Opinion: America’s political tilt: ‘center-right’ or altered by Barack Obama’s win?
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
The great debate, in the wake of the solid Democratic showing at virtually every level in Tuesday’s election, is now fully engaged: What is the nation’s ideological slant?
Jon Meacham of Newsweek fired an early shot in the verbal battle in mid-October with an article declaring that ‘America remains a center-right nation -- a fact that a President Obama would forget at his peril.’
With the votes counted, Republican politicians and their allies in the commentariat class -- while chagrined at the outcome -- quickly have taken up this mantra.
Indeed, in some cases they did so while the votes were being counted.
Interviewed on the BBC Tuesday night, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said: ‘It’s important for viewers around the world to understand that fundamentally the United States remains a center-right nation. This will be a substantial victory for Sen. Obama ... but that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s going to be a divergence from the basic core values of the country.’
A conservative activist group, the American Issues Project, sought to buttress this argument with a poll it released today. The findings, the group says, show that ‘the decisive defeat Republicans suffered in Tuesday’s election came because conservative voters decided the party had lost its way, not because the electorate has shifted to the left.’
Liberals have lost little time firing back.
In a New Republic article posted Wednesday that is well worth ruminating over, John Judis asserts that a far-reaching political realignment toward the Democratic Party ‘reflects the shift that began decades ago toward a post-industrial economy centered in large urban-suburban metropolitan areas devoted primarily to the production of ideas and services rather than material goods.’
He adds:
Clustered in the regions that have undergone this economic transition are the three main groups that constitute the backbone of the new Democratic majority: professionals (college-educated workers who produce ideas and services); minorities (African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans); and women (particularly working, single, and college-educated women).
And today, a newsletter from the Progress Report -- headlined ‘The Center-Right Myth’ -- makes its case that the country has ‘both rejected conservative ideology as well as embraced new, progressive priorities.’
Our guess is that the immediate focus of the Obama administration will be less on matters of dogma and more on embracing whatever policies result in an economy that a year from now doesn’t feel like it’s cratering.
-- Don Frederick
If you’re hopelessly interested in politics as we are: Get alerts sent to your cellphone of each new Ticket item on the presidential winner, his new administration, the new Congress and all things political. Go here to register.