"It's a center-right country!"

[Sparkly]

Just heard Joe Scarborough say that, and I've been hearing it many times.

Is there evidence for this? What's the definition of "center-right" these days, and what polling (if any) is used to make this assertion?

It was my understanding that polls on issues have shown the country to lean left, even during the Chimperor's rule.

:shrug:

[villager]

it's code, anyway. None of these assholes consider themselves "centrist"

...they just don't have the cajones to declare themselves as being what they really are: Far right extremists...

[Lithos]

1. I think he is confused

While it is true most men dress right, the politics of this country are generally center-left.

L-

[TahitiNut]

7. (cough) Pardon me while I turn my head.

:evilgrin:


Joe and Dick want to whine "But WE'RE the 'real' Republicans!" (But they LOST!)

[phantom power]

2. It is time for another edition of What Digby Said:

Chris Matthews just allowed Tom Delay to call Barack Obama a radical, militant Marxist who wants to pack the Supreme Court with communists and is far to the left of Barney Frank --- and then chided Debbie Wasserman Schultz when she said that one should consider the source when it's someone who was forced to leave Washington in disgrace after presiding over the most corrupt congress in history. Apparently what she said was disrespectful.

The right wing is working itself up into an epic frenzy of hate about Obama. And guys like Matthews aren't exactly drawing any lines by allowing these guys to spew this disgusting swill on national TV which doesn't bode well for the future. Cable news and talk radio are easily turned into cauldrons of hate for high ratings and big advertising dollars. The right wing noise machine is already working them.

And by the way --- if there has ever been a more transparent effort to bully a new president into doing your bidding than declaring that he will never cut taxes on anyone and instead wants to raise them to 90%, I can't think of one. Luckily Obama doesn't appear to be subject to schoolyard dares, but it's pretty clear that the conservatives are staking out ground way way over to the far right so they can keep the goal posts firmly right of center. And knowing the way the village operates, I expect they will have some success. See, there's Colin Powell on the left and Tom Delay on the right. If Obama stays somewhere in between, he'll be a great bipartisan president who gets things done.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/respectful-by-digby-chris-matthews-just.html

[SharonAnn]

20. We're actually a "center-left" country and always have been. Sometimes a "left-center".

[LeftyMom]

3. It all depends on how you define the center.

Compared to most of the rest of the civilized world, the average American is a raving right wing loony.

[KG]

16. +1

[childslibrarian]

4. Yep

Your are right, but the right wingers own the voting machine companies.

[TahitiNut]

5. He's delusional. He's frantically trying to claim that the "Republicans" aren't really conservative

... and that Bush (and Bush and Reagan and ...?) are aberrations and the country REALLY wants Goldwater (who's dead) and wants "small government" and yadaayadayada.

His head is jammed up his ass so far all we can hear are echoes if the idiocy of FAILED reichbots.

[malaise]

6. Here

Which ideology best describes you?
Liberal: 49995 (48.54%)
Moderate: 39969 (38.80%)
Conservative: 7151 (6.94%)
None of these: 5891 (5.72%)
Not answered: 778

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

[TahitiNut]

10. Well ...

What is your gender?
Male: 82104 (80.39%)
Female: 20022 (19.61%)
Not answered: 1658

:rofl:

[NorCalDem]

14. Which makes the poll EVEN WORSE

for conservative ideals because women tend to be Democratic party members and/or more liberal than men.

If you kept polling women until the poll was 52% female, 48% male (around the national average) I bet you'd see 55+% say "liberal" to the poll.

[fascisthunter]

8. Hahahaha.... He Knows It Isn't True

That's why he's saying it and often as much as possible. The Republican party is losing much more than the Presidency, House and Senate.... they are losing in the war of ideas and message. It took them many years to gain all three only to lose it so quickly, because what they ran on was just not true, nor were their actions beneficial for this nation as a whole.

[Evoman]

9. To be honest, I think it's true. I've been to the States numerous times

and it's noticeably more right wing than Canada. And that's even in places you think are left wing.

It seems pretty obvious to me, but I could be wrong.

[TahitiNut]

15. Using that context as a reference, then Obama is "center right" as well.

Joe, however, wants to play a rhetorical shell game and claim at the same time that Obama is some Marxist radical. That's abject nonsense.



The U.S. electorate still suffers from the delusions of former colonies and imperial politics. While the people themselves have preferences FOR THEMSELVES that are liberal, we tend to have this illusion that a 'leader' "isn't like us" and has to be autocratic and paternalistic. Thus, we wind up electing people whose world views and political perspectives DON'T MATCH the electorate's. I.e. "they're not like us!"

I've seen the exact same dysfunction in women (and men) in choosing a mate. I can't begin to count the number of times I've heard a woman say "all men are brutes" and then proceed to select abusers for mates ... because any man who isn't abusive "isn't a real man." It's neurotic, to say the least.

When we cling to some dysfunctional stereotype for 'other' and then base our selections/votes on that stereotype, we're surely 'proving' our bias/prejudice but screwing ourselves. That's quite literally dysfunctional.

[Jed Dilligan]

11. Easy. Mr. Scarborough is using a map produced in Tahiti.

With the central line of longitude of the map being 149-West (the location of Papeete, the capital), the U.S. appears in the center right.

[NorCalDem]

12. There is no evidence of this, it's all BS

oh, and the world is in fact a left-left world. Just look at EVERY other democratic or republic style national government out there not including dictatorships.

What the right in this country realizes is that as a whole, they are a small small minority. The ONLY reason they have one elections for the last 30 years (starting w/ Reagan) is because only a small percent of eligible voters vote in this country. If everyone voted, Republican's wouldn't stand a chance, which is why they are so fearful of early/late poll hours, absentee ballots, early voting, etc. Because basically in a true democracy, they can't win...

[CitizenPatriot]

13. I know this isn't true

but even if it were, how is that relevant to his cause? McCain is no center rightist. He's a wacked out right wing extremist running with a religious nut job who believes in end days and can't string a sentence together.

next?

[Old and In the Way]

17. It's one of the Republican Party's most cherished delusions.

They are about to find out how wrong they are. If we fix the problem with voting machines and make sure everyone gets the future opportunity to vote, they may never get the chance to delude themselves again...at least in my lifetime.

[dugaresa]

18. he hopes if he keeps repeating it people will believe it..

it is pure bullshit

[Geek_Girl]

19. May have been somewhat true a few years ago

But I would have characterized it as a "apathetic-center-right" Now people are interested, voting and our nation is becoming a left leaning country progressive country. Scarborough is just behind the times.

I can't wait till he's off the air.

[gollygee]

21. It has been moving that way

but no, that's not how our country is defined, and we need to move a bit to the left.