Here’s an empirical illustration of how the two major political parties have diverged over the last forty years. The graph above, from Americans for Democratic Action, shows how their ratings for members of the House and Senate have changed over the years.
Doesn’t this chart suggest that Democrats have become far more liberal than Republicans have become conservative? From about ’79 to ’10, Democrats became about 35 points more liberal, while Republicans became about 20 points more conservative.
If this seems counterintuitive, perhaps its because the votes haven’t been successful. The numbers represent votes by backbenchers that are important ideologically, not practically.
PD,
Or maybe the ADA changed, or both.
In practical terms what happened is that white Southern conservatives abandoned the Democratic Party and became Republicans. That had some effect on the Republicans but a profound effect on the Democrats.
It reminds me of the old joke (remember: I’m from Missouri) about the guy who moved from Missouri to Arkansas and raised the average IQ of both states.
The American Conservatives Union web site forms an interesting counterpoint to the ADA’s. It roughly supports the view I’ve been advancing.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t include a handy historical graph like the one above.
For some reason I couldn’t penetrate the ACU website, so this comment is perhaps somewhat in a vacuum.
However, I had the exact same reaction as PD when I saw the graph above, and it did not surprise me in the least. I’m not that familiar with ADA, but it’s obviously some index of voting record or position. I acknowledge the rise of the social conservatives (read: religious conservatives) in the Republican Party, and as a member of that party closer to the libertarian wing, I do find it troubling.
However, despite all the pure bull about how the right has gone far right, it’s the left that has gone far, far left, and totally lost their minds.
Other than abortion, for which I can see principled arguments on both sides, and homosexual marriage, for which I just yawn, I just don’t see the far right swing in the Republican Party. But with liberals, er, “progressives” (what a load of crap) there seems to be no bounds to interference in personal behavior (Big Gulp anyone) or taxation or government spending and general intrusion of government into the private sector and people lives. These people consider themselves superior beings who should be able to tell everyone what to do.
A few years ago I made a wisecrack during a “help the poor” debate that it was only a matter of time until government funded cell phones would become a right. Safety, you know. Of course I was castigated royally as a nut because only food, clothing and shelter were the objectives of the left. “caring.” Yeah, right. since everyone here is obviously a political junkie I’m sure you know that various proposals for cell phone subsidies have his legislative bodies. Liberals have no bounds. It’s they who have gone nuts.
Hit. Not his
Americans for Democratic Action is one of the oldest liberal/progressive advocacy groups. Some of its founding members were:
Hubert Humphrey
John Kenneth Galbraith
Joseph P. Lash
Walter Reuther
Eleanor Roosevelt
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
It’s been rating Congressional voting records to promote the election of liberal/progressive legislators for more than 60 years.
So, 1968 was centrist Nirvana? Maybe that’s because I was born that year. 😉
Drew,
FWIW, I think the right has moved significantly further right, especially on social issues. I think the GoP is more corporatist as well, despite the “small business” rhetoric. GoP foreign policy lost its realist roots and is in thrall to the neocons. Sure the big gulp nanny-state is annoying, but it’s conservatives who are willing to spend eight years and a SCOTUS fight trying to punish CBS for showing a glimpse of a tassled nipple is a lot worse. Etc.
Drew is talking local politics while the chart is looking at national. Big Gulp is at the local level, but it gets Big Press on the right. Andy is correct about foreign policy. The current GOP is nothing like the GOP I grew up with and was comfortable with. Wars of aggression, total unconditional support for other nations and torture. From Reagan signing the treaty against it to whole scale embracing of it.
On the domestic front, how can you vote for a budget that requires raising the debt ceiling, then vote against raising the debt ceiling? That was a new one. When have we ever had something like the Norquist pledge? The social issues are also troubling at the national level, but they are even worse at the local level. The anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant rhetoric. Refusing $1 of revenue increases for $10 of spending cuts. I, along with several other docs, meet with our local GOP congressman once or twice a year. Even he calls them nuts.
Steve
Wars of aggression, total unconditional support for other nations and torture.
Rendition was embraced by the Clinton Administration. Clinton decided to bomb hell out of Yugoslavia and get involved in Haiti. Obama favors assassination instead, and has been quite willing to destabilize countries for no good reason. (Explain to me how a pliant Egyptian regime being replaced by radical Islamists is a good thing?)
In other words, the Republicans have adopted the Democratic party’s foreign policy approach. I hardly see how that makes the Republicans villians and you Democrats saintly creatures above all criticism. Rendition, assassination and botched nation building by Democratic Presidents? GREAT, give ’em a Nobel Peace Prize for being inspirational sociopaths! (I almost feel bad for President Bill – he surely did more to earn a Nobel Peace Prize than Obama, and still doesn’t get credit. Boo-hoo-hoo.) Republican Presidents doing the same thing? Well, that is the greatest evil of all time….
(And don’t tell me the Dems didn’t botch nation building. If they were so good at it how come half of Haiti moved to the US? Hell, a former head of the Haitian secret police was driving boats at Disney World. How’d he get set up with that nice gig? WHY did he get set up with that nice gig instead of being put on trial immediately?)
The anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Do you want to bring in a bunch of Libyan rebels to live in your neighborhood? Or maybe some of those Muslim Brotherhood guys from Egypt? Maybe you want your daughter to date some guy from Yemen. Riiiiigggghhhhttttt.
And why are you in favor of importing millions of people here when the unemployment rate is so high and wages have stagnated for more than a generation? Specifically why are you in favor of importing millions of peasants with low human capital? Because THAT is what the immigration debate is really about. It isn’t about some German doctor wanting to move here, or an engineer from India (and I know enough unemployed American engineers to not see the need for that), or a millionaire from China. It’s about peasants from Mexico and Central America and other world-renowned shitholes.
Steve,
Democrats love interventionism too. Who was it that said “What’s the point of having this superb military that you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?” It’s only the hard core libertarian Republicans and the hard core progressive Democrats that are thoroughly anti-interventionist. And, after two decades of participating in most of them, I’m pretty anti-interventionist too.
Thanks, Dave. Not my favorite list.
Andy
With all due respect, I think you are underestimating liberal tenacity. Talk about relentless. Take the absolute travesty of energy policy right now, or global warming. despite being shredded to pieces on fact and process, its still religious in nature for the left.
And as for corporatist, just look at who has been supporting Obama in spades, JPM, GE etc, my gosh. And how about a pure play union bail out at GM? In my world, the vast, and I mean vast, majority of small businessmen think of themselves as Republican. Large business, and the big unions, well, they know they have the clout to bend a large government organization with their money and vote machine. GE is cool with it. So is the UAW.
As for social issues, we can talk about it, but what party has actually done anything? Who is regulating soda? Who is out to get McDonalds? Who has gotten “Johnny has Two Daddy’s” into the school curriculum. Who is telling a religious organization about their contraceptive benefits policy? Which party has made it open season on Christians, but conveniently looks the other way at the most execrable beliefs of Muslims.
It’s not even close from where I stand.
Drew,
So you don’t dispute any of my points, you simply suggest that liberals are worse and then you give some examples. One could easily, of course, provide plenty of counter-examples, but this kind of debate is pointless. Somehow, whatever the evidence, Republicans always conclude liberals are worse and Democrats conclude conservatives are worse. Eye of the beholder and all that.
Since I don’t back either horse I’m not very interested in keeping score or determining who is worse. Both parties have a lot of problems and I can’t, in good conscious, support either one.
@Icepick- Why do Americans think we can dictate the internal politics of other countries? Mubarak was done for and I dont really see what we were going to do. Nation building? Where?
‘And why are you in favor of importing millions of people here when the unemployment rate is so high and wages have stagnated for more than a generation?”
Missed where I said that. But, I would favor more legal immigration. Illegal immigration is at a net negative now. The German docs I have talked with dont want to come here. My daughter is (or was, it is hard to keep up) dating a Paki engineer. Yemen is a really small country. Are there any Yemens (?) here?
@Andy- The US has really come to love wars. If you oppose one, you are accused of not being a patriot, hating America, etc. I think we are kind of stuck with too much interventionism. No one wants to look soft on defense. That said, I think there is a load of difference between bombing Bosnia, along with our allies, and a huge ground war in Iraq for reasons which remain obscure.
Steve
Andy
It might be helpful if you would cite some specific legislative efforts and successes of the right. If you can, your argument holds weight, otherwise it’s an empty one.
Drew,
Depends on what you mean by success. Legislators in several states passed restrictions on abortion, sought, with varying degrees of success, to ensue that evolution is “criticized” in schools, restrictions on teaching homosexuality, etc. I trust you’re able to google the details. That’s just the past couple of years – I can always bring up the Bush administration. Or, you can read anything by Cato or Reason on the drug war, violent video games, AG Ashcroft’s FCC crackdown on bad words and half-time show wardrobe malfunctions. Oh, and there’s the expansion of the national security state.
On the other hand, the GoP, for the most part, fought net neutrality, which is a good thing.
Again I’m not going to debate who is subjectively “worse.”. Both are bad and should be criticized for their bad policies regardless.