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

[helonias]

Well I just think we ae a lazy, dumb arse nation

[Bitsko]

I am thoroughly convinced of this fact.

[helonias]

Soooooooooooo we are a center right nation who elected elected a liberal socialist, overwhelmingly.

Jesus is happy

[kellygrrrl]

what comes as a shock to the GOP is that Americans have suddenly decided that Intellectualism maybe isn't all that bad

[Bocado]

lol

[BabsfromKansas]

Obama's books are back on the bestseller list

[CommentSense]

Nice...

[dartagnan]

Well, we tried "stupid and pigheaded" for eight years and it didn't work out so well.

[canucklivinginUSA]

Center-right, center-left, that meme is getting old. How about we are in the merde and we need compentency to get out of it. Seriously, you Americans are nowhere near the Left that you fantasize of

[canucklivinginUSA]

This comment has nothing to do with this article but more with your dissent against Obama's picks so far. You(David) and your ilk have irritated me to no end. This content bashing against moderate/centrist(some of whom are socially liberal), has grown tiresome. You people seem to forget that it was a coalition of dissatisfied Republicans, independents, moderate, and liberals who voted for him, unless you promptly forgot. This narrative from you people that he is against you because of his pick is hogwash. Move on

[PHM]

Bless you! Well said! Bravo!

The people complaining about Obama now just didn't listen to him during the campaign and obviously didn't read his policy statements.

How can they be surprised now? What they need to do is get over themselves and get behind their President. He will need all the support he can get if we're going to survive as a nation in the coming years.

[majorteddy]

Obama is a practical man and doesn't worry about left-right like these mental midgets. Left-right is important only if you are marching. Obama seeks practical solutions, whatever is needed that works.

[canucklivinginUSA]

That is the reason why I support him. Unfortunately, a lot of people from either side of the spectrum, so entrenched in their ideology, are more content to repeat these memes

[dartagnan]

Absolutely. Having principles is fine, but being blinded by ideology is not, whether it's left or right. One reason (in addition to being a lying corrupt moronic incompetent sociopath) that Bush got into trouble was that his rigid right-wing ideology blinded him.

[dramaunfolding]

Perhaps the nation, like myself, felt the country went too far in one direction and needs to correct. It's all good.

[StillIRise]

And the only way we can correct ourselves is with balance, which is with a centrist government, leaning not to either extreme, but governing in the interests of America ... ALL of us. This, I believe, is what President-Elect Obama will do, and I appreciate it.

[canucklivinginUSA]

Thank Still, nicely said. But don't say that to Sirota and Chris Hayes, they will throw tomatoes at you

[3dtrix]

And where exactly is this mythical "center"? Is it not constantly in motion and presently hot-footing to the left?

[kellygrrrl]

the new narrative:
Obama is going to shut down rightwing radio!
it is almost comical to hear them all spin this one ...

[Giada]

The few sites I've visited state as a nation we are barely right of Centrist in beliefs, yet how America voted was a contradiction.

Show me a Rupublican who doesn't use the folllowing ....and I'll listen, "conservative values, family values, god, us vs them .... I'm waiting and moving forward.

[StillIRise]

The Change that Obama spoke of, and that the Republicans are even now still deriding, is perhaps manifesting itself, albeit unintentionally, more in the Republican Party than anywhere else. Since Obma's debut into the political arena, his campaign and now his election, the Republicans are experiencing more change than they'd like to admit. The most consequential change is the change in the way they are now perceived by most Americans and their inability to brainwash us with their strategies of fear-mongering, fact-twisting and talking points, which they believe if they repeat often enough, it becomes a reality. When I first heard them talk about "center-right," the night of the election, I knew then what they were trying to do. They wanted to believe, and wanted the electorate to believe, that they were still relevant, in spite of the outcome of the election that dispelled this myth. Now that Obama is forming a credible and powerful cabinet, they want to diminish it by saying it's too "Clinton-esque," to disguise their disappointment that he didn't bring into his cabinet the Marxists, radicals, black militants and partisan ideologues that they predicted with their lies and smears in all the months leading to the election. Americans now see the Republicans for who they are, and the Republicans are being forced to see themselves for who they are not. Change we can believe in is happening right before our eyes!

[kellygrrrl]

and Obama doesn't have to lift a finger as the GOP dismantles itself

[KISSman]

When you get crushed at the polls for the past two election cycles and your party has barely any power left in Washington, what else can you say? The GOP resorts to doing what it does best: LIE and stay on message about that lie.

[Sioen]

By nearly any measure you might use, we are clearly a center-left nation.

Look at surveys of Americans: Most agree with abortion rights, gay rights, environmentalism and social justice issues. We're making progress on the death penalty.

On economic issues, most want a host of government services and support funding a fair-sized bureaucracy to carry those services out.

Looking at actual elections, we've become more Democratic at all levels in the past four years. And even in the past 16 years, the nation was split down the middle on elected officials, while other indicators showed us slightly to the left of that.

This entire meme is such a crock. No wonder when you challenge the fringe righties on it, they shut up. It's because, as with most of their bankrupt ideas, they have no actual facts to back it up with. It's just what they wish really hard were true.

[Excitedforfuture]

What the republicans don't ever want to admit is that America is progressive. It's why slavery was outlawed, it's why women and blacks were given equal rights to white men, it's why gay people will soon have the right to marry! America is progressive which means it is center left!!! Deal with it!

[StillIRise]

The Republicans/conservatives also made the word "liberal" a pejorative, and convinced even some liberals that it was a bad word. Although I appreciate the use of "progressive," even for myself, I think we call ourselves progressive to distinguish ourselves from the connotations that the conservatives ascribed to "liberal."

We now have an opportunity to reclaim our democracy ... and to reclaim our language.

[kellygrrrl]

one must possess some grasp of reality in order to deal with reality

[SouthFloridaDem]

The "center-right nation" narrative is another Karl Rove lie, just like "the country is more conservative than you think" narrative from eight years ago. They repeat it over and over again, enabled by the MSM, until people believe it as fact. Each time this is mentioned, Dems must counteract it with real facts, real data, such as that from the election that indicate this is actually a center-left nation. Repeat and repeat over and over until people believe the truth.

[Emlyn]

I am so tired of the Republican comments, I could scream. I wish they would all find a hole somewhere and jump in it. Take Mooseburger with them.

[rockyb26]

all the left wing blogs should come together to start a progressive press corps. collect donations "(a la Obama) to raise funds and start educating the people again on tv and in print.

[dramaunfolding]

It's called CBS, NBC, ABC,CNN all print media. What the hell else do you want?

[Chazzam]

You're funny. The networks are NOT left-wing.

[canucklivinginUSA]

GIve me a break, the left wing blogs are doing the opposite and repeating that center-left meme. I vote for America has finally embrace realism for a change

[justchill]

pure boolsheet