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Been musing on politics a bit... I'm increasingly disheartened by the Obama administration, which appears to be so solidly Centrist that they might as well be Republicans, except that the Republicans have shuffled desperately away to the right toward their loud and paranoid fringe. I don't think I've changed my social/religious/political views all that much, but somehow -- without me moving -- the political tide seemed to have gone out, leaving me mired to the ankles in the wet sand of the far left.
Damn. A decade or two ago, I used to place myself somewhat left of the middle in the political spectrum, but certainly nowhere near the left fringe. I felt myself to be mostly in the mainstream of the Democratic Party. Now, I need binoculars to see the middle. I listen to the Tea Party advocates howling that Obama is a "socialist/fascist/communist" and wonder what in the hell they're raving about. Thus far in his first term, Obama has shown himself to be about as socialistic and leftist as Eisenhower. And the right side of the spectrum -- the Palins, the Huckabees, the Bachmanns, the "Christian" fundies -- well, they scare the hell out of me.
Right now -- through my spectacles -- I see a Democratic party that is no longer liberal, but decisively Centrist. I see a Republican party that is cloaked in the mists well off to the right, and I see a vocal faction within that party that wants to drag it even further that way.
And over here on the left, there are the sand people, stranded by the receding political tide.
Is that the landscape others see? Or have I unknowingly walked left away from the center and stranded myself?
Damn. A decade or two ago, I used to place myself somewhat left of the middle in the political spectrum, but certainly nowhere near the left fringe. I felt myself to be mostly in the mainstream of the Democratic Party. Now, I need binoculars to see the middle. I listen to the Tea Party advocates howling that Obama is a "socialist/fascist/communist" and wonder what in the hell they're raving about. Thus far in his first term, Obama has shown himself to be about as socialistic and leftist as Eisenhower. And the right side of the spectrum -- the Palins, the Huckabees, the Bachmanns, the "Christian" fundies -- well, they scare the hell out of me.
Right now -- through my spectacles -- I see a Democratic party that is no longer liberal, but decisively Centrist. I see a Republican party that is cloaked in the mists well off to the right, and I see a vocal faction within that party that wants to drag it even further that way.
And over here on the left, there are the sand people, stranded by the receding political tide.
Is that the landscape others see? Or have I unknowingly walked left away from the center and stranded myself?