I assumed your lack of reply meant a complete acceptance of all of my points.

mmm, of course! But you know I was more concerned with “inability” than “acceptance.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2834893820070828

Reuters did a story in 2007 about the number of guns in the world, according to a report by a Geneva-based think tank. Some highlights:

- There are 270 millions guns in America, or 9 for every 10 people.
- There are 875 millions guns total worldwide, so we own 1/4 of them.
- The rate of gun ownership is 7 for every 10 people worldwide, or 1 for every 10, if you take out the US.

Yes, we love our guns, and it is Deadwood out there. And yes, we are a center-right country, compared to the world as a whole.

The fact that Dems have a majority of the elected positions in this country only means we are more centrist. Because isn’t Chris complaining Dems are corporate hogs, and not liberals?

Chris – I’m not sure if you are talking to me, but I don’t think Obama is a socialist. Because you are right – he is mainstream. The R’s have not embraced the right wing fringe, because the fringe is even farther to the Right than you think. The Right wing gets far nuttier than Palin. Jim Ostrowski is one example, but he’s tame in comparison to some. Living in the South and West has taught me many many people share the sentiments of people like the killer of Dr. Tiller, the Kansas Abortion Doctor. Exhibit B is the FBI report of Right-Wing violent groups becoming a bigger threat after the election. You can’t tell me the average Republican wants to violently attack the US government.

One more thing – I’d like to point out that Ethan is trying to present evidence that we are not a center-right country in our representation, and Chris is presenting evidence that we are too center-right in our representation. I think that puts me in a Goldilocks position right in the middle.

Barack Obama’s national popular-vote margin and Electoral College vote total were both higher than those posted by George W. Bush in either 2000 or 2004. The Democratic majorities of the incoming 111th Congress (57 percent minimum in Senate, 59 percent in House) are as large as any since the Democrat-controlled 95th Congress of 1977-78. The Democrats control 29 of the nation’s 50 governorships, which is 58 percent.

Basically, then, in political control this is just shy of a 3:2 ratio. And yet, according to some quarters, the Democrats are a 58 percent minority because somehow, despite supporting more popular positions, controlling majorities at every level of government, America remains forever a “center-right” nation.

link

In poll after poll, when you ask people questions that aren’t loaded, we are a fairly liberal country: Americans support universal healthcare, are pro-choice, oppose the war in Iraq, and support the Democratic agenda on everything from the environment to the minimum wage to international diplomacy… As the quotation above points out, we have a Democratic president, Senate, House, majority of governors. So, it has nothing to do with guns (we have quite a bit of regulation of them, by the way, it’s not exactly Deadwood out there), religion, or how we compare with Scandinavian countries. Most of the people who are scared of “socialism” don’t even know what it is, and think somehow Sweden is a land of enslaved zombies or something.

We are demonstrably *not* a “center-right” country, but I have noticed that this has become a popular right-wing assumption, slipped in all the time but lacking in supporting evidence. As if by repeating it over and over again it’ll be true.

What Maher alludes to in the video is what I touched upon in my article a few months back called “The Sphere of Deviance”. Liberals are underrepresented in the debate which is fundamentally at odds with the polled impulses of Americans.

http://buffalogeek.wnymedia.net/blogs/2009/03/18/the-sphere-of-deviance/

The Democrats push their “fringe” out of the debate altogether. Also, if you wanna come at me, you better do something better than calling Obama a socialist. That argument carries absolutely no water here as calling the man a socialist is a slap in the face to socialists everywhere.

If you think the right wing fringe is not represented in the Republican Party, I’m not sure what America you’re living in. The party has embraced the fringe and moved it to the front and center. The Republican Presidential ticket featured a card carrying member of the fringe lunatic wing of the party. She’s a creation loving Dominionist with a love for every right wing lunatic going.