(I found I'm not the first to use this obvious rhyme.)
#1 Hannity Insanity: Obama isn't a good fit for the U.S. because its center-right and Obama is far left.
Why Hannity's Insane: The U.S. is in economic decline precisely because its been center right. And Obama is well to the right of true center continuing "free trade", with far right advisors, and bank bailouts with virtually no strings attached.
Hannity, on his July 1 radio program, was talking about how Obama is so "leftist" in a nation that isn't. It went something like this ... greatly paraphrased.
Obama ran as a moderate, but he's governing from the far left. Doesn't he know this is a center-right nation? He's being a far-left socialist, but that doesn't fit the nation.
Hannity is correct on one point. The politics of this country is center-right. Here's a chart from The Political Compass before the last election (it's also at the section on Capitalism, Socialism, & Dictatorship). I added the Communist & Fascist Dictatorship labels.
 |
| The Political Spectrum - Dictatorship on the Authoritarian Left and Right |
Note where the candidates are: Democrats well to the economic "right" and Republicans on the far "right" ... essentially under the thrall of anti-government, libertarian ideology.
Clinton, characterized by the "right" as a liberal, governed well to the right. Far-right economic conservative (read libertarian) Alan Greenspan, replied to the question, "About how much would you say you agreed with him [Clinton]? ALAN GREENSPAN: "On economic issues, I would say probably 80%."
Case closed, Clinton was a right winger on economics. Examples: NAFTA (passed only with massive Republican support, most Democrats opposed it ... see The NAFTA Nemesis on the results), the creation and expansion of the World Trade Organization, banking deregulation (1999 abolition of the Glass-Steagall Act) by way of the the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allowing financial institutions to get “too big to fail” and take on risks that contributed to the current economic crisis, and telecommunications deregulation (1996 Telecom Act) that continued the historic industry consolidation begun by Reagan that reduced the number of major media companies from around 50 in 1983 to 10 in 1996 and 6 in 2005. Way to go right-wingers!
Related note 11/28/09: Is Obama Following in the Footsteps of Bill Clinton? By Jeff Cohen, AlterNet. 11/26/09. Obama's shown a Clinton-like willingness to roll over progressives to enact corrupt legislation and compromise for the votes of Republicans.
Take the test to see where you stand compared to those you support.
With a total lack of cognitive dissonance, Hannity complains that liberals have destroyed America, even as he recognizes that the nation's politicians are and have been "center-right."
The fact is that the nation is in the midst of economic collapse exactly because it's been governed from the "right." That's the root of every major economic problem: see Invisible Hand Drops Ball & Economics 101. The result of ignoring natural law is economic failure.
Unfortunately, because Obama's governing too far to the right, his stimulus will fail, so right-wing Obama-haters and America-haters can join hands and rejoice together.
Below is a later revision of the chart. Note Gravel's shift to the extreme economic "right" as he moved to the Libertarian Party.
 |
| Politicians in the 2008 primary. Most are well to the "right" |
What's called "centrist" in the U.S. is about halfway between the true center and the right ... and authoritarian, as well. Here's The Political Compass on what's the center:
The timeless universal centre should not be confused with merely the present national average. The former is far more meaningful and informative.
The Political Compass explains the dimensions of their charts:
Firstly, a few words about popular political terms.
Once you accept that left and right are merely measures of economic position, the "extreme right" refers to extremely liberal economics that may be practised by social authoritarians or social libertarians.
Similarly, the "extreme left" identifies a strong degree of state economic control, which may also be accompanied by liberal or authoritarian social policies. ...
Voter turnout is highest when ideological differences are most significant. This helps explain why the voter turnout is lower in the US than in all other western democracies , most of which have a multiplicity of parties and proportional representation.
#2 Hannity Insanity: Coming as soon as I have the stomach to listen to more.
Printer page
Email article
Top of Page