center-01

A must read is the newly defined center in Esquire Magazine.  There were some pretty amazing results, starting with what people thought they are vs where they fall in reality.

Here are some highlights from the “cheat sheet:”

The common perception, the hoary conventional wisdom, is that we as a people  are now hopelessly polarized in our culture, our values, and our politics, and  that the Center has shrunk to nothing. This is of course true in Washington.  Much of the energy in the politics since the election of Barack Obama has come  from the far Right, its highly gerrymandered id firmly entrenched in the House  of Representatives. This freebased version of Republicanism isn’t reflective of  broad national feeling, though, and is in fact evidence of politics distorting  reality itself. Just ask Jeb Bush, who recently said that his father and Ronald  Reagan wouldn’t have a place in today’s Republican party.

To bring coherence to this national confusion and find out the truth of where  we stand, Esquire partnered with NBC News to commission a sophisticated  segmentation poll to measure not the stark binary differences tracked by typical  public-opinion polls but rather a fully calibrated range of opinion, across the  vast array of political choices we as Americans now face. To be sure that its  findings were as far removed from the prevailing political interests as  possible, the poll was designed and conducted in ecumenical fashion, by both the  Benenson Strategy Group, President Obama’s pollster, and Neil Newhouse of Public  Opinion Strategies, who conducted the polls for Governor Romney.

What we found is very surprising: Not only is the center not shrinking, but  it is growing, and now actually constitutes approximately 51 percent of the  electorate, spanning the full range of income and geography.

People in this new Center are much calmer about some of the hot-button issues  of today than are the extremes or the population at large — they do not fear the  reach of the federal government, for instance, and don’t think that Washington  is unreasonably coming for our private information or (in the aggregate) our  guns. For the moment, they tend to trust Democrats more than Republicans, and by  big margins they support abortion, gay marriage, and legalizing pot, all classic  examples of if-it-doesn’t-hurt-me-why-should-I-mind issues. At the same time  they are tired of affirmative action, they are wary of granting illegal  immigrants a path to citizenship, and they are inward-looking after a decade of  costly internationalism.

Read more: The New American Center Explained – What Is the New American Center – Esquire Follow us: @Esquiremag on Twitter | Esquire on Facebook Visit us at  Esquire.com

The full article is easy to read and takes 13 categories and puts the results in graphic display.  Please go read the report about the New American Center, and return to Moonhowlings to comment.  Your opinion is important.

My proof:

middle report

35 Thoughts to “The New American Center”

  1. I am part of the 13% left of center strongly defined by live and let live mentality. Of the 8 bricks, I am right next door to the real center, just of the purple left side.

  2. The New Center makes up 51%…larger than the left or the right.

    The left is defined by bleeding heart and gospel. The right is defined by talk radio and evangelical.

    The New Center is not defined by lack of intensity, but by their refusal to be pigeon-holed. It’s going to be hard for politicians to cater to us and let’s face it, the numbers say we will control the elections, not the far right or far left.

  3. BSinVA

    Here is another test to find out where you are in the political spectrum: http://www.politicalcompass.org. Maybe we have already done this but it is worth doing again. I am a leftist libertarian.

  4. Steve Thomas

    BSinVA,

    I took the survey myself, I am 6.88 Right and just inside the libertarian quadrant. While I was a bit skeptical of the wording of the survey questions, I do think it accurately reflects where I stand. I place almost exactly where the survey placed the late, great Milton Friedman. He called himself a “Libertarian with a little “l”, Republican with a big “R”. About sums it up.

    Moon,

    I’d again like to point you to the policy mood study. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2013/09/30/americans-are-more-conservative-than-they-have-been-in-decades/

    What I draw from this is we Americans are never satisfied with the direction of the country. When the government is conservative, the mood shifts to the left. When the government is liberal, the mood shifts to the right. It has shifted to the right economically, and on most social issues, with the exception of same-sex marriage. I think this reflects the rise of the libertarian/conservatives.

    1. Economic Left/Right: -4.88
      Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.62

      Right up there with Ghandi.

      That was too difficult. Sometimes too much thinking was required and I just slapped down an answer. Maybe I don’t really glow in the dark.

    2. I think what also might be driving the study is that liberal vs conservative has changed somewhat during that time span.

      I found the survey where Ghandi and I matched too abstract. I kept thinking of other ways to read the question.

      For example, I have been very outspoken about the mall and the monuments. What if we erased the mostly white faces on Sunday and inserted black or Hispanic faces carrying off those barricades and slamming them down.

      Would there be a change in reaction, especially from men? I am guessing yes.

      I would be equally pissed regardless of who was doing it. I probably would also be less pissed all the action were taking place up at the Supreme Court building or in Lafayette Square rather than at my favorite memorial of all time. I would also be far more pissed over an incident in Yellowstone than at the Wright Bros. National Memorial.

  5. BSinVA

    Moon: We are neighbors. I’m -5.12 for economics and -2.31 on the social scale. @Moon-howler

  6. Steve Thomas

    @Moon-howler

    It would appear that neither of us are “in the middle”. Me, +6.88 Right on economics, -0.51 on Libertarian/Authoritarian… so, if the survey is accurate, you do “glow” on economics, and I am closer to center on the role of government. However, on the Esquire poll, I am a ‘talk radio head” and “not part of the new center”, while a free-market guy, much more libertarian on social issues…so much for surveys.

    1. I found the Ghandi poll to be very difficult for me. I sort of gave up and just slapped down answers, like a kid does on a test when they don’t want to have to think.

      I found the Esquire poll to be a lot easier to take and much less ideological and abstract.

      I came out purple…I guess a minivan mom. Left of center. <----from TV. When I took the test at 6 am I was told I was the 13% with the live and let live attitude. That would very much be me. So I was part of the new center on that one. As a test, I went and re-took it and intensified some of my answers. I came out to be a bleeding heart. So apparently one's intensity that puts us where we land. I am going with my first take on the test. I like being part of the middle. I have never been comfortable with either left or right. I would not have thought you were a talk radio head.

  7. BSinVA

    I took the Esquire survey and ended up in deep left field. Darkest blue on the chart….I am a bleeding heart liberal and ,like Steve, not part of the new center.

  8. Censored bybvbl

    I’m in the dark purple on Esquire’s test and a leftist libertarian on the other (-3 something and -4 something – I didn’t c&p). I agree with Moon about the second test – the choices didn’t jive with my opinions.

    1. Funny though, we ended up pretty much the same on both tests.

      Well…we knew that back in the old blog days, didn’t we?

  9. @BSinVA
    Took the survey.

    3.12 left/right
    .-1.95 Libertarian/authoritarian

    So that puts me in the lower right, about 3 from the center.

    Of course, this is a libertarian survey.

    For the Esquire survey…surprise…I am one of the Talk Radio Heads. Thank God.

    And they have Hitler on the wrong side of the left/right divide. Fascism is a form of socialism. The term should be over to the left. Monarchy/military dictator should be at the top for authoritarianism, not fascism.

    And Thatcher was not an authoritarian. That’s a weird place to put her.

    1. There are many who would disagree with you about fascism. (Like almost every professor I had in college)

      I am shocked you ended up a radio head!!!!! [sarcasm key tapped]

      on the BS survey, I am surprised you are more center than Steve. He was a 6 something.

  10. Steve Thomas

    BSinVA :I took the Esquire survey and ended up in deep left field. Darkest blue on the chart….I am a bleeding heart liberal and ,like Steve, not part of the new center.

    BSinVA,

    I would suspect that any of the regular MH posters would most likely fall on the futher ends of the spectrum on the Esquire survey, mostly because we are quite entrenched in our individual views on issues. So I guess no one can claim to represent the “mainstream”….

    1. I would have guessed that on the esquire survey most of our more liberal regulars would fall into the New Center or the right. So far, I think Censored and I are the only New Center folks. I guess I was wrong. Elena, Moe and BS are bleeding hearts. Of course, I didn’t need the survey to tell me that.
      :mrgreen:

      I am getting the right folk on the right though.

  11. I just posted my “proof.” I stand corrected, I am an MBA middle Rats! That is a male one. arggghhhhhh

  12. from nbcnews.com:51%

    Yes, the center is mostly white (78 percent) but so is most of the American voting public (72 percent) — and the center is changing. Already it contains a fifth of African-American voters, one in two Latino voters, and half the women in America. The center is roomy, or in other words, welcoming.

    I think the politicians ought to be rethinking their tactics. 51% of the voters shouldn’t have to hold their nose and vote.

    I also think that the far right ought to get rid of the idea that anyone to their left is a [loud screech voice} LIBERAL. I think maybe the RINO term ought to go the way of the N word. The litmus test is no longer going to be important.

    While far left folks can be very strident and somewhat condescending to those not espousing their beliefs, I don’t feel they are as vicious and judgemental as far right. I don’t see the meanness.

    Hopefully this survey will help redefine a few things. I would like to see a third party form. Something along the lines of donkey elephants or elephant donkeys. I hope that Cruz and company will become an afterthought.

  13. Rick Bentley

    -2.62 left/right
    -1.49 libertarian/authoritarian

  14. Ah…another Ghandi. Welcome aboard, toga’ed one.

    Rick, where do you stand on the Esquire poll?

    Funny we haven’t seen any -,+ people. Or +,+ for that matter.

    Everyone has been -.- or +,-.

  15. Rick Bentley

    Who’s an authoritarian in this day and age? A dying breed, surely.

    The Esquire story has the ring of truth to me. It seems to me that a lot of “the center” are people like me who at any point identify one way or the other, but who actually swing back and forth a bit in life. In the last 7 years I’ve swung back and forth more than a bisexual sailor on shore leave. And I’m back where I started – not really liberal, but aghast at conservative behavior and conservative lack of self-awareness.

    1. I tried to be an authoritarian but no one would listen.

      I just found this book while looking around at Esquire:

      Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free

      It would really be right up your alley for a good reading laugh.

      For other consideration:

      http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/republicans-using-wwii-vets-for-political-agenda-101413

      My favorite part is Princess Dumbass

      Enjoy!!!

  16. Frank Johnson

    0.0,-2.0 The definition of a centrist.

    1. That’s what I would call a bulls eye!

  17. Emma

    Economic -5.25
    Liberal/Authoritarian -2.46

    A left libertarian. What’s happening to me???? Damned pro gay marriage, that’s what’s doing me in.

    1. Elena will ply you with gray goose.

    2. I went with the civil liberties question about gay marriage. I actually thought those two questions were very much alike.

  18. Carlos Danger

    Interesting fact nobody is talking about in this poll of the new American center… 75% oppose a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

    1. That’s not what my math tells me. Also, there is a difference between citizenship an deportation. Lots of wiggle room in between.

      Carlos, are you in the New American center?

  19. Frank Johnson

    Funny. I’ve been called far worse!

  20. @Moon-howler
    Well, Mussolini himself was a socialist. He then moved on and invented fascism because the socialists weren’t “doing” anything. He saw that communism would never unite the Italians…as it disregarded a unifying element except for “workers.” Socialism wasn’t “active” enough and was closely allied with the communists. So, he developed fascism…..changing the emphasis to a national identity instead of the INTER-national identity of socialism and communism.

    Fascism was quite popular with the progressive movement, especially during the 20’s and 30’s.

    Many leftists…which includes much of academia, will ignore the history of the fascism and progressivism and their close relationship.

    1. Actually, when I was in college there weren’t a lot of leftist professors where I went. Some but not many. I don’t really see what difference it makes. All those terms end up being very abstract when applied to situations.

      I think people are more free today to ascribe to whatever political philosophy than they were then. Maybe The older ones were afraid of the lingering effects of McCarthyism. Most of them seemed pretty old, at least to me then.

  21. I posted this in the wrong thread somehow…so I’m reposting here.

    The 2012 election

    http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2012

    Apparently Obama is a right wing nut job, just to the left of the almost tyrannical Mitt Romney.

    And Virgil Goode is at about the same level of authoritarianism as Hitler. He’s above Bashar Assad. Even the POPE…who IS a monarch.
    Really?

  22. Watching

    Economic Left/Right: -3.50
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.87

    In the dark blue, far left in the Esquire survey. I am apparently not part of the new center.

    Too much NPR.

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