Poll: Where do you think most Americans fall on the political spectrum?

[Danger Mouse]

There's a lot of talk about America being center-right, or center-left, or center-center, or up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-b-a-start.
What I want to know, is where do you think the political views of most Americans fall on the spectrum?
Feel free to explain your choices.
I vote for center-left, myself. I think most people favor more socialized policies, they just get scared by buzzwords about 'communism' and 'socialism.' I think the 'culture wars' freaks are not anywhere near the majority, they're just given the opportunity to scream the loudest.

[Nederland]

1. Need more than one axis

A simple one dimensional axis can't possibly describe a person's polical views accurately enough to be meaningful. For example, I am conservative on economic issues and liberal on social issues. My father is liberal on economic issues and conservative on social issues. In other words, we disagree on absolutely everything, but somehow we are both in the "Center". That makes no sense whatsoever.

[Danger Mouse]

2. That would take too much space.

:D

[alwysdrunk]

7. Like you

I think most people in the country are (mostly) conservative on economic issues and liberal(ish) on social. I've never heard of anyone like you father before.

[Lilith Velkor]

10. They're fairly common in the Catholic side of my family.

Perhaps the poster's father is Irish like mine.

[BlooInBloo]

22. Um, on a 2d rendering neither of you would be in the center. The midpoint would be of course...

But that's just the nature of equal-and-opposite, not any weird spooky thing.

[wryter2000]

3. Just to make a pain of myself

I think they'd be somewhere around FDR, all the while insisting that they're not like one of those <gasp!> liberals. Kind of like young women who are all for equal pay and being taken seriously as a professional and intellectual but would never...ever!...admit to being a feminist.

[Danger Mouse]

4. That's because liberal has such a negative connotation.

[mmonk]

5. I think they would fall left with the truth of the last 7 years revealed.

[D23MIURG23]

6. Center by definition.

Because "Left" and "Right" only make sense as relative terms. Right now what is often called the "center" is actually further right than the political consensus. This is partly why the Bush administration is not well liked.

[BREMPRO]

8. I question your characterization of DU as "FAR LEFT".. What do DU'ers think?

I think of us collectively more left to center left, but the MSM has us so brainwashed to believe that we are a center-right country that we all FEEL 'far left" The views i see read here are more mainstream of citizens thought, certainly center-Left, or left, but NOT far left.

Do others agree?

[NoGOPZone]

12. I agree nt

[Danger Mouse]

13. No, I disagree. I think there are some center-left dems here,

but largely far left dems.

[AZBlue]

16. I think it's a deceptive situation.

I would bet that the majority of all registered DU'ers would wind up somewhere between center-left and far-left.

However, the vocal majority are definitely far left and give DU that personality.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

31. Oh God We're Totally Far Left, And With A Subgroup That's Extreme Fringe Left.

[codjh9]

9. I'm not voting center-left, although you may be right. As you say, IF we're really more center-left

as a majority, people still don't realize it because of all kinds of boogeyman words like liberal, socialism, abortion, blah blah. I really think we're more center-center, though, and I think there was a long movement to center-right, but that may have ended now. I sure hope so.

[WinkyDink]

11. Definitely Center (SocialSecurity, Medicare, FDIC, Etc.) -Left.

[dkf]

14. I think most Americans fall into the "clueless" category.

I'd say they can't even define left or right.

[Ichingcarpenter]

15. The Cattle and sheep axis

easily manipulated.

But God blesses them

[camera obscura]

17. Center right examples: Snowe, Collins, Hagel. Anyway, I voted "center".

It tilts back and forth. I think people mainly like how ideas are sold to them.

[BlooInBloo]

21. It's always amusing to see people talking who have never actually LOOKED at Hagel's voting record...

[camera obscura]

24. He voted against the marriage amendment and various war bills. By today's standard, that's moderate

you have to account for the far right bias of the Republican party as it stands today.

[BlooInBloo]

25. And it's even funnier when they just say to ignore Hagel's voting record...

if it would prove them wrong.

[camera obscura]

35. Didn't I exactly quote two instances from his record? LOL

politics doesn't occur in a vacuum. There is always context.

[BlooInBloo]

36. Yup, and endorsed ignoring the rest of it.

[BlooInBloo]

18. Within 1 stdev of center.

[Occam Bandage]

19. You can tell who played NES with friends and who played NES alone as a kid

by whether they give the Konami Code as b-a-start or b-a-select-start.

[Danger Mouse]

28. Actually, I debated about adding select, but decided to leave it out...

as I felt it was more traditional.
:hi:

[mwei924]

20. I would say Center.

This election, many gave Obama the benefit of the doubt because Bush had screwed up so badly.

[Douglas Carpenter]

23. lots of people are either left leaning on economic issues and right leaning on social issues or

liberal on social issues and right leaning on economic issues.

When the McCain campaign decided to pull out all stop to try to win PA, they were operating under the notion that Pennsylvania has lots of "conservative, blue collar Democrats." What they failed to comprehend was that many of these "conservative blue collar Democrats" are conservative on social issues but might in many cases be almost leftwing on economic issues. The failure of the McCain-Palin campaign to understand this lead them to running around between towns and cities which had witnessed the collapse of their industrial base attacking Obama on precisely the issues where many of these "conservative blue collar Democrats" would tend to lean to the left.

Conversely there is now, since the collapse of the old New Deal coalition been a whole generation of educated, upwardly mobile young professionals who would be natural young Republicans - if the Republican Party was still the Grand Old Party of earlier times - But they are turned off and alienated by the dogmatism of the Religious Right who now account for the vast majority of Republican grassroots activist and foot soldiers.

[Dr Fate]

26. Depends on the issue. n/t

n/t

[No Elephants]

27. America just took a ton of polls on this question. The most important of them are

called the primaries and the general election. A man who touted himself (falsely, but what the heck) as a maverick won the Republican nomination and a man to the left of Hillary Clinton won both the Democratic primary and the general election.

[cali]

29. You forgot persuadable.

[Orsino]

30. Most Americans are centrist, I imagine...

...but they vote center-right, because the TV tells them to and because the two major parties, both conservative, shut out competition.

[nyc 4 Biden]

32. I think most people are completely unaware.

So I vote center.

If they were to be sat down, explained the issues and forced to decide, I choose Left.

[Mark E. Smith]

33. DU 'far left?'

Not sure I can buy these categories. DU is all
over the map as far as I can tell.

[Milo_Bloom]

34. What does "center" anything really mean?

With LEFT and RIGHT you can usually attribute a group of beliefs.. however, the fallacy is that there is a "center".

The "center" is a group of people who have differing views on differing topics.

Two individuals can both be exactly in the center and, at the same time, be exactly opposite on every issue.

Someone could be deeply religious and thus extremely socially convervative, but then fiscally liberal (you know they actually believe some of what Jesus said) and they may be considered "center", while someone else may be fiscally conservative, but socially very liberal. Then there are most of the people who aren't quite so easy to define because they are conservative or liberal issue to issue with no clear cut method.