OrangeEmpire
The White Debonair
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- Nov 28, 2005
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A new AP-Ipsos poll shows that the masses lean Left.
Respondents were asked if they identified as Democrats, Republicans or independents, and then independents were asked which way they lean. With leaners, 54% of Americans are Democrats, compared to only 36% Republicans- an almost 20-point Dem margin.
Polls mean very little. It's possible to word questions so as to get just about any kind of response you want.
I just don't see how most Americans could possibly be left wing.
What I do know, however, is that making all allowances for the influence of money, corruption, misinformation and so on in media and government sources, is that America is a democracy after all. At some point, the government reflects the tone and mentality of the people they govern. And America is not "kind of/sort of" but by a significant margin the most politically conservative government in the world that actually does elect its own leaders. With the possible exception of Afrikaner Sounth Africa in the apartheid era, it always has been and probobly always will be.
It's the only western democracy in which mideval minded religious fanatics comparable to those who govern Iran and (until recently) Afghanistan are a significantly political force. It's one of very few if not the only democracy without a labor or social democratic party of any kind that is not fringe. The percentage of its work force that is unionized is far, far lower than that of any other western nation. It is the only place that I'm aware of in which grandiose opulance amongst the few can exist alongside subsistance existance for the many and in some cases 3rd world levels of poverty, and be seen by the majority of the population as the right and proper way of things. And actually trying to remedy that situation isn't even up for discussion politically, even amongst the so called "liberal democrats."
Is there anywhere else in the world in which actually standing up for civil liberties for our population is tantamount to political suicide, as it was for Dukakis back in '88? Or the way in which the Clinton administration's ill fated attempt to provide health insurance to the entire nation (in a manner that still involved the private sector to a degree not seen even in the most conservative of governments that do have some kind of universal health care, which include again most of the rest of the western world) led to the backlash election of a congress so far to the right that you just would not have seen outside of South Africa in the days prior to multi racial elections.
Much of this can be attributed to the efficiency of the American conservative movement in general. They're well networked, well informed and well financed to a degree not seen elsewhere. It could also be attributed to the domestic suppresion of radical and progressive elements throughout the 20th century (the Palmer raids, the red scare, McCarthyism, COINTELPRO, etc.) But socialism was suppressed in Germany as well in the both the Bizmarkian and Wilhelmine Reichs as well as by the Nazis, and suppressed far more ruthlessly than in the States, but the German SDP has since gone on to become a significant political force since then. Many of conservatism's best minds are American, but even the best stock can't grow in infertile soil. By all conceivable measures of "right wing" thought, Americans, and by that I mean the middle of the road suburbanite with 2.1 kids and half a dog, not just the big corporations, are light years ahead of every other western democracy, and probobly the entire world.
But if most Americans did lean left, explain Bush? Explain America's lack of universal health care? Explain the soaring gap between rich and poor that exceeds that of even most third world nations? Explain the erosion of civil liberties? Explain the religious right? Try to get sex ed and evolution out of the schools and prayer and creationism into the schools just about anywhere else outside the Middle East and you'd be laughed out of the country. Explain the 'war on drugs' and 'tough on crime' policies that have led to by far the highest per capita incarcertaion rate in the world? Does any other western democracy still have the dealth penalty? Explain why 50% of Americans agree with the notion that "the Man wears the pants in the family" while only 20% of Canadians (for example) do? Why are abortion, contraception, feminism, gay rights, comprehensive sex ed and the like still political hot potatos in the U.S when in Canada, for instance, they're done deals?
American liberals are an embattled minority, not representative at all of mainstream America. The first step towards remedying this is for them to stop lying to themselves and start coming up with ways of packaging and selling their ideas to people other than academics and avant-garde art and culture scene types. Once upon a time, they had a mass base amongst the population, and an economic and organizational infrustructure to mobilize that base to deliver electoral results and skew the tone of political discussion in their favor. It would behoove what's left of the left to ask themselves how they lost it and how they can get it back.
Thoughts?
Respondents were asked if they identified as Democrats, Republicans or independents, and then independents were asked which way they lean. With leaners, 54% of Americans are Democrats, compared to only 36% Republicans- an almost 20-point Dem margin.
3. Generally speaking, do you consider yourself a liberal, moderate or conservative? (IF LIBERAL OR
CONSERVATIVE, ASKWould you say you are very (liberal/conservative) or somewhat
(liberal/conservative)?
ALL
ADULTS
Very liberal........................................ 10
Somewhat liberal .............................. 16
Moderate........................................... 35
Somewhat conservative.................... 22
Very conservative ............................. 14
Refused ........................................... 3
Total Liberal..................................... 26
Total Conservative.......................... 36
Polls mean very little. It's possible to word questions so as to get just about any kind of response you want.
I just don't see how most Americans could possibly be left wing.
What I do know, however, is that making all allowances for the influence of money, corruption, misinformation and so on in media and government sources, is that America is a democracy after all. At some point, the government reflects the tone and mentality of the people they govern. And America is not "kind of/sort of" but by a significant margin the most politically conservative government in the world that actually does elect its own leaders. With the possible exception of Afrikaner Sounth Africa in the apartheid era, it always has been and probobly always will be.
It's the only western democracy in which mideval minded religious fanatics comparable to those who govern Iran and (until recently) Afghanistan are a significantly political force. It's one of very few if not the only democracy without a labor or social democratic party of any kind that is not fringe. The percentage of its work force that is unionized is far, far lower than that of any other western nation. It is the only place that I'm aware of in which grandiose opulance amongst the few can exist alongside subsistance existance for the many and in some cases 3rd world levels of poverty, and be seen by the majority of the population as the right and proper way of things. And actually trying to remedy that situation isn't even up for discussion politically, even amongst the so called "liberal democrats."
Is there anywhere else in the world in which actually standing up for civil liberties for our population is tantamount to political suicide, as it was for Dukakis back in '88? Or the way in which the Clinton administration's ill fated attempt to provide health insurance to the entire nation (in a manner that still involved the private sector to a degree not seen even in the most conservative of governments that do have some kind of universal health care, which include again most of the rest of the western world) led to the backlash election of a congress so far to the right that you just would not have seen outside of South Africa in the days prior to multi racial elections.
Much of this can be attributed to the efficiency of the American conservative movement in general. They're well networked, well informed and well financed to a degree not seen elsewhere. It could also be attributed to the domestic suppresion of radical and progressive elements throughout the 20th century (the Palmer raids, the red scare, McCarthyism, COINTELPRO, etc.) But socialism was suppressed in Germany as well in the both the Bizmarkian and Wilhelmine Reichs as well as by the Nazis, and suppressed far more ruthlessly than in the States, but the German SDP has since gone on to become a significant political force since then. Many of conservatism's best minds are American, but even the best stock can't grow in infertile soil. By all conceivable measures of "right wing" thought, Americans, and by that I mean the middle of the road suburbanite with 2.1 kids and half a dog, not just the big corporations, are light years ahead of every other western democracy, and probobly the entire world.
But if most Americans did lean left, explain Bush? Explain America's lack of universal health care? Explain the soaring gap between rich and poor that exceeds that of even most third world nations? Explain the erosion of civil liberties? Explain the religious right? Try to get sex ed and evolution out of the schools and prayer and creationism into the schools just about anywhere else outside the Middle East and you'd be laughed out of the country. Explain the 'war on drugs' and 'tough on crime' policies that have led to by far the highest per capita incarcertaion rate in the world? Does any other western democracy still have the dealth penalty? Explain why 50% of Americans agree with the notion that "the Man wears the pants in the family" while only 20% of Canadians (for example) do? Why are abortion, contraception, feminism, gay rights, comprehensive sex ed and the like still political hot potatos in the U.S when in Canada, for instance, they're done deals?
American liberals are an embattled minority, not representative at all of mainstream America. The first step towards remedying this is for them to stop lying to themselves and start coming up with ways of packaging and selling their ideas to people other than academics and avant-garde art and culture scene types. Once upon a time, they had a mass base amongst the population, and an economic and organizational infrustructure to mobilize that base to deliver electoral results and skew the tone of political discussion in their favor. It would behoove what's left of the left to ask themselves how they lost it and how they can get it back.
Thoughts?
