Cenk: The Center-Right Myth (Do You Agree Or Disagree That This Is A Center Right Country?)

[ihavenobias]

By Cenk Uygur

We have been hearing pundits saying this is a center-right country on television for the last couple of weeks, despite all available evidence (check out for a sample). Newsweek even did a whole cover story on it. CNN even did a poll a week after the election to ask people if they wanted the country to head in a Democratic direction. We already had that poll -- it was called Election Day!

What is it going to take to get through the dunderheads in DC -- this is not a center-right country! In the last two elections the Democrats picked up over fifty seats in the House. They also took commanding control of the Senate and have now taken the White House. How much clearer did the American people have to be?

There is a reason for this talking point that America is center-right -- it is a way for the Republicans to control the agenda even though they have been voted out of power. It is a warning to Democrats by the DC establishment -- you better not actually be Democrats.

They would have to be foolish to fall into this trap. So, it is likely that they will fall into this trap. You know how the Democrats are; they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The right time to buckle is always now. They're already doing it. After huffing and puffing, it looks like they are going to let Joe Lieberman keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

Someone needs to send the Democrats a memo that they won the election. But the media is sending them the exact opposite one -- you better behave like Republicans because...this is a center-right country.

By the way, one more thing -- this has never been a center-right country. Of course, there are pendulum swings in the political spectrum and the country is more conservative at times and more progressive at other times. But overall, we built the United Nations, we started the idea of human rights, we expanded voting rights and civil rights for everybody, we spread the idea of individual rights throughout the world, and we even rebuilt our enemies after World War II. It is no exaggeration to say that America is one of the most progressive countries in the history of the world.

Do you agree or disagree that this is a center right country? Look, if someone wants to argue that there are puritanical conservative roots stifling progress toward full equality and things like stem cell research, I can't argue. At the same time if we accept the (ridiculous) right wing presidential narrative, a majority of Americans just elected a black, radical-liberal-socialist-communist!

I just don't see a center-right country doing that, do you? I know, prop 8 passed, but think about it for a second. ?

Same thing with so many Republican policies. We aren't inherently center right, it's just that the Republicans lie and distort and trick people (on social and of course economic issues like taxes) into voting against their own interests.

[Joe the Liberal]

1. America is NOT a center right country......

Cenk is right, the whole "center right" argument is nothing more than right wing propaganda. We just elected what the republicans call the "most liberal" senator out there to be president of the US. If that wasn't enough we now have control of the House and senate, what more evidence is there? America is NOT center right, this election proved it but the right wing conservative controlled elite media is pushing this myth to further their agenda. I don't care what they say, in my mind America is center left and like Cenk said we are "one of the most progressive countries in the history of the world".

[ihavenobias]

19. It's exactly about pushing their agenda, I agree. n/t

[matthewf]

2. k&r & it's not

[cushla_machree]

3. If we are center right

Why do 82 percent of Americans think the U.S. health care system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt, according to a new survey by The Commonwealth Fund.

Its just something pundits say over and over...i think they are trying to scare ems out of enacting any progressive legislation.

[Berry Cool]

4. K&R. This is not a center right country.

That meme was invented by Republicans as a way of saying "OK, so the Democrats won the election, but they didn't REALLY win the election. Or, now that they've won, they better not think they can just do anything they please, because if they try it, THE PEOPLE will knock them back into line."

Of course, "THE PEOPLE" are exactly the ones who elected Dems in the first place, so it's complete nonsense.

Yes, I believe that if the Dems governed from the far extreme left, things would tilt back the other way. That's just nature, just as there has been a revolt against the extreme right-wing nonsense that has brought us to this pass. But there is nothing for Dems to fear if they govern from center left. It's what the people have said they want. Or at least they don't want "center right."

[FiveGoodMen]

5. If the Dems cave and the public doesn't vote them out of office in the primaries two years from now

Then I'd say the meme really is correct.

Polling repeatedly shows that people say they are for progressive policies when those policies are presented without ties to a candidate or party.

But when it's time to make a choice, we keep getting center-to-extreme-right governance.

Put it this way: Why did Pelosi keep her seat?! The voters could have gone for Shirley in the primaries or Cindy in the main election or even -- yes, I'm going to go there -- the Republican to replace her. Even in that last case, the Dems would have the majority and the Speaker's chair, and for damned sure that turn-coat Nancy wouldn't be in it.

I'll believe we're really a progressive country when we insist that our leaders act like progressives.

(Yes, I do agree that the right-leaning M$M is trying to tip the scales, but they can only do that if the sheep let them.)

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

6. This is a centrist country that leans right or left depending

upon the exigencies of the time. Right now, this is a center-LEFT country and will be until the economy is restructured and stabilized. I also think there is a majority that favors the end of the American Empire. In all of human history, there has never been a stable empire over the long run. The costs, both financial and moral. are too great and the rewards accrue only to the few, with the rest of the populace being reduced to peonage. A more humble USA could remain the best hope of the world.

[earth mom]

7. The U.S. is WAY more liberal than the powers that be are allowing it to be.

Most of them make me sick with their right wing agenda. :puke:

[Donald Ian Rankin]

8. America has moved left economically, but is still right-wing socially.

Obama's victory provides strong evidence that on balance, America has moved left.

However, from what I can tell, he won largely on economic and foreign policy issues. On social issues - abortion, gay rights, gun control etc - I think America is still fairly strongly right-wing on balance.

[ihavenobias]

9. Actually

According to the non-partisan polling data I've seen (Media Matters did a great job collecting it BTW), a majority of Americans favor at least some abortion rights (the vast majority favor contraception) and some gun control.

It's true that progress needs to be made on marriage, but see my comments at the bottom of the OP with regard to that.

[last_texas_dem]

33. I actually perceive the opposite to be true

If you consider the economic agendas of presidents like FDR and LBJ, and then think about how much shit Obama got for daring to suggest rolling back the tax cuts on the wealthiest. I've heard it suggested that, of all the idiocy pulled by McPalin towards the end of the campaign, the only one they actually got some mileage out of was the stupid "Obama is a socialist" meme. And even with the sorry shape our country looks to be in economically, consider the resistance Obama would get if he tried to push forward economic reforms on the scale of the New Deal or the Great Society.

On the other hand, I think we've made a lot of progress on social issues. Just looking at where America was fifty, even just thirty, decades ago on racial and sexual equality, we have made substantial progress. Even on gay rights we've made a lot of progress, despite the wingnuts still being able to "win" on gay marriage as a wedge issue.

[Kajsa]

10. No, I don't believe we are a center-right country.

if so, McCain would have won.

He didn't, instead we elected Barack Obama to be our president.

That tells you where our country is headed.

Sorry guys, I got back from my city's 'Repeal 8' protest, and I'm
a bit whacked standing out in the hot sun for a while.
I'm not making much sense.

It was beautiful- everyone was there!
:)

[ihavenobias]

17. Cool that you went there

I hope the turnout was good!

[Kajsa]

28. We had a great turnout!

Several hundred people lined the streets of a major intersection
in South Coast Plaza, a large shopping plaza.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3603417&mesg_id=3604107


It was great to see all the support from passing motorists!

:) :hi:

[ihavenobias]

29. Awesome, thanks for the link

:)

[Kajsa]

30. You're welcome!

:)

[ejbr]

11. The country is center left...

You don't get the success of Will & Grace, elect a black president and send Hillary to the cusp of history by being center right. People couldn't give a shit about half the things the right finds urgent. All they can do now is talk shit..whatever/

[ihavenobias]

31. Right. n/t

[Seldona]

12. That is just a right wing myth.

A pathetic attempt to have some relevance. They haven't any. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[grannylib]

13. Bull. If you take it issue by issue, America is clearly center LEFT

if not LEFT left. It's an attempt to frame the debate, as rePigliCons are wont to do, in a way that benefits them. The 'no Obama mandate' is just one example; the freaking out within a day or two of the election over the possible reinstatement of the FCC fairness rules is another (golly, what WOULD the Reich wing do without Limpballs and Spinsanity?)
It's TOTAL BULLSHIT.
The last line of the OP says it all: Republicans lie and distort and trick people (on social and of course economic issues like taxes) into voting against their own interests.

[LisaLynne]

14. That's just the RWs and those in power ...

to stick their heads in the sand and ignore reality. They are hoping that by saying this, the Dems will continue to cave and be cowed and things will continue -- business as usual.

[Sebastian Doyle]

15. See the signature

n/t

[RedCappedBandit]

16. I dunno what we are, but we're certainly not

a liberal country

[struggle4progress]

18. Repub claims "Obama is a socialist" may have won us the White House

Just think about it a minute

Repubs spent months on TV & radio screaming "Obama! He's the most liberal senator! OMG, He's a socialist!"

DUers know Obama's no socialist -- and (of course) the Repubs knew that too

But American voters aren't that well informed, cuz they mostly get their news from TV & radio propaganda

Out there in TV-ville and radio-land, there are more than a few folk who heard Repubs say "Obama is a socialist" and thought to themselves "He's a socialist? Hot damn! I'm gonna vote for him! We need more socialists in Washington!"

So America elected him

And now the Republicans claim the election proves America is a center-right country
:rofl:

[navarth]

20. center-right my ass

your basic American doesn't care about other people making themselves happy unless he or she has been bombarded with horse shit.

[Firespirit]

21. America, like all countries, is inherently selfish

and most people, I think, really do not care what happens down the street, as long as it does not touch them. The very basis of right-wing ideology, particularly market ideology, is selfishness. Voting one's interests is selfish in nature, and in my personal opinion, the election result is precisely because people voted their self-interest. Several years back I switched from Objectivism to liberalism entirely out of self-interest.

Just as an example, middle-class and working-class residents of the Gulf Coast lost their homes a few years ago. Many of the poor could not move back because they had no insurance, and they are now internally displaced refugees inside the United States, living away from their true home because of necessity and the fact that their government, including the Democratic Congress, failed them. Many of the middle-class did have insurance but had been lied to, sold "hurricane insurance" and led to believe that it covered floodwaters, and lost not only their homes, but every premium they had paid into such predatory companies. They too had to start over. But no one cared about these groups losing their homes. The foreclosure crisis has touched many more people, but only after it started affecting people's 401(K)s did they even care about that. With it in full swing, you still do not hear about the Katrina victims. There is even a cottage industry devoted to bashing them, which is about all the attention they get anymore. The Democrats campaigned on that tragedy in 2006, in part, but after taking power had nothing either to say or do about it. New Orleans itself will be wiped out with a bad enough hit, and this does not have to be. No one in their right mind would fail to shore up, say, New York City, if they knew that a major threat existed that would one day destroy the city.

Lieberman's greater crime, in the eyes of our worthless leadership, was speaking at the GOP convention, not refusing to investigate the Katrina response. Now all the Democrats had to say about Katrina this year was hyuk-hyuk'ing when it looked like Gustav might finish Katrina's job while the Republicans were having their shindig. As with Lieberman, the GOP convention took precedence over the potential tragedy itself.

So yes, we are a center-right country in that sense, because it is apparently human nature. I think Republicans grasp the sheer hateful, self-centered nature of human beings far better than Democrats generally do, and have been better able to exploit it, until their schemes ran out of steam -- for however long.

[WCGreen]

22. The media is center right....

Most people with money are conservative. They want to do what ever they can to conserve their position and wealth.

The rest of us just want a fair deal, a fair shake, a even playing field.

[20score]

23. K&R. No it's not center-right. But the media and congress are.

[theFrankFactor]

24. Congressional Democrats Are a BIG Problem!

When the honeymoon is over Nancy, Harry and the band of jell-o spined Dems are gonna drag our hearts through the cactus. I'd love to be wrong about this.

[theFrankFactor]

25. My previous post was under the wrong topic, sorry.

Center-right my ass!

SEE MY THOUGHTS:
Republicanism- a Certifiable Failure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce9CV1ybUyU

[cali]

26. It's utterly mindless to declare that this country is either center-right or center-left

some regions of the country are center-right. some are center-left. on some issues the majority of americans fall in the center-right. on others they fall on the center-left.

this stupid oversimplification of what a country of over 300,000,000 is or isn't, is simply a political battle, but not particularly useful beyond that.

[ihavenobias]

32. Cali, the problem is that the Republicans choose this frame to intimidate the Democrats

time and time again. They want to stifle anything even vaguely resembling a bold, progressive agenda.

There are countless issues we lose because we don't frame the issues properly, and therefore the right frames them for us.

[pleah]

27. No, I do not think that we are a center-right country.

The rethugs want to push that talking point, but I will never believe it. I think this election proves that we are not.