Everyone thinks the country is moving politically away from them.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve noticed that liberals are convinced that America is moving to the right, and conservatives are convinced that America is moving to the left.

The reason for this, of course, is simply perspective: To someone on the left, everyone else (including centrists) appears to be right; to someone on the right, everyone else (including centrists) appears to be left.

Compounding this is negativity bias - conservatives focus on victories won by liberals, and are convinced that America is moving leftward. Liberals focus on victories won by conservatives, and are convinced that America is moving rightward.

For the purpose of this poll, I’m only listing “conservative” or “liberal” as options, to keep it simple, because almost all independents/moderates are slightly liberal or conservative.

2

I’m generally on the liberal side, and I think on most issues the country is coming closer to my view. Especially on social issues, but even on economic issues – I think the minimum wage, for example, is likely to increase with the next president.

3

Yeah. I think most countries inevitably move further and further left. It’s history.

4

I agree. But, I think (perhaps as a result of this) there is a sizable minority moving loudly and sharply to the right.

5

I don’t think America is moving in either direction; it’s just that the extremists get all the press.

6

I’m a liberal, and I think that while most of the country (excluding the Fox News 27%) is moving gradually leftward, the politics of this country is still moving rightward.

This latter phenomenon is because (to steal from Yeats) the Democratic Party lacks all conviction, while the wingnuts are full of passionate intensity. This is assisted by the fact that money talks (and its right to free speech is now Constitutionally protected), and a press that feels obligated to pretend that any political problems are equally the fault of both parties.

7

There is definitely a back and forth swing between liberal and conservative sentiment in the US. You can just look at political history and see it. Republicans have the upper hand, then they screw things up, and then the Democrats get the upper hand, and then they screw things up, so the Republicans get another chance, and they screw things up, so the Democrats get another chance, and they. . . on and on. . . we’re in the “Democrats are screwing things up” portion of the cycle right now. The Republican’s will get their chance to screw things up soon, after 2014 and 2016. So, most movement is to the right.

8

Ding ding ding. We have a winner.

9

This is what I was going to say. There was no provision for this in the poll, so I didn’t vote.

10

I am liberal and I think America is moving toward some idiotic compromise, in which everyone will be losers in one form or another, because there won’t be any values of and for themselves resting on the merit of the value. And the values will be enforced more and more by a police state.

11

The supposition is actually correct. Like the universe or a gas, we are all moving away from each other, and the perception is thus that everyone is moving away from us. Eventually there will be 350 million states. Did you see some problem with this?

(Particularization is the greatest sociopolitical fault of the last half-century or so. The notion that populations can only be happy or stable if they are self-selected identicals is pernicious nonsense.)

12

I’m a liberal (mostly), and I think conservatives are moving to the right.