Legal Commentary

Center-Left v. Center-Right

By TChris

Flipping through the various broadcast and cable news networks on election night, I was struck by two things. First, the remote control is the greatest technological advancement since indoor plumbing. Second, Chris Wallace and Karl Rove on Fox News, desperate to find a silver lining in the public's wholesale rejection of Republican governance, loudly proclaimed throughout the night that the United States was still a center-right country, based on exit polls showing more voters who identified themselves as conservative than liberal.

The "center-right nation" theme has been picked up by other conservative pundits since November 4 (unsurprisingly, since most of them can't think for themselves and need Uncle Karl to hand them their daily talking points). Turns out, it's not true. [more ...]

An extended election-night survey undertaken by Democracy Corps and the Campaign for America's Future suggests that we may be witness to the emergence of a new progressive majority, that contrary to conservatives' claims, America is now a center-left nation.

Rove regards self-defined "moderates" as comprising the center, while in reality, moderates tend to skew center-left.

[A]s has been increasingly true in polling going back to 2004, broad majorities have a world view far closer to liberals and Democrats than to conservatives or Republicans. ...

On values and on issues, moderates -- with one large exception -- swing toward liberals. The exception is that moderates remain far more about -- and government spending -- than liberals do. Conservative misrule has given them every reason to believe that large portions of their taxes are wasted. ...

But progressives needn't be defensive about the majority that is dubious about government spending. Making government work effectively is at the heart, not the capillaries of the progressive agenda. This test doesn't distract; it focuses us on our task. No progressive majority can ever be consolidated for long if it doesn't demonstrate that government can be an effective ally for everyone.

In other words, make the government work (no easy task given its present state of disrepair) and the center will follow the liberal lead. The new majority of younger and nonwhite and better educated voters is disposed to give progressive politics a try.

These groups share basic concerns. They are comfortable with diversity and tolerant. They are more secular than Sarah Palin's real America. With the exception of the professionals, they are under great economic pressure and look to government for help on energy, health care, jobs, and wages. They want out of Iraq and are eager for the U.S. to share the burdens with allies. They favor environmental and consumer regulation. They want greater investment in education and training, in research and development, in state-of-the-art infrastructure. This broad but increasingly shared worldview makes it easier to forge them into a majority, despite natural tensions. ...

[W]hat is clear is that a new majority is emerging and will get stronger simply from demography. Its members have given Obama a mandate. They want Democrats and Republicans to support Obama and the agenda that he puts forth. If that agenda is successful, then 2008 may well mark the beginning of a new era of progressive reform and the consolidation of a center-left America.

The moral: govern well, and progressivism will follow.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on November 14, 2008 (boomark / email).