Study: "Center-Right Nation" Narrative Spiked Immediately After Election Day

OurFuture.org:

When I wrote my first column about the "center-right nation" and subsequently launched the "Center-Right Nation Watch" series on this blog I predicted that the news media would actually increase its usage of this term after Obama won. I did a Lexis-Nexis search of the term, and was the first to note the trend and make the prediction that "if Obama wins, expect more frantic talk from the fringe about how electing a black man billed as an Islamic Karl Marx obviously means our country is more conservative than ever."

Feeling like I was out on a limb (and remember, this was almost 2 weeks before a group of major progressive pundits belatedly started writing about the trend), I asked a friend out here in Denver who works with a company called Trendrr to officially track whether my prediction was right - and you can see from the results above, it was - more so than I ever expected.

Read the whole story: OurFuture.org

Comments

[OCaptainMercaptan]

Duh.

[Beachchick]

I have to wonder if the Fox pundits and conservative talk radio heads define themselves as center right.

Since the election, the Fox Republican talking points seem to be trending even further to the right not towards the center. Fox is increasingly catering to evangelical Christians. It’s safe to assume that the Religious Right and extreme social conservatism will define the Republican Party for the next four years.

I find it disturbing to see an increasingly hostile and intolerant group given political legitimacy during this economic collapse.

[bubbuh]

Nu, they define themselves as "always right."

[livesimply]

How about the Newsweek cover article the last week in Oct.: "America the Conservative?" I also found the Nov. 10th issue with the baby turning a flag colored bottle upside down finding it empty very offensive. AS IF it wasn't our tax money that goes into the (our) government! For some reason, even Newsweek is compelled to keep that blather going.

[NWBrunette]

This is the biggest well-duh story of the week. Was their someone in America (outside Appalachia) who didn't realize this the day after the election? It's nothing more than the right-wing using the media to try to save whatever little fragment of power they think they might have left. Yawn.

[lookingAhead]

That the liberal media for you. I'm sick of "if you repeat it enough it's true". If it weren't for the internet this country would really be stupid on any real news. I'm hoping for a Change in this big consolidation of news maybe now WE will have a voice in OUR airwaves again.

[BeasleysMom]

How far right is center right and how far left is center left? Who decides? How do we know when you are right of center or left of center? Doesn't this all seem just a little bit crazy?

[StillIRise]

It IS rather silly, isn't it?

[bubbuh]

It all depends on whetjer you're doing the Hokey-Pokey or the Time Warp.

[Rog49Thomas]

when one loses at the polls, one tries to win in the press

[Gnrshrtd]

I'd like to see Nate Silver's take on this. Ideological claims sans data to support them don't impress me. Show me the bell curve.

[stanjz]

The FCC is facade of a regulatory entity. The corporate media and the investment class have been waging a propaganda war on the working class for as long as I can remember.

Notice how the media never refers to Democrats as progressives? It's always liberals. The only thing conservative about the Republican Party is their desire to conserve the wealth of their super rich constitiuents. All of the major banking problems in this country seem to occur on their watch and because of their policies. We get attacked and were dealt a horrible blow to NYC and the Pentagon on 9/11 on their watch. Almost the entire National Debt occurs from Reagan, Bush one and Bush two.

[ajax2]

Thank you David for documenting the right wing media drive to minimize the election results with it's 'Center Right' propaganda. There is no equivalent agenda from progressives, and none is needed. The election results speak for themselves. Painting an inaccurate picture of someone's political position has consequences. I'm sure many citizens of Connecticut rue their vote for Joe Lieberman who was painted as a Centrist, in spite of his support for GW Bush, torture, and wars of aggression, all crimes.

Thank you David

[Tiradrex]

The Repugnants.....

Once again, think by talking the loudest and the most, they can change reality.

No...its Center-Left ....I repeat Center-Left.

[westcoastsc]

They did! But they just went to that well a few times too many.

[JNo]

Excellent posting & research by David Sirota, again documenting the rabid bias of "talk-radio", Fox, CNN et al. Hard-core data. Irrefutable. Thanks, David.

[Ramirez]

We just elected a president who promised tax cuts, voted in support of FISA, has promised to increase the size of our military and escalate the war in Afghanistan and has pledged to cut spending. Our new president is a strong Christian who will support faith-based funding and he will protect our Second Amendment rights.

I don't know if we are "center-left" or "center-right", but when a Democrat has to promise tax cuts in order to get elected it means the Republican philosophy has won.

[QuinnIsIrish]

What a ridiculous statement.

[robeson]

Thank you.

[dsbsh]

It's not ridiculous; it's just creative thinking. Jamison Foser says it best::

"On Tuesday, Americans chose as their next president an African-American named Barack Obama who campaigned on a near-universal health-care plan, allowing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire, and a move away from the belligerent foreign policy of the past eight years. Republicans, and some journalists, had spent months (falsely) saying Obama is the single most liberal member of the U.S. Senate -- and maybe even a socialist. The American people responded by electing him in a landslide.

This, naturally, is very good news for the Republicans, according to many pundits. It proves once again that America remains a "center-right" nation.

Right about now, you're probably scratching your head, wondering how the election of the "most liberal" member of the Senate, a man who campaigned on a promise of near-universal health care, could possibly be described as evidence of a conservative country.

To be sure, it requires some creative thinking."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200811070012?f=s_search

[JNo]

this is a delusional and distorted posting. To even remotely imply that the repudiation of neo-con Republicanism (for the 3rd election cycle in a row) is a win for Republican philosophy is maniacal.

[westcoastsc]

You forgot about the tax increases as well. The rich have so much enjoyed these years of voodoo economics, acquiring wealth in stupendous amounts while the middle class actually lost wealth. After all the middle class has gone through it would be unfair to press them to give more. About FISA, after Bush administration was discovered wiretapping without warrants and, even more scar ily, without record of whom they were listening to and nobody to answer to. At least FISA provides records of who they are wiretapping that we did not have before. Call me a con sp ir acy theorist, but seeing their past actions of lying and staging events until no end, I believe if Obama had not supported it, this nefarious government would have staged or let happen another event and would have blamed it on the democrats and a lot of people would have bought it. I am certain that the a n t h r a x thing came from the top and it was so fast on the heels of 9 1 1. Didn't it seems strange that they had all that legislation to increase powers written out so quickly, ready to ram it with 10,000 pounds of fear right down their throats. He did not say anything about increasing the size of our military, except for in Afganistan, and removals in Iraq for balance.

[AKAchip]

Ramirez- Your illogical post just proves the point. You Repugs think if you say it enough and loudly enough, it will become reality. NOT!! The election of Obama proves this country is center- LEFT. As Westcoastsc states, Obama will increase taxes on the rich. Finally someone is looking out for the middle class because the Repugs certainly don't. Reagan was wrong about trickle down economics!! Obama has not talked of increasing the military at all. Stop being so obvious. No one is falling for the Repug lies.

[StillIRise]

There's a big difference between:

1. Cutting taxes for the wealthiest, and providing tax relief for the middle class;
2. Misusing FISA to abuse the Constitution, and supporting FISA within the legal context for which it was intended;
3. Escalating our troop forces in Afghanistan because you've virtually ignored and neglected it for the last seven years, and escalating the war in Afghanistan because you have the wisdom to recognize, as is the consensus of our military experts, that Afghanistan is indeed the central front of the war on terrorism;
4. A strong Christian whose faith-based funding focused on primarily Christian organizations and was no more than a political strategy to appease fundamentalists, and a strong Christian who will fund both religious and secular organizations that provide to those in need, making no difference between the religions and with neither a political nor a religious proselytizing motive in mind;
5. Recklessly protecting our Second Amendment rights with no conditions, and reasonably protecting our Second Amendment rights in a way that will also seek to protect the lives of our inner-city youth and first responders who are being killed by users of assault weapons on a daily basis.

Nothing Obama proposes is based on Republican philosophy. To the contrary, it is antithetical to everything the Republicans espouse. No matter how you try to twist it, the Republican philosophy has been rejected, and you lost both the election and the spin.

[westcoastsc]

Right and left stuff is s t u p i d talk. Can we get our language back from these labeling people who can't think in complicated terms? Everything is comparison. This is good and that is bad. Don't fall for it. Center right as compared to what? S t u p i d talk. These people can't even define liberal, conservative, democrat, or republican. They drum out things in unison and in a derisive way so people begin to associate bad things with their labeling terms. Don't let them label you. Look in the dictionary. Find out what the words mean and label yourself.

[westcoastsc]

Isn't pro pa gan da illegal? Isn't this proof enough?