A question about the political spectrum in the US

[ProBonoShill]

I find this laughable. the greatest complaint raised by Democrats since he was elected is that Obama is too conservative and corporate-friendly.

Really, maybe you should read the recent Gallop poll where half of Americans think Democrats are too liberal.

From Gallop.com

In the past two years, Americans have become increasingly likely to describe the Democratic Party's views as "too liberal" (49%), and less likely to say its views are "about right" (38%). Americans' views of the Republican Party, on the other hand, have moderated slightly, with a dip in the percentage saying the GOP is too conservative from 43% last year to 40% today, and an increase in the percentage saying it is about right, from 34% to 41%.

The Black Panthers are worrisome only to the extent that they might be structured as an unlawful militia and thus could be a problem in the case of an insurrection. But they are less bothersome in that regard than are obviously sick and dangerous outfits like the Militia of Montana and that sort and Stormfront and National Vanguard and and White Aryan Resistance.

Touché'.

The country would be better off without these groups.

That you are now shrieking about ACORN gives me reason to question your ability to understand the simplest of facts. ACORN is legal. You give too much credence to off-the-chart lunatics like Breitbart.

ACORN is now under investigation in 14 states and has been forced to close down in Ohio due to voter fraud. They might be legal, they just don't like following the law.


The defeat of Harry Reid was almost a forgone conclusion before that lunatic Angle opened her mouth in front of somebody other than the tea baggers. And the tea bagger candidate Paul may just hand us a senate seat that nobody woulld have even thought was up for grabs,[/QUOTE]

It seems I heard the same thing about Teddy's seat, what happened there?

Demonizing them? They do it to themselves when they do not run the Nazis out of their assembly areas. It is not demonizing a raving lunatic with a gun if you call the cops out to take it away from him.

That's a tad hypocritical no? I thought you dems didn't marginalize a whole group of people for the actions of a few?

Tea baggers are dangerous, not because they might win an election here and there, but because some of them are nuts enough that they might actually decide that there is only one way left to "take out" Harry Reid if people realize what an utter lunatic Angle is and decide to vote against the guanophrenic little idiot.

You mean like these liberal idiots:

 

[leftysergeant]

i like how this went from "the right" to "the GOP"

The GOP has, in the last thirty years, shed all pretense of being anything but a hard right party, and is the home to the overwhelming majority of knee-jerk rightwhackers. Effectively, the goals of the right and the GOP are inseparable right now.

there was a republican in the house who voted in favor of the obamacare bill, but hey, whats one guy when your trying to demonize almost half the country

The country is probably far less conservative than you seem to believe, now that it is begining to dawn on the majority that they have been had.

 

[ProBonoShill]

The GOP has, in the last thirty years, shed all pretense of being anything but a hard right party, and is the home to the overwhelming majority of knee-jerk rightwhackers. Effectively, the goals of the right and the GOP are inseparable right now.



The country is probably far less conservative than you seem to believe, now that it is begining to dawn on the majority that they have been had.

I hate to break out another Gallup Poll (though it is a year old), but it seems you're wrong.

Smoke & Mirrors, ohh sorry I meant Hope & Change, doesn't seem to be resonating with the American public.

 

[defaultdotxbe]

The GOP has, in the last thirty years, shed all pretense of being anything but a hard right party, and is the home to the overwhelming majority of knee-jerk rightwhackers. Effectively, the goals of the right and the GOP are inseparable right now.



The country is probably far less conservative than you seem to believe, now that it is begining to dawn on the majority that they have been had.

so basically your saying what i had posted previously in jest, anyone to the right of the democratic party is a far-right ultra conservative


wow. just wow

 

[leftysergeant]

Really, maybe you should read the recent Gallop poll where half of Americans think Democrats are too liberal.

From Gallop.com

How people self-describe and how they act are too often different to rely on polling data. The more Democratic of the Democratic candidates in the elections held so far seem to be coming out on top, outside of Arkansas and Louisianna, which are not likely to go solidly Democratic any time soon.

ACORN is now under investigation in 14 states and has been forced to close down in Ohio due to voter fraud. They might be legal, they just don't like following the law.

This is not a true statement. ACORN committed no voter fraud. Rightwhacker lunatic governors and prosecutors can shriekl all they want to, but they cannot alter the facts. Show me a conviction stemming from actual ACORN policies. Don't give me any crap about people gathering incorrect and fraudulent registration cards. ACORN busted most of those themselves. And forget the prostitution allegations. The witnersses in those cases are themselves known criminals who were out to manufacture evidence. They failed.

It seems I heard the same thing about Teddy's seat, what happened there?

The Democratic candidate ran a crappy campaign.

That's a tad hypocritical no? I thought you dems didn't marginalize a whole group of people for the actions of a few?

Their tactics are so planned as to encourage sociopathic conduct. The town halls they disrupted show that they intend to commit as much thuggery as they can.

You mean like these liberal idiots:

Learn the difference between liberals and anarchists.

 

[rwguinn]

so basically your saying what i had posted previously in jest, anyone to the right of the democratic party is a far-right ultra conservative


wow. just wow

Like the "closed Universe" thing (you know, with a big enough telescope you could see the back of your own head?)if Lefty and BAC turned around, they'd be eyeball-to-eyeball, politically...

 

[thaiboxerken]

Obama's radical left wing appointees and the extremists in his inner circle make the tea party look like a girl scout troop.

Hardly, his "extreme" left group has been conceding quite a bit to the Right, even though they still won't vote for the bills. Obama is very much a centrist, this is why he's criticized by much of the left on several issues.

 

[ZirconBlue]

As I recall discussing this in political science classes years ago, here are a few factors no one has mentioned yet.

<snip very interesting analysis>

Excellent post, GreyArea.

 

[excaza]

so basically your saying what i had posted previously in jest, anyone to the right of the democratic party is a far-right ultra conservative


wow. just wow

You're putting words in his mouth. He never said the same thing didn't apply to the Democrats. I don't see anything blatantly wrong with his statement. From what I've seen, both sides seem to be much more publicly polarized now than they did 10-15 years ago.

 

[Upchurch]

Why is the right anti-science in your view?

I consider the right anti-science for two reasons. Climate Change, and Evolution.

Evolution angle I can see, Climate change though eh. Dont want to derail the thread into a climate change debate but I dont know if I'd consider that anti-science if you are skeptical of it.

QED

 

[quarky]

The cool thing about Obama (or the uncool thing about the new breed of American retard) is that he is a fascist; a socialist; a communist; the anti-christ; the saviour; the president; the illegal president; a negro; a white guy; a homo-sexual; a philandering hetero-sexual, and more!

He's everything!

 

[defaultdotxbe]

You're putting words in his mouth. He never said the same thing didn't apply to the Democrats. I don't see anything blatantly wrong with his statement. From what I've seen, both sides seem to be much more publicly polarized now than they did 10-15 years ago.

go back and read the conversation:

It's because, to the Right, anything to the left of them is ultra-liberal.

and to the left anything to the right of them is ultra-conservative

That's absolutely false. Unlike the GOP, there is no litmus test in the Democratic party. It's part of why the DNC is very hard to get to vote one way or another. Herding cats is easier.

With the state of the GOP embracing the Tea Party and other extreme people, how can you say it's not true? Can you even name one moderate Republican Senator?

Republicans are known for sticking to a party line come hell or high water.

You have heard of the "filibuster" haven't you?

the notion that the same applies to democrats is what thai and lefty were disagreeing with me over

 

[thaiboxerken]

go back and read the conversation:











the notion that the same applies to democrats is what thai and lefty were disagreeing with me over

And you've yet to actually address this. Has the DNC embraced crazy, left-wing organizations? Has the DNC introduced "tests" to be considered a democrat? Does the DNC have a "John Birch" like society that attends it's conventions?

 

[excaza]

go back and read the conversation:

the notion that the same applies to democrats is what thai and lefty were disagreeing with me over

oops

 

[GreyArea]

Excellent post, GreyArea.

Thank you.

 

[ZirconBlue]

Thank you.

You're welcome. It was very nice to see an analytical post that actually attempted to answer the OP, rather than engage in partisan bickering.


And I've just remembered to nominate it.

 

[jimbob]

As I recall discussing this in political science classes years ago, here are a few factors no one has mentioned yet.


5.) Religion and myth. There is a lot more religiosity, specifically Christian, in the United States, which tends to be a conservative force. Not always, of course, as we see with Quakers and the Catholic Worker movement, for example. But the main religious movements have tended toward the right, and those people usually vote. They backed out of politics a bit after the Scopes Trial embarrassed them, which might have helped make room for the New Deal. But they've come back since. They always do.

I would say that in general in the UK the Establishment of the Church of England has certainly worked against taking religion seriously. I can remember school assemblies with the teachers singing along to the hymns and yet I knew that most of them didn't believe. It might be changing now, but about 20-30 years ago I'd say that the answering "C of E" to a direct question as to what religion one had was often tantamount to saying "religion is so unimportant to me that I can't even be bothered to claim to be an agnostic".

I'm not sure that Tony Blair's proclamation of faith will have reduced the general distrust of politicians who talk "too much" about god.

I've also wondered if the total devastation of Europe during World War II contributed to the development of social democratic politics. Even though much of West Germany was occupied by the U.S. after the war, and they influenced the German constitution, West Germany still ended up more to the left than the country which didn't lose as much of its infrastructure. Could we also say that the defeat of Nazism and fascism allowed a sudden return of the movements they had been suppressing?

Of course, in Britain the NHS was set up after the Labour victory in 1945, partly as a response to the devastation of the War and the Depression.

 

[defaultdotxbe]

And you've yet to actually address this. Has the DNC embraced crazy, left-wing organizations? Has the DNC introduced "tests" to be considered a democrat? Does the DNC have a "John Birch" like society that attends it's conventions?

like lefty you seem to feel anyone to the right of the DNC is an ultra-conservative teabagger nutjob. i think youve made my point pretty well for me

 

[thaiboxerken]

like lefty you seem to feel anyone to the right of the DNC is an ultra-conservative teabagger nutjob. i think youve made my point pretty well for me

Seems based on what? I don't consider MeadMaker an unltra-conservative teabagger nutjob. He's fairly conservative, in my opinion.

The GOP has embraced the nutjobs, the DNC has not.

 

[defaultdotxbe]

Seems based on what? I don't consider MeadMaker an unltra-conservative teabagger nutjob. He's fairly conservative, in my opinion.

does he consider anyone to the left him to be ultra-liberal?