Is Obama a Center-Right President or Has the Center Shifted Right?

[vroomvroom]

In most other countries a politician like Obama would be considered radical right-wing because of his constant desires to do what republicans want. So i was wondering maybe Obama really does think he is a left president simply because what we now consider the Center is actually what would be considered deep red 10+ years ago. Seems quite sad but i am just in awe how someone can be this weak a president and so i have to alternatively assume its because he believes he is Left and the the Left just value things spending cuts as a way of creating jobs, or 0% interest to banks which then turn around and sell it back to the government at 4% -- free money on the tax payer dime.

[DontTreadOnMe]

1. He is Center-Right

he panders to Wall St. for re-election money -- all the time.

[lumpy]

19. And has a secret palacial hideaway in the Bahamas.

x

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[CakeGrrl]

3. Yes. Now go back to sleep.

:rofl:

[Tarheel_Dem]

6. >>>>>

:spray:

[dennis4868]

7. HAHA

:bounce:

[Autumn]

4. Center right. n/t

[lumpy]

21. Slowly slipping to the left.

x

[LWolf]

5. Both.

The center has shifted dramatically in my lifetime. Obama would have been right of center at any point.

[lumpy]

22. And somewhere inbetween.

x

[NorthCarolina]

8. Both. Only the political center in DC has shifted right though,

not the country.

[Vincardog]

9. On a 1 being left and 10 being BatShit crazy RW nut job BO is a 7, authoritarian and corporatist

[valerief]

10. He's left-handed. nt

[Hart2008]

11. Obama is now right of center and the center is shifting LEFT! NT

[liberalpragmatist]

12. This is silly

There are plenty of complaints I have with Obama, but you clearly don't follow politics in other countries very much. Most American liberals look to Europe as an inspiration, and it's true that the European welfare state is something I think everyone on this site would aspire to. But Europe has its own problems, and when it comes to spending cuts and austerity measures, Europe actually has us beat. Right now, most of Europe - even the countries governed by the left like Greece and Spain - is engaged in massive austerity (which is why countries like Spain and Greece have unemployment over 20%). And European banks, particularly French and German banks, are significantly less regulated than ours. I think Obama and Geithner's banking policies have been far too lenient, and yet European regulators have been bitching that the Obama Administration is being way too hard on the banks!

The basic differences in politics between the U.S. and Western Europe are these: American politics is well to the left of European politics on issues like immigration, ethnic and religious diversity, freedom of speech, and other civil liberties (although the gap on that front - i.e. 4th Amendment protections - has narrowed quite a bit unfortunately post-9/11). European politics is well to the left of the U.S. in regards to the welfare state, which is largely due to the fact that the mainstream European Right accepts the welfare state. (Also, the European Right isn't always socially liberal - it is in parts of Western and Northern Europe - France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and to an extent Germany and the UK. In many Catholic countries, and in Southern, Eastern, and Central Europe, the European Right is fairly traditional on issues like gay rights and abortion rights.)

In the U.S., that isn't the case. Instead, our major right-wing party basically rejects the welfare state entirely. That means that anyone who is remotely sympathetic to the welfare state is a Democrat, making Democrats a fractious mix of centrists and progressives. Add institutional impediments - checks-and-balances, frequent elections, filibusters - and it becomes very difficult for one party to impose a welfare state on its own. It's no accident that the biggest expansions of the welfare state in American history happened only in short bursts during periods where the Republicans (a) DID accept the welfare state and/or (b) were reduced to near irrelevance in Congress. (Republicans had only about 20% of the seats in Congress when FDR entered, for example.)

I would argue, that insofar as U.S. politics has shifted to the right (at least on economic justice questions), the single-biggest factor is that the Republican Party shifted to the right. Democrats did unfortunately move to the right on financial matters and labor issues (though they also have moved well to the left on social issues compared to where they were in the 1960s), but by far the most significant factor was the GOP abandoning their accommodation with the welfare state which they had during the Eisenhower and Nixon/Ford years.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

15. Wow, a rational, well thought out analysis

:thumbsup:

[Douglas Carpenter]

17. yeah, I think that pretty much sums it up

Traditionally questions of left versus right revolved around economic issues. In the Glory days of the New Deal and the Great Society issues like abortions rights or gay rights were really not on the radar screen and being socially conservative on those matters would have been mainstream among self-identified political liberals. Even the liberal New Deal coalition included southern segregationist and ultra-militarist hawks. I suppose the 60's brought the civil rights movement and then the anti Vietnam War movement followed by a series of social issue movements such as the women's movement and the gay rights movement - thus redefining to a large extent the meaning of the term liberal.

It's hard to imagine now but many self-identified liberals were Republicans up until the 70's. Much of the Great Society such as Medicare and Medicaid, Job Core, VISTA, and numerous other programs passed with Republican votes. Even the food stamp program was largely worked out in committee with the backing of the ranking Republican Bob Dole (who was considered at the time a conservative) working with the committee chairman George McGovern. In 1968 Nelson Rockefeller may very well have won the Republican nomination running as a liberal had he entered the race a few months earlier.

But then the world went crazy - at least the body politic of the United States. The remnants of the 1964 Barry Goldwater movement which had morphed into the emerging Ronald Reagan movement gradually and relentlessly gained control of the Republican Party. At the same time the Democratic Party started to shift away from Keynesian economics and commitment to the welfare state albeit more moderately than the Republicans. By this time questions of right versus left were being less and less defined by economic questions and more and more by social issues. So yes, it is quite correct to say that Obama, Clinton and the current Democratic Party is center-left on social issues and center-right on economic issues. While the Republican Party has continually moved farther and farther to the far right on both.

[OHdem10]

13. Both things have happened. The Rightes operate Right of

the Center of the Republican Party. They operate
so far over, that it makes people like me look like
Lefties. (nothing wrong with Lefties.) Is just that
people who know would not consider myself a Lefty.
But they have pulled everyone right so this means
I am pushed left----left----=-.

Obama specifies he is a pragmatist. Which it seems
he is interested in getting a deal worked out.
He must naturally have rightward lean. Otherwise
he could not accept some of this stuff the Righties
sell. In other words he would be much more willing
to fight for positions that are more in the Center
between the two parties. Just answering the question
not bashing anyone.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

16. Accepting some of the righties' stuff doesn't mean that he has a rightward lean

It's called compromise. The problem with that he's compromising with extremists, not the kind of Republicans whom existed, say, back in the 1980's or earlier but what's he gonna do when he's got a House run by Tea Party maniacs and filibuster-happy Republicans? The only real way for him to be able to accomplish more/move to the left is to get more Democrats back in Congress and/or for the public to put more pressure on the Republicans to cut out their rampant obstructionism. :shrug: I'm not sure that any President in modern history got dealt a worse hand than President Obama and I'm not sure how we get out of this mess. Having a hissy fit and throwing President Obama out next year isn't the answer IMHO, however.

[dmallind]

26. far too sane for Obama discussions here. nt

[jefferson_dem]

14. He's a fascist, easily to the right of the teabaggers.

No question about it.

[lumpy]

18. And at the same time he's is a godforsakin' Pinko Commie

in love with Britney Spears.

[boxman15]

20. The center has shifted to the right over the past 30ish years, but Obama is not center-right.

He's a liberal pragmatist. He'll do what he needs to to get things done. Whether you want purity or compromise is up to you. But to claim he's conservative is absurd.

[lumpy]

23. Yay boxman !!!!!

v

[Jakes Progress]

24. reagan democrat

[dmallind]

25. how, exactly, can he be right of center and in ANY danger at all of losing to a Rep?

The only even vaguely realistic way he loses to a right wing candidate is if he is notably to the left of the majority of the electorate. His critics on DU invariably say he is right wing and will lose to somebody further right. As long as there is ONE left of center voter that is impossible.