The center is right of the center

[jere7my]

On Wednesday, John McCain reiterated a meme he spread on the campaign trail:

Look, look, there is no doubt in my mind America's a right-of-center nation and this administration is governing from the left. [link]

I've been trying to wrap my mind around that, mathematically. It sounds to me like he's saying that the average American is to the right of the average American (which could get very awkward when trying to plan seating at dinner parties). The other option is the idea that there are fixed endpoints to the political spectrum, a Left point and a Right point, defining an axis that we can use to fix the mood of the electorate, which is equally ridiculous.

Politically useful, though.

Comments

[marcmagus]

It's possibly he's defining his spectrum based on international opinions, in which case his statement is at least meaningful, if of dubious accuracy. Or the average political leanings in "first world democratic" nations [the only ones which count].

Alternatively, he could be stating, with great accuracy, that the policy which actually gets enacted tends to the right of the median preference due to the oddities of the political process.

[eclectic-boy.livejournal.com]

I don't think he's arguing that there are fixed endpoints, just current definitions for the terms Right and Left (which he might say were concocted by The Liberal Media or the Academic Elite... or just that they're holdovers from an earlier time in US history), and that if you stick with those existing definitions we're right of Center.