Conservative Think Tank Admits America Is a Center-Left Nation

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The Hoover Institution is one of the major conservative think tanks in this country, so this op-ed in the Washington Post today is pretty incredible for its honesty:

Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, in Outlook last week: The United States "is indeed, as conservatives have been insisting in recent days, a center-right country." On election night, former Bush guru Karl Rove opined on Fox News, "Barack Obama understands this is a center-right country, and he smartly and wisely ran a campaign that emphasized it." And it's not just conservative pundits and operatives singing this song. Take Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, who wrote an Oct. 27 cover essay entitled "America the Conservative," which argued that Obama will have to "govern a center-right nation" that "is more instinctively conservative than it is liberal."

The only problem: It isn't true. Or at least, not anymore.

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.

Read the whole admission here. It's dead-on.

[mawilson 2,133]

Hopefully America will get over it soon and go back to the right.

[lucyrich 19]

By what yardstick?

Isn't the center the place where, when you stand there, about half the nation will be on your right and half the nation will be on your left? I thought that was the definition?

If the dividing line between Democrats and Republicans is such that Democrats have a majority of the electorate, that doesn't necessarily mean the nation has moved to the left; it may mean that the dividing line between the parties has moved to the right. The Republicans may have been so consumed with the idea of appealing to their base that they drew the dividing line too close, and excluded the middle ground.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By what yardstick?

Isn't the center the place where, when you stand there, about half the nation will be on your right and half the nation will be on your left? I thought that was the definition?

If the dividing line between Democrats and Republicans is such that Democrats have a majority of the electorate, that doesn't necessarily mean the nation has moved to the left; it may mean that the dividing line between the parties has moved to the right. The Republicans may have been so consumed with the idea of appealing to their base that they drew the dividing line too close, and excluded the middle ground.

Valid point. The pundits on the Right keep pumping out this silly narrative of us being a Center Right Nation. I believe it boils down to the fact that most Americans are flexible with most ideas and will quickly abandon one idea they may at one time embraced for a different idea if they believe the first idea has failed.

[alienlovechild 75]

Trying to determine the current political climate is rather pointless especially given the recent election outcome. Sure it looks like there may be some drift in public sentiment but the Democrats in Congress accomplished little to nothing and Obama has done nothing at all so how can anything be determined?

The U.S. is definitely center-right given that most other Western developed democracies are further to the left. Which developed democracy can be considered to the right of the U.S.?

If you're going to talk labels, why is that very few prominent politicians can themselves liberal but call themselves progressive instread?

[HAL 9000 96]

By what yardstick?

Isn't the center the place where, when you stand there, about half the nation will be on your right and half the nation will be on your left? I thought that was the definition?

If the dividing line between Democrats and Republicans is such that Democrats have a majority of the electorate, that doesn't necessarily mean the nation has moved to the left; it may mean that the dividing line between the parties has moved to the right. The Republicans may have been so consumed with the idea of appealing to their base that they drew the dividing line too close, and excluded the middle ground.

Valid point. The pundits on the Right keep pumping out this silly narrative of us being a Center Right Nation. I believe it boils down to the fact that most Americans are flexible with most ideas and will quickly abandon one idea they may at one time embraced for a different idea if they believe the first idea has failed.

HAL 9000 believes you are correct, sir.

To say the least- Americans are not as dumb in mass to collect themselves into one particular political lean. Specially with polarizing numbnuts making outrageous claims that only consider valid politics what argument favors their postures.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By what yardstick?

Isn't the center the place where, when you stand there, about half the nation will be on your right and half the nation will be on your left? I thought that was the definition?

If the dividing line between Democrats and Republicans is such that Democrats have a majority of the electorate, that doesn't necessarily mean the nation has moved to the left; it may mean that the dividing line between the parties has moved to the right. The Republicans may have been so consumed with the idea of appealing to their base that they drew the dividing line too close, and excluded the middle ground.

Valid point. The pundits on the Right keep pumping out this silly narrative of us being a Center Right Nation. I believe it boils down to the fact that most Americans are flexible with most ideas and will quickly abandon one idea they may at one time embraced for a different idea if they believe the first idea has failed.

HAL 9000 believes you are correct, sir.

To say the least- Americans are not as dumb in mass to collect themselves into one particular political lean. Specially with polarizing numbnuts making outrageous claims that only consider valid politics what argument favors their postures.

Polarization was Karl Rove's ingenious strategy....but this election proves, if anything, that polarized politics doesn't always work.

[NickD 202]

As a conservative that believes in liberty that left right stuff is more for steering a vehicle to keep it on the road. My yardstick is integrity and turned off cold by smear tactics.

[HAL 9000 96]

By what yardstick?

Isn't the center the place where, when you stand there, about half the nation will be on your right and half the nation will be on your left? I thought that was the definition?

If the dividing line between Democrats and Republicans is such that Democrats have a majority of the electorate, that doesn't necessarily mean the nation has moved to the left; it may mean that the dividing line between the parties has moved to the right. The Republicans may have been so consumed with the idea of appealing to their base that they drew the dividing line too close, and excluded the middle ground.

Valid point. The pundits on the Right keep pumping out this silly narrative of us being a Center Right Nation. I believe it boils down to the fact that most Americans are flexible with most ideas and will quickly abandon one idea they may at one time embraced for a different idea if they believe the first idea has failed.

HAL 9000 believes you are correct, sir.

To say the least- Americans are not as dumb in mass to collect themselves into one particular political lean. Specially with polarizing numbnuts making outrageous claims that only consider valid politics what argument favors their postures.

Polarization was Karl Rove's ingenious strategy....but this election proves, if anything, that polarized politics doesn't always work.

HAL 9000 thinks Mr Rove was merely an excellent strategist. Continuing a game that got acute by the time he got to the White House.

[lucyrich 19]

As a conservative that believes in liberty that left right stuff is more for steering a vehicle to keep it on the road. My yardstick is integrity and turned off cold by smear tactics.

Agreed. The notions of "left" and "right" are so strange, that a person can be perfectly self-consistent and yet have political opinions that range from far right to far left. For example, someone who believes the government should be small might be far left as far as military spending goes, but far right as far as social welfare spending goes. Someone who thinks all life is sacred might be far left on the death penalty and defense policy while being far right on abortion. Someone who wants the government to respect individual liberties might be left-wing when it comes to gay rights, abortion, and drug policy, and right wing when it comes to gun control and parental freedom to home school.

Sometimes it almost seems like the two parties just flipped coins to figure out which side of each issue they'd stand on.

It seems that the Democrats, more than anything, stand for more power for Democrats and less for Republicans, while the Republicans, in stark contrast, consistently stand for more power for Republicans and less for Democrats.

And then, after you consider ideologies, it's time to consider the way they put their beliefs into practice. Both sides have had smear campaigns, corruption, earmarks, hypocrisy, and a total inability to take responsibility and say a theory that was tried has failed. All failure is always the other side's fault. Overall, neither side seems to have a surplus of integrity, but sometimes you have to hold your nose and vote for the side with the smallest integrity deficit.

That kind of "vote for a little bit less corruption" thinking led to a change in the voting booth between '72 and '76 that made it look like the country took a HUGE shift to the left. In reality, they were voting strongly against the people of the right and their corruption, probably more so than the stated policies of the right.

This time around, the Republicans don't have quite such a huge overt scandal problem. But they do have a pretty huge credibility problem. A lot of voters were mad about the manufactured WMD evidence that diverted our military from fighting Bin Laden in Afghanistan to fighting WMDs in Iraq. And many weren't impressed at the nomination of yet another candidate who couldn't pronounce "nuclear". But no Republican leader wants to say the voters were rejecting the individuals near the top of the Republican party. They also don't want to say the voters were rejecting the Republicans' core ideology. So they're kind of stuck, since they can't fix what they can't acknowledge is broken. They have to misassign blame for their failure on the Democrats for misleading the voters, and they're stuck powerless in a waiting game until the Democrats mess things up enough to cede power back to the Republicans.

In the end, Bill Clinton's campaign got it right when they said, "It's the economy, stupid", and Reagan had it right when he asked, "Are you better off now than you were four (or eight) years ago?" When the economy is in a wreck, voters generally see it as time to change leadership.

If you're a party leader of either side, my suggestion is, more important than your party's ideology, keep the economy running smoothly, and never allow the voters to think they've been robbed blind by irresponsible lenders, borrowers, bankers, stockbrokers, daytraders, unions, trial lawyers, war profiteers, or anyone else who was playing around unregulated on your watch.

[IAMX 3,055]

Quite honestly I don't believe in "left" and "right" best serves this country at all.

If you look at both the arguments, those who call themselves to the "right" only support certain Constitutional amendments. People who call themselves to the "left" only support certain Constitutional amendments. Both sides basically latch onto some platform some ambiguous number of people decided was going to be "left" and "right", then they go with it.

It makes for easy stereotyping (I'll admit), but also means people are far more ideologues than realists on issues, and quite honestly I'm tired of idealists running this country.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

As a conservative that believes in liberty that left right stuff is more for steering a vehicle to keep it on the road. My yardstick is integrity and turned off cold by smear tactics.

Fewer and fewer people have integrity.

[Danno 1,228]

Oh this is cute... The Democrat Party finally cracked the "over 50%" of the popular vote for the president is like Johnson.... and now you think the country loves you !

Crazy thing this new Center-left country.... every chance they get they not only shoot down gay Marriage, they ban it by constitutional amendment!

Don't get so full of yourself.

You guys have a few moments "on the field", relax, enjoy yourself... historically, it don't come often for your team.

[IAMX 3,055]

I sense some bitterness from someone supposedly not a Republican.

[HAL 9000 96]

Oh this is cute... The Democrat Party finally cracked the "over 50%" of the popular vote for the president is like Johnson.... and now you think the country loves you !

Crazy thing this new Center-left country.... every chance they get they not only shoot down gay Marriage, they ban it by constitutional amendment!

Don't get so full of yourself.

You guys have a few moments "on the field", relax, enjoy yourself... historically, it don't come often for your team.

Al Gore won the popular vote. Get a grip with your logic there Danno.