What does "the country is center right" mean to you?

It seems pretty self explanatory. To consider everyone’s myriad views about the trivial differences would take forever lol. To me, it means that a particular country is well…..moderately conservative based. I don’t have the time or motivation to explain my feelings on each topic though, sorry. I don’t affiliate myself with a party, but I tend to have democratic and liberal views, I’m from the Northwest, but I live in NJ.

I don’t know how anyone can be in the middle. The middle (to the right or left) is for a bunch of undecided sheep who are too afraid or too ignorant to decide either way. These are the people who waver back and forth depending upon who is telling them what to do at the time. They have no real convictions.

@tinyfaery I respectfully disagree. Is this similar to people saying agnostics are afraid sheep? ‘Picking a side’ isn’t something one has to do. Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with changing ones mind to progress with the changing society/times.

The fact that the predominant political philosophy here has moved far into what used to be considered fringe territory back in the ‘60s means that “Center Right” actually means “Far Right.” In the early 1970’s Nixon proposed price controls. In 1963, Barry Goldwater, then considered an extreme right winger, proposed the decriminalization of both marijuana and homosexual activity. Neither of those two “right wingers” could get the OK even to run for office on the Republican ticket today – those ideas no longer pass the litmus test.

Fence sitters are just that, sitters. They never get off the fence. And don’t get me started about agnostics, even though I call myself one.

Once again, the word “agnostic” is being misused. http://www.fluther.com/disc/71298/whats-your-opinion-on-atheism/#quip1095987

I kind of feel like Republicans keep using the term center right as a way of convincing us it is true. It is like an advertising caompaign to me. Say it enough and people will start to believe it. I think they leave it up to the person to decide if they will identify with the supposed masses or not.

It means that the Democrats can’t get their act together enough to push any type of consistent messaging through the media.

I also think right wingers don’t want to be called that so they like the idea of being center right, and the republicans who are disgusted with their party can feel good too with that term.

@JLeslie – you probably already know where I am on the political scale and where I stand on most of these issues. The idea that the US is center right is based on a comparison between other countries. In much of Europe, what is considered to be “conservative” would be more liberal than some of our most liberal politicians. That’s the essence of what it means.

There’s a test somewhere on line that shows political views on two axes, the left right axis is the communism on the far left and capitalism on the far right, and the up down axis is authoritarianism on the top and anarchism on the bottom. Centrist would be half way between on both of these scales, but we look at the enitre spectrum of Democrats and Republicans in this country, and they all end up towards the center of the upper right quadrant…more capitalist, less about sharing the wealth, and more about rules, less about social freedoms. So even our most liberal elected leaders when you measure based on pure ideology are more into allowing the market forces to decide on economics and less about equalization via government means, and are more about controlling what we do socially than they are about letting people make their own decisions. When you look at where American leaders of the past fall (all in a very limited space towards the center of the upper right quadrant), and where political leaders in other countries fall, we’re basically a center-right country ideologically…our range of political though from the most liberal to the most conservative is still in terms of pure definition of liberalism/conservatism, is to the right of center.

@dalepetrie Interesting. I was thinking it means fiscally conservative, but socially liberal, but if you are right, I am wrong about that assumption. You are saying on all topics these center right people are near the center in the right upper quadrant. Got it.

Yep, as a nation we are to the right on both social and economic issues in comparison to the actual center and in comparison to most of the other industrialized nations. Not the true liberals per se, but the most liberal people in power.

I consider myself to be very liberal, and I live in the blue (Democrat) (but apparently changing) portion of California. To me, the center of anything is right down the middle. Since this is Center right, that would mean they are talking about people who are middle roaders on the right side of the political divide called left-right (liberal-conservative)(Democrat-Republican).

The conservative view is currently held by the highest number of people, but it isn’t the radical conservative the so-called far right would be. Personally, I believe that only the people trying to exert the most power are the ones that hold the reported views, and the vast majority of the rest of us do not.

I consider myself a moderate.

- deficit Republicans caused it, and Democrats will do nothing to stop it. I hate it.
– healthcare Republicans want everyone to pay their own way. Democrats want it free for everyone, even if it costs. I don’t like the Demo concession plan.
– abortion Republicans oppose it, but ignore those poor who weren’t aborted. Democrats demand right to choose, up to birth. I would like to see limitations, except when a mother’s life is at stake.
– gay marriage Repubs oppose, saying it destroys the sanctity of marriage, yet they don’t oppose divorce. Dems are split on the issue. I feel it is a right they should have.
– immigration Repubs want to close the borders. Dems want to allow a path to citizenship for illegals. I think we should have a system for work permits, with a path to citizenship.
– prayer in school Repubs want spoken prayer. Dems are split. I don’t mind a moment of silence.
– separation of church and state Repubs don’t want it. Dems demand it. I don’t think either side understands it. It is supposed to mean that the government doesn’t endorse or support any religion, but there is nothing wrong with the display of a Christmas Tree or a Star of David at Christmas.

A preface to a propaganda statement.

The statement is an opinion.

Without good operational definitions and large representative sampling using a well validated measure of political attitudes and beliefs, the measure of central tendency of a construct like political position is meaningless.

It is no more true or false than any other non-empirical assessment of a poorly defined construct.

In other words, it is total crap!
As such, the implications of the statement are also meaningless.