Republicans like to say that President Obama was too liberal in his first year. This was a mistake, they say, because America is a “center-right nation”, and the people will not tolerate a shift “leftward”.

I’ve always hated this “right-center-left” terminology. And yes, I’ve used it myself many times on here because it does make for a convenient shorthand, but it can also pervert political discourse. For example, liberals like to say that the Nazis were a “right-wing” party. Well, technically yes, but that means nothing, because “right-wing” didn’t mean the same thing in 1930s Germany that it does today in the USA.  “Right” and “Left” are such broad concepts, and change with the shifting fashions so much, that they are not useful when describing the basic character of a country.

The “right-center-left” trichotomy is virtually meaningless on a national scale. Countries have a basic character and philosophy that is part of their culture. What is the “center” in Europe is “left” in the U.S.A. as a result of the country’s culture.

To say America is a center-right nation is ridiculous. If we must use this terminology, all democratic countries are by definition “center”. The “center” is the prevailing ideology in the country, whatever it happens to be, and each country has its own individual concepts of what is to the “right” and “left” of that center.