America Is Not a ‘Center-Right Nation’

The Democratic Party has learned to stop worrying and love “big government” liberalism. The party’s top presidential prospects are advertising their ardor for socialized medicine, free public college, universal child care and paid family leave. …

The party’s resident “sensible centrists” are horrified: “Has the entire Democratic Party forgotten the words ‘George McGovern’?” they cry. In column after column, they have been imploring their co-partisans to remember a fundamental fact: America is a center-right nation, where nearly 70 percent of voters are moderate or conservative, and just 25 percent are liberal. …

In truth, the Republican Party’s dominance has little to do with the American electorate’s “center-right” ideology. We know this for two simple reasons: First, the vast majority of that electorate has no ideology, whatsoever. And second, when polled on discrete policy questions, Americans consistently express majoritarian support for a left-of-center economic agenda. CONT.

Eric Levitz, New York Times