It’s just three days after Barack Obama swept the board in the presidential race, and already the mainstream media pundits are repeating their shopworn argument that “America is still a center-right country.”
America is still fundamentally conservative, their argument goes, and Obama needs to “govern from the center.” They claim his election was the result of his personal charisma and the ineptitude of the McCain campaign rather than widespread support of his (relatively) liberal positions, that he has no mandate for advancing a progressive agenda, and blah-de-blah-de-blah-blah-blah.
Bullcrap.
America is not a “center-right” country anymore. Okay, maybe it is on “social issues” (gay marriage, gun control, immigration) but it has become a center-left country on economic issues (tax policy, health care, the minimum wage, regulation of business, the environment, energy policy, etc.)
The evidence? Obama ran on a platform of guaranteed health care, a more equitable tax policy and more regulation of banking and finance. He famously said he wanted to “spread the wealth around.” John McCain (and Joe the Plumber) seized on that phrase and repeatedly ripped Obama as a “socialist” and a “communist” for taking that position. And Obama won – not by a piddling margin like George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, but in a landslide.
Can you spell M-A-N-D-A-T-E?
Want more evidence? A Gallup Poll in late October asked: “Do you feel that the distribution of money and wealth in this country today is fair, or do you feel that the money and wealth in this country should be more evenly distributed among a larger percentage of the people?”
Only 37% thought “distribution is fair”; 58% said wealth “should be more evenly distributed.” That sure sounds like “spreading the wealth” to me.
Want still more evidence? The day after the election the New York Times posted a fascinating series of interactive maps that showed which counties across the country had shifted from red to blue and vice-versa in each of the last four presidential elections. (I’d give you a link to this feature but I can’t seem to find it on the Times‘ site anymore.) Despite Bush’s victories in 2000 and 2004, with each presidential election cycle the map has gotten more blue. In 2008 only a smattering of counties stretching along the northern fringe of the former Confederacy shifted to red.
The mainstream pundits are singing the same tired song they always sing. When Democrats lose, they say the party needs to move to the right to become competitive again. When Democrats win, they still say the party needs to move to the right to stay competitive. But oddly, whether the Republicans win or lose, you never hear those pundits say the GOP has to move to the left.
Whose agenda are they pushing? I’ll leave that for you to figure out.
Princeton economist Paul Krugman has an excellent column today about Obama’s mandate. Hopefully the next president will listen to commentators like Krugman – and the voters – and ignore the pompous Washington and New York media gasbags who are still peddling horsepuckey about how conservative this country is.
This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2008.
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Since less than 37 percent are considered wealthy, even some of the not wealthy think it’s fair how the wealth is spread around. Of course the people who are considered poor or lower income don’t think it’s fair, they always want more. Problem is there’s no more to give to them, so buck up little buckaroo.
Merkley beats Smith. Coleman and Franken in a mandated recount. Chambliss can’t get the required 50%. Stevens has to steal his seat the way he stole everything else. Further evidence there is no mandate.
Hard to admit, HB, but you’re right. We certainly haven’t seen any center-right out of the current admin–everything looks like center-left to me(exclude foreign policy–it doesn’t appear to have any recognizable leaning except towards incompetence!). The Fed has socialized the economy by purchasing failing institutions and debt–socialized medicine by expanding health benefits to benefit the pharmaceuticals–socialized public education through ‘no child left behind’ and made it even less competent. We are on track to socialize the automobile industry? Where is the center-right outrage? It doesn’t exist…beyond the fringe who I am sure have written but are not yet posted.
You said: Barack Obama swept the board in the presidential race. And you said: And Obama won รข ” not by a piddling margin like George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, but in a landslide.
Regarding the Popular vote: How can you consider the following a landslide?
U.S PRESIDENT – POPULAR VOTE — 170,916 of 187,088 precincts reporting (91%)
Obama 60,460,387 52% (X)
McCain 54,119,059 47%
Others 1,465,497 1%
“It would seem the majority then could care less about having the opportunity to succeed on the merit of their own intelligence,creativity and hard work and would simply prefer to have a share of the other folks success.”
You have swallowed the Kool-Aid, my friend. There is no contradiction between having an adequate social safety net and letting people have the opportunity to reap financial rewards for their hard work, talent, etc. People still get rich in France, Britain, Italy, Norway and all those other “socialist” countries. Advocating for an adequate social safety net is not the same thing as advocating for a leveling of all incomes or abolishing private enterprise.
“Regarding the Popular vote: How can you consider the following a landslide?”
Of course there is no hard and fast definition of a landslide. But Obama won by almost 6.5 million popular votes and 202 electoral votes. That’s a bigger electoral vote margin than any Democrat has had since 1964, when LBJ whupped the crap out of Barry Goldwater. And of course it’s a far bigger margin than Bush had in either 2004 or 2000.
Just looking at the popular vote, 52% is more than Reagan got against Carter in 1980, more than Clinton got against George Bush Senior in 1992 or Dole in 1996.
Since WWII, the winning candidate has gotten a higher percentage of the popular vote than Obama did only six times — Eisenhower (1952 and ’56), LBJ (1964), Nixon (1972 against McGovern), Reagan (1984, when Mondale carried only one state),and George Bush Senior (1988 against Dukakis). It has been 20 years since any presidential candidate got as high a percentage of the popular vote as Obama did.
Also the Dems picked up 20 more House seats and six Senate seats.
In conclusion, if you don’t consider this election a landslide I really would like to know what you WOULD consider a landslide.
Figures don’t lie, but liers figure!
The voting public didn’t overwhelming support one candidate over the other. A 4-5% margin of victory isn’t a ‘landslide.’ The result of small margins of victory in the Presidential and other national races caused a รข combinedรข ย landslide but not necessarily a mandate. The point being that the public has spoken, wanted change, got change but only about 52% +/- of the public supports the direction.
A 65% or more approval would be a landslide รข ” in my humble opinion.
Now we just need to get everybody on board, regardless of prior voting.
The interactive maps can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/5q54wr
Maybe if Obama hadn’t done such a good job of telling his story then he wouldn’t have energized some republican’s that hadn’t voted in 2000 and 2004. They (the energized Republican’s) didn’t want him to succeed so came out and voted.
“A 65% or more approval would be a landslide รข ” in my humble opinion.”
65%?!? Are you serious??? That has NEVER happened in American history, my friend. Not even for LBJ over Goldwater in 1964 (LBJ got 61%) or Reagan over Mondale in 1984 (Reagan got 58.5%). So by your standard no president EVER had a landslide.
Well, maybe Washington.
Some illuminating comments by Robert Borosage on HuffPo:
“The Center for America’s Future joined with Democracy Corps to do a nation wide poll on election eve and with an expanded sample, we could probe attitudes of voters by political identification. What we found was clear: on both values and issues, moderates line up with liberals to form a strong majority that isolates conservatives.
On national security, does our security depend on building strong ties with other nations or on our own military strength? Liberals say ties with other nations 76-20; moderates 63-31. Conservatives go the other way 51-43.
Should we begin to take troops out of Iraq or stay the course until we reach stability? Liberals 92-7 for getting troops out; moderates 64-33. Conservatives? By two to one — 66-33 — they would stay the course.
Does government regulation do more good or more harm? Liberals believe it does more good than harm by 75-18; moderates by 60-36. Conservatives go the other way, even after the financial collapse, 52-44.
Are you worried that we will fail to make investments we need to create jobs or worry that we will spend too much and have to raise taxes? Liberals worry about not making needed investments 73-23; moderates by 53-44. Conservatives worry about spending and taxes 69-29.”
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/the-center-left-nation_b_143159.html
Hate to rub it in (well, not TOO much) but …
“OMAHA, Neb. รข ” President-elect Barack Obama won one of Nebraska’s electoral votes, the first time in history that the state has split its votes and the first time in 44 years that it had given a vote to a Democrat.
“After remaining ballots were counted Friday, Obama had a 3,325-vote lead over Republican John McCain in unofficial results for the 2nd Congressional District. Nebraska and Maine are the two states that divide their electoral votes by congressional districts.
“Obama, who won the White House last week, has 365 electoral votes to McCain’s 162. Missouri, with 11 electoral votes, is still too close to call. Election officials in that state have until Tuesday to finish counting.
“The last Democrat to win Nebraska was Lyndon B. Johnson, who carried the state in 1964.”
So Obama could end up with as many as 376 electoral votes.
For those of you who are still in denial about this being an overwhelming victory, consider that this was a black man who was a relative unknown two yearas ago and had a Muslim father and a name that sounds Muslim — and DESPITE all that he won the popular vote by more than 8 million and captured 203 more electoral votes than his white war hero opponent. AND carried states like Virginia and North Carolina and Iowa. Imagine what a blowout there would have been if Barack Obama had been a white guy named Joe Richardson or something.