of Republican domination.
Is “incentive pay” right or left? It’s what our President elect wants to impose on health care. It will have the same distorting impact as executive stock options and CEO incentive compensation.
“Modernization” is euphemism for taking government functions and contracting them to the private sector. The assumption is a private company can do the same work cheaper. Add multiple layers of contractors, each with their profit requirements, and it suddenly becomes more expensive.
The lack of leadership is clear for two more months. It remains to be seen if President elect Obama will deliver on his campaign promises.
We know Bush delivered huge amounts of corporafornication for his base during his eight years in office. He leaves with a $4 trillion corporate looting of the Treasury & Federal Reserve Bank. Time will show how much makes it way back in taxpayer hands. Government welfare for businesses tends to be one way.
November 16th, 2008 at 5:20 pmWhat’s that I hear? Oh, it’s just reality smacking Tod Lindberg in the head again.
November 16th, 2008 at 5:52 pmMake it easier on yourselves repugs…
The US is anti-repug.
November 16th, 2008 at 5:57 pmpete Says:
It’s a bit of a false argument.
____________
Totally false argument, IMO. And a huge waste of valuable time.
____________
Rather than learning from the overwhelming repudiation of their more extreme views, they are jettisoning all decency in what promises to be a witch hunt in the GOP ranks.
____________
Yeah… but it couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch, huh?
Hmmm… methinks we might have the makings of a new reality TV series here…
“GOOP Witch Hunt”…
November 16th, 2008 at 7:22 pm.
Max says this is what schizophrenic America looks like, NO bit?
.
November 16th, 2008 at 7:50 pm.
Dear Republican Party,
What happened to Country first? Why is it so important to lay claim to portions of the Contry while isolating and alienating other portions? Besides not keeping a single message straight, what ever happened to Country first?
.
November 16th, 2008 at 7:56 pmThis “center right nation” bullshit is nothing more than a mandatory Republican talking point. I can’t be the only person to have noticed that a week ago every single commentator on both Fox and CNN made a comment about being a center right nation on the very sakme day. This was NOT coincidence; it was what they were told to talk about for the day. That same day, Rush, Hannity and O’Reilly were saying it on the radio as well as television. These guys can’t stand the fact that they are out of power. They are going to have a very difficult time of it for a while. Tough shit – elections have consequences. One of those consequences this time is that they do not get to run things and call all the shots.
November 16th, 2008 at 8:17 pmCenter smenter! We have the Power! Ha Ha!
November 16th, 2008 at 8:27 pmActually, the country isn’t shifting left so much as the GOP is going hard right, and we on the left are being dragged into the center.
Really? Good! Let the Right Wing Nut-Jobs spin themselves into obsolescence, shift the Left to the center, and bring in a REAL Left-Wing Party to keep those scumbag Fascist Democrats in check and fearing for their political lives!
November 16th, 2008 at 9:26 pmEvery time they don’t understand anything they tip their head, just like my dog does when I ask it a question, so things just look that way to them all the time.
November 16th, 2008 at 10:31 pmAmerica is STILL “center right” in its politics.
Reliable exit polling confirms that there has been no major shift in the way people view their own political ideology!
Obama got elected all right, but it wasn’t because the country has changed fundamentally from what it was four years ago.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:54 pm