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Is America a Center-Right Country?
It has become conventional wisdom that America is a Center-Right country. One hears this description all the time in the news, in commentary, and in conversation. The following letter to the editor in the WashPost takes issue with this characterization and makes good sense to me:
"I often enjoy reading Kathleen Parker's opinions, but her March 21 column left me flat. While Ms. Parker tries to make a valid point that the country is less polarized than the media portray, she trotted out the canard that the United States is a "slightly right-of-center nation."
Everyone knows that "right" and "left" are, by definition, relative terms. Shifting beliefs by Americans continue to move the center line on our political spectrum. It is impossible for the country to be "right-of-center" because the country's median position is the center. Parker, and others, should stop trying to make themselves feel better about their political leanings by using nonsense phrases like this.
Conservatives who trot out this rhetoric remind me of people from Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon, where "all the children are above average."
What say you, oh learned brethren?
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As long as the roots are not severed, all will be well in the garden.
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