"The Center": Where is it?

[CrowCityDem]

Over and over, it seems that you can't bring up Hillary's name around here without being told that she's actually a Republican, and that she's far to the right of the political center.

That is such a distortion of the truth, but it leads me to a question for the people who actually believe that:

Where is the political 'center'?

Hillary shares most of her goals with Bernie, just with a more realistic focus on what can actually be done. She shares most of her governing philosophy with President Obama, who eight years ago was considered the most liberal nominee in decades.

I can already predict that responses will, as they often do, point to Richard Nixon as proof Hillary is really a Republican. I'm talking about TODAY. In today's political climate, what does Hillary have in common with the toxic human beings that ran on the Republican side, who want to destroy every bit of progress this country has made over the last century?

If all you have to point to is the way in Iraq, and the intervention in Libya, keep this in mind: a Democrat got us involved in World War II, a Democrat dropped the atomic bomb, and a Democrat got us involved in Vietnam. The idea that the Democratic party has been against using the military as a tool is a pure fantasy. Even Bernie voted to make regime change in Iraq our official position.

Do we have to ignore the reality of where the country is to declare Hillary to be anything other than what she is; a solidly left of center politician?

[Blanks]

1. The center is where compromise is found...

When the country is too far to the right (and elects tea party types) the best you can hope for is the center.

As long as we have a right wing media, the center is probably the best we can do. Anyone thinking that the president can forward a left wing agenda with a right wing congress doesn't understand our system of government.

[Skwmom]

2. The center is another word for corporatist.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. There are no facts, only interpretations. Friedrich Nietzsche

Your interpretation that Hillary is "left of center" is laughable but that's my interpretation.

[Scootaloo]

4. Here, let me draw you a diagram

This here is a pretty basic outline of the political spectrum:


As you see, the central point is halfway between far left and far right.

And this is where the US political parties (generally) fall on that spectrum:


As you can see, the actual center point is right were we left it in the previous diagram. But the center between two political parties - Democrats and Republicans, is well to the right of that actual political center. It is even to the right of the Democratic party as it stands right now!



When Democrats start talking about "moving to the center" in the same breath they talk about bipartisanship, that's what they're pointing at. They don't mean a political center point, they mean a partisan center point. And the further right the Republican party goes - and there's plenty of far right left "off the scale" of these shitty photoshops of mine - the further right that partisan center point moves as well.

[mathewsleep]

5. Thumbs up

[MineralMan]

6. A bell curve is the only way to define the center.

The center is exactly in the middle of that curve, based on how voters behave. We live in a democratic republic, so the voters define the political landscape. No other curve or chart illustrates the political spectrum better, since it's population and voter centric. Those charts illustrate why we wobble back and forth between Democratic and Republican controlled governments. This year, it will look very much the same, as it has for a very long time.

Here's one example:



Here's another: