More to The Left and Right

What amazes me is the way the political continuum from left to right has changed and shifted since George W. Bush took office and the NeoCons took power. Of course, the shift to the right probably began even before Bush took office but it is more evident than ever before now. For instance, those who used to be considered a mainstream Democrat like an Al Gore or a Patrick Leahy from Vermont are now consideredto be on the left side of the continuum.

What used to pass for a mainstream Republican like a Richard Luger or even an Orrin Hatch are now considered left of right Republicans. And then there are the former mainstream Democrats who have moved further to the right on thier own accord i.e. Joe Lieberman or Diane Feinstein and still remain in many ways perceived as on the left by many in the media and by those on far right. Bill and Hillary also have tried to move the Democratic Party to the middle in what seems a vain attempt to keep up with the changing times and first and foremost for votes. The fact that Howard Dean was looked upon as a leftwing rabble rouser by the media and many others particularly those on the right and was not allowed to move into the inner circle the closer he got to winning the primary altogether is witness to how quickly and completely the new shift to the right in this country has taken hold.

The propaganda machine i.e. Fox News and Talk Radio and all the right wing owned newspapers made sure that anyone who had any tendencies at civil minded thinking i.e wanting a clean environment or a thoughtful discussion of the War in Iraq is now put in the camp of kooks and crazies. Plain old conservatives are now viewed with suspicions like the ones who see this frenzy around The Terri Schiavo case as an invasion of the federal government into the privacy of family life. This is all a dangerous turn of events.

Thank goodness for MoveOn.Org, and a Barbara Boxer and the internet and at least a majority public that is seeing through this Schiavo mess and those others who alert us to the dangers coming from a minority of right wing zealots. Any chance the pendulum will swing back to something many of us think of as more sensible and earthly once the public sees what a mess we are in now as a result of the left right shift that has the right practically out to the moon and the new left (formerly Dems in the mainstream) who used to be in the middle perceived by the right somewhere on Venus?