Matt Yglesias

42 Responses to “A Center-Left Country”

1. jfxgillis Says:
   November 5th, 2008 at 9:54 am

   Matt:

   I should point out that the remarkable Mark Steyn, you heard me, MARK STEYN, proposed the “center-left” hypothesis on The Corner last night after the outcome became obvious.

   Mark Steyn.

   Mark.

   Steyn.

2. Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s Says:
   November 5th, 2008 at 10:01 am

   Yes. The voters of a center-right nation elected a socialist muslim to the highest office. Quality political analysis that you can count on.

3. John McCain: Worse than Bush Says:
   November 5th, 2008 at 10:03 am

   The nice thing about being a wingnut is that your world is unfalsifiable.

   Oh, and the corporate media can’t get enough of you.

4. cljo Says:
   November 5th, 2008 at 10:04 am

   So the center-left country will “stay that way if the new administration and new congress are able to deliver the goods and start improving conditions.” In other words, the country is center-left except when it’s not. Brilliant.

5. CN Says:
   November 5th, 2008 at 10:07 am

   Toobin did it too! Last night, if I recall. They interrupted his point with a projection, though.

6. Matt B Says:
   November 5th, 2008 at 10:07 am

   Center-left? Sweet! Time to cybersquat on feingold2016.com. Should be a better investment than a CDS.

7. Rick Harper Says:
   November 5th, 2008 at 10:16 am

   Center-left/Center-right… How ’bout we just call it “centrist” and be done with it?

   Oh, and did anyone catch John Bolton on BBC last night? For my money, there’s nothing like watching an ambassador tell his hosts that they don’t know what they’re talking about. THAT’S diplomacy!

8. Njorl Says:
   November 5th, 2008 at 10:17 am

   Using the present-day United States as a yardstick, I’d put us somewhere in the center.

   What are we supposed to be in the “center-left” of?

9. hsny Says:
   November 5th, 2008 at 10:18 am

   I agree that the U.S. remains a “center-right” country. It’s just that the center has itself shifted to the left.

10. DTM Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 10:19 am

    Taken literally this is a silly debate. What is the baseline by which we are defining terms such as “center”, “center-right”, and “center-left”? If it is the United States itself, then by definition it is centrist as a whole. If it is the entire world with all its undemocratic and regressive regimes, then the terms basically don’t apply (although then the United States is easily on the “liberal” side in the very broad sense, meaning we believe in democracy, the rule of law, individual rights, and so forth). So probably the only meaningful way to define those terms would be amongst the peers of the United States, namely other reasonably well-developed and democratic countries. And in that group, it remains true that the United States is center-right–it just turns out the Democrats and Barack Obama are by that measure center-right, and the Republicans and John McCain are much further to the right.

    But I suspect what all this is really about is something very different. The “Conservative Movement” has been based in part on the premise that various national insitutions–the federal government, the national media, the university system, and so on–were much more “liberal” than the American people themselves, specifically the so-called “silent majority”. And that is the illusion which was more or less just shattered last night: it turns out that the majority of Americans are not nearly as conservative as the Conservative Movementarians had believed.

    So that I think is the reasonable translation of all this talk: despite all the polls, until last night many of the Conservative Movementarians were still convinced that once again the “silent majority” would take the opportunity of a Presidential election to prove the country was much more conservative than it might otherwise appear. But now they are waking up to the reality that their “silent majority” is actually a minority.

11. Tinare Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 10:23 am

    I think the real “silent majority” in this country woke up and went to the polls in record numbers this year.

12. JP Arlington Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 10:45 am

    Someone needs to tell the eponymous Jeff Flake (R-AZ) who just declared — evidence-free — in the WashPost that the US is a center-right nation. What a joke!!

13. Bengt Larsson Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 10:59 am

    By the current definitions, America is certainly a center-left country.

14. bdbd Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 11:12 am

    It has to be kept in mind that delivering on the need to address and remedy the current fiscal/financial/economic challenges is different from (although a prelude to) delivering on a redesign of institutions and market arrangements that would be more “center-lefty” and less “markets only, please”

15. Kyle Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 11:18 am

    “the huge progressive wave”

    Not huge. 52% is not a landslide. Four years ago we were explaining to the world that 51% for George Bush was not a mandate. We didn’t mean that he needed one point more.

    I’m happy Obama won but still disappointed by how resilient McCain’s vote total proved. He and the GOP deserved to suffer a wipeout. After the disasters of the past 8 years, it’s depressing and disturbing that the Republican candidate can still get 47% of the vote.

16. soullite Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 11:38 am

    Kyle, there’s a big difference between a victory of 2.4%/34 electoral vote victory and a 6%/190 electoral vote victory.

    The first is barely a win, but a win. The second is, by all historical measures, a landslide.

17. Don Williams Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

    Sara wants to know how you know this Nina Easton slut and why are you linking to her.

18. klack Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 12:05 pm

    I agree with Kyle. An electoral landslide doesn’t necessarily translate to a landslide of support among the populace. A huge majority of people still voted for McCain in the face of economic disaster and a failed war. MO is virtually tied and may have lost its bellwether status (thankfully) but not it’s reflection of the rust belt diehard Christians. Maybe they weren’t voting for McCain per se, but they were voting for the “Republican” point of view. Not sure anymore what that is exactly, but it demonstrates there is still a vast group of people who seem to be living in a universe divorced from reality (IMO, that is).

19. klack Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 12:06 pm

    argh– I typed I thought “its reflection of”

20. DTM Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 12:06 pm

    I think one can meaningfully distinguish the magnitude of Obama’s win both from Bush’s 2004 win on the one hand and, say, Reagan’s 1984 win on the other. Of course with respect to the latter case, incumbent landslides are really a whole different beast.

    In fact, comparing Obama’s win to recent non-incumbent (neither president or sitting VP) victories, obviously he was way ahead of Bush in 2000. 1992 is tough to compare because of a strong third-party effect, but I’d give Obama a slight edge. In contrast, I’d say Reagan’s win in 1980 was a bit more definitive, particularly in terms of the breadth of his support. Obama was easily ahead of Carter in 1976, Nixon in 1968, and JFK in 1960.

    Which brings us back to 1952, and I actually think in some ways Ike’s first victory was most comparable. You’d have to give the edge to Ike in terms of margin in both popular votes and electoral college votes, but I think the sense of trimming one party back to its base and no more was similar. And by the way, regionally the situation has reversed since 1952, with Stevenson only holding the South back then.

    So, anyway, “landslide” may be a bit much, but I think Obama certainly did well for a non-incumbent, at least comparable to Clinton and arguably close to the Ike range, if not quite in the Reagan range.

21. Mixner Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 12:19 pm

    I agree with Kyle. An electoral landslide doesn’t necessarily translate to a landslide of support among the populace.

    Don’t worry. Reality will intrude on this “huge progressive wave” nonsense soon enough. The media is already full of stories about how hard it’s going to be for Obama to meet the inflated expectations of his more excitable supporters.

22. Miracle Max Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

    Those who deny the center-right reality underestimate the challenges we face and the lengths to which we will need to go in meeting them, lengths for which the public is not yet prepared.

    We are only center-left if you reduce what it means to be left.

23. Barbar Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

    Geez guys, you’re so “obsessed” with this political narrative. Good thing good ol’ reasonable Mixner is here to set you straight.

24. Danny Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    1. The Victory wasn’t a landslide. Why is this important?
    2. Yeah, the USA is a center-right country. It elects democrats only when things get really shitty. All the more reason to push for progressive legislation, since these opportunities don’t come often.

25. Bengt Larsson Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 12:43 pm

    Those who deny the center-right reality underestimate the challenges we face and the lengths to which we will need to go in meeting them, lengths for which the public is not yet prepared.

    I don’t know what that is supposed to mean. People are center-left on the issues. Liberals are to timid to argue their policies. That can be changed.

26. Nara Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

    I always thought that socially we are a center right country but fiscally we are a center left country provided someone from the progressive side articulated the policies without using the words redistribution and socialism.

27. Brad L Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

    The media is already full of stories about how hard it’s going to be for Obama to meet the inflated expectations of his more excitable supporters.

    Damn that liberal media, and their liberal liberalness! It’s like you can’t get them to stop their cheerleading, no matter the circumstance.

28. kevin lindahl Says:
    February 25th, 2009 at 7:36 am

    If America is center right today it would be because the center has shifted to the left. 55 years ago segregation was leagal and supported by many polotitons. Now not even the most conservative polotition supports it. Civil rights for women and blacks was not the law of the land now it is. Civil Unions were not even leagal 10 years ago now they are. Sodemy was once illeagal. Our country always moves to the left on these land mark decisions. Now if you talk about religion and moral values compared to Europe we are center right. But what’s considered the far left today will be tomorows center. So the center always moves left.

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