Perhaps I'm not making myself clear. People spend a lot of time talking about "the center" without really defining it. You seem to be defining the center as something that is to the left of the very right and to the right of the very left, though because you are a breed of conservative yourself, you more often define it in terms of the right. Which is quite understandable.
My point there is that what is that the positions "on the right" and "on the left" are usually defined by a quite small number of people. Think of a bell curve. In a perfect binomial distribution you'd have the left and the right defined by less than 1% of the population and far distant from the bulk of the curve which would be equidistant from the extremes and comprise about 2/3rds of the population. But normal distributions aren't necessarily centered equidistant between the extremes. Take any issue and you can plot some of the extreme endpoints right and left. That doesn't mean that the weighted center, the big bump in the curve, is half way between the extreme endpoints though. Popular opinion on issues tends to change with time, even when the extreme endpoints stay roughly the same. Take gays in the military for instance. The extreme points of view on the situation range from allowing all homosexuals in all situations in the military with no exceptions or special thought. The extreme on the other end is not allowing homosexuals in the military period, end of discussion. Fifty years ago the big part of that bell curve would have been far closer to the right, "no gays in the military" end of the graph. That's where the weighted center lay. These days that big curve has shifted significantly to the left, beyond equidistant, closer to the other end point. Not all the way there of course and probably not as close to the left now as it was to the right 50 years ago. If you defined "the center" in terms of those end points, we'd say that the center hasn't moved at all. But that's the flaw in doing it that way. Because the center is a moving weighted average that comprises the bulk of the people and their evolving thinking. Left and Right are not immutable, unchanging things. So when you say that Obama is extreme left, I would argue that you are basing your judgment on a incorrect view of left and right. He may be far from the "centrist" position on a handful of issues perhaps (I don't know that I'd agree but it could be argued). Most of the major issues though, he seems to be close to "the center" or just to the left of "the center" as defined by the prevailing opinion of the American electorate. And that's why Obama is running equal to or ahead of McCain. If he really was as extreme as you seem to argue, then people wouldn't agree with him and they wouldn't vote for him. That's how the system tends to work. Anyway, hope that clears up my views on the matter. Cheers, Judah On Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 9:12 AM, Sam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 5:24 PM, Judah McAuley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> There is a major flaw in your thinking here. > > Maybe, maybe not. > >> I'd be willing to agree >> that McCain is to the left of many (most even? I don't know) >> conservatives. But it is wrong to define the bulk of the political >> landscape in terms of the very fringes. > > I don't remember doing that. > >> By that same argument you >> could say that Obama is far to the right of lot of liberals. > > He said himself no compromise and no appeasing the right wing, it > looks like he's referring to most republicans as right-wing, and usher > in a new progressive era. > I think of progressives as the far left, if so Obama called himself > far left so you're thinking is flawed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:277913 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
