Essay talk:Gaming the language: the US political spectrum

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I welcome critical ideas to improve this essay here, as well, of course, as any commentary anyone has to offer. humanbe in 15:22, 13 June 2007 (CDT)

I think the moderate lane should be the biggest lane. Also, if you look at the elections in 2006 the "left" side ended up winning most of the seats. So I don't see why the Right lane is so big compared to the Left. --¿ Sta’le ? 17:57, 13 June 2007 (CDT)
The moderates have four lanes, right and left each two, loonies each one. Broadly speaking. In the first image (the "reality" image).
I know that the second image contradicts reality. That's my point. It is, however, the "self image" of America as reported (and knuckled under to) by too much of the media and too many of our politicians. Remember, the spin on that election (!!!) was that the GOP wasn't conservative enough and that the Dems entered the vacuum and ran a bunch of conservatives (!!!) !!!.
I will try to make this clearer in the essay - thanks! humanbe in 20:30, 13 June 2007 (CDT)

Actually, the way I (and a lot of the left blogosphere) see it generally is opposite of what you've described. The line has been moved further and further to the right, defining more and more extreme views with the term "moderate". Meanwhile *everything* left of that line is defined as looney. So in order not to be defined as a looney leftist, you have to take what would normally be an extreme right position, cramming more and more people into a narrower "lane". --Kels 19:56, 14 June 2007 (CDT)

Sure, that's another way of describing what I am trying to illustrate. Just requires a different analogy, or a different description. In the bottom picture, anyone holding any left view at all gets crammed into the far left loony lane. The six or so lanes the "right" get to spread out over covers a very narrow range of views. This image attempts to show the way the spectrum is portrayed in the media and by politicians. Then they pretend the yellow lines are in the "middle" of the bottom picture, leaving all but the most reactionary "on the left" idea-wise. It's insane, but it is the way they have played the game. Think of all the "Democratic" politicians with a whole host of neo-right talking point stands where they feel they can't be caught out being "lefties" - tough on crime, cutting taxes, building up the military, etc. (and how many dare to be clearly pro-choice or pro-civil rights these days?) Thanks for the commentary, though, I might need to add a thrid diagram, and a lot more text. humanbe in 20:53, 14 June 2007 (CDT)
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