I have long been intrigued by the goal-post dialogue about how left or right the United States is as a country. If the extremes would be the two goal posts at either end of the football field, where would the electorate fall on the field, at which yard-line, left or right of the 50 yard line? The bulk of the commentary I have read seems to place the electorate to the right of mid-field, perhaps at the 35 to 40 yard line. The strident radio voices are always trying to move the ball up or down the field toward their goal line. But I don't think Americans are at one place on the field. Depending on what policy you are discussing the ball moves around the field of play quite a bit.
Conventional wisdom asserts that a majority of Americans are slightly right of center. This wisdom is in spite of the wide popularity of New Deal and Great Society Programs. The same people who 'hate government interference in their lives,' also love their Social Security, their Medicare, their free public education and their public universities and community colleges. But the point may still be valid. At least rhetorically, a great segment of Americans see themselves as rugged individualists, the great descendants of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
I would assert that the country is all over the place depending on the subject. If the country is threatened or directly attacked in any way, we are a fully right-wing country, easily reaching for a massive military response. Remember, we're the only country that has used nuclear weapons to incinerate innocent civilians by the hundreds of thousands. We've been there and we can certainly go there again. Under attack, there are very few actual pacifists among the citizenry.
However, when it comes to military adventurism, or nation-building, or empire expansion, or even telling the rest of the world how to live, Americans are very left-wing; nearly isolationist. There is precious little enthusiasm for wars of choice, as long as they are sold as such to Americans. If Americans can be convinced that there are vital national interests involved, they are willing to listen to arguments about wars of choice.
When it comes to helping our fellow citizens, the country is a center-left one. Right-wing zealots may make the most noise, but average Americans line up to vote help for their fellow man.
Which puts them in a bind when this tendency conflicts with their center-right tendency to keep taxes as low as possible and thus government as small as possible.
California, where I reside, is a textbook example of the center-left/center-right conundrum. Californians have big hearts and will support almost any program to help their fellow citizens. It is ridiculously easy to pass school bonds (even with a 55% threshold) or propositions to aide our fire fighters, policemen and nurses. We love to support laws to clean up the environment and help the poor and disabled. People actually move to California because of its great services to special education students. This big-hearted tendency is in direct conflict with a seriously center-right libertarian anti-tax streak. This is the state that gave us Proposition 13. So each ballot cycle we easily pass contradictions (to cut taxes and make it impossible to raise them) and to help the poor, protect the environment and educate our youth. California is the perfect microcosm for this nation.
So is America a center-right country? It's right wing on national defense; it's left-wing on military aggression; it's center-left on social programs; and it's center-right on taxation and the growth of government. It's a wonderfully conflicted citizenry that I love to study.