Democracy? The all-powerful dominant conservative movement only represents about 30% of the country
by digby
Chris Hayes and guests had a fascinating discussion this morning about this new study that shows politicians think their constituents are much more conservative than they are:
Tim Carney made the good point that conservatives are more likely to challenge the Republican leadership while liberals are more likely to follow the Democratic leadership. I think that’s some of it, although the Republicans sure were in lockstep behind George W. Bush when he was riding high and they now treat him like last week’s leftovers. There’s more to it, particularly the fact that politicians are by definition elites and they spend time with other elites. And elites tend to be more conservative. (I think Chris meant to get to that but the conversation took another turn.) Chris used this chart to show how this identification has changed over the years:
It turns out that roughly the same number of Americans describe themselves as conservatives as they did in the 1970s, while the number of politicians describing themselves that way has skyrocketed. And yet Democrats, even as they win elections and hold massive amounts of power in the government are still on the run, following these GOP politicians as they race ever further to the right.
It’s odd to say the least but I think it can be at least partially explained by noting that the right has a very well financed and successful propaganda machine that’s aimed more at the elite opinion makers of both parties than the people. In the insular world of politics, where they all talk to one another more than they talk to anyone else, it is a conservative country.
And I think a lot of this shows the power of unanswered propaganda. Every national politician from Ronald Reagan to John Boehner has used the word “conservative” in their speeches, portraying it as the default Real American value and using it as the avatar of patriotism. And while that was happening Democrats were denying their own identities as liberals and changing their messaging in response to conservative cant constantly. This kind of thing infects their thinking. They too come to see conservative as a positive value and liberal as a negative value — and the policies follow.
It works very well. Even now, with the GOP having gone certifiably nuts, we see that the only answer among the liberal cognoscenti is for Democrats to move right again and give in to the Republicans because they just have no choice. This time they are talking Democratic voters into accepting degradation of the greatest social justice achievement of the Democratic Party in the last century. This is allegedly because they have no choice: Democrats are impotent, powerless. After all, they only control two of the three branches of government and the other side is more unpopular than herpes. What else can they do?
That’s a pretty sweet victory for a movement that only 30% of the country identifies with.
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