Political Scientist: Republicans Most Conservative They've Been In 100 Years

[Lakhota]

By Frank James

When President Obama recently complained to news media executives about their ostensibly even-handed "pox on both of your houses" coverage of the partisan battles in Washington, it might have seemed like, well, a partisan shot from a Democratic president.

After all, his complaint was that the GOP had moved so far right, and intransigently so, that it was wrong to create a false "equivalence" by blaming both parties equally for the Washington gridlock. To a skeptic that comment, coming from a Democrat, sounded suspiciously partisan itself.

But while the president was making the kind of argument you would expect of the nation's top Democrat, he actually had the support of science — well at least political science research that maps that rightward GOP shift.

Keith Poole of the University of Georgia, with his collaborator Howard Rosenthal of New York University, has spent decades charting the ideological shifts and polarization of the political parties in Congress from the 18th century until now to get the view of how the political landscape has changed from 30,000 feet up. What they have found is that the Republican Party is the most conservative it has been in a century.

More: Political Scientist: Republicans Most Conservative They've Been In 100 Years : It's All Politics : NPR

 

[blackhawk]

The study also made pretty clear the Democrats aren't much better.

 

[alan1]

Looking at the chart, the Democrats are most liberal than they've been in 100 years.
Yet, what does the title of the article say?
Can you say "Journalistic Malpractice"?

 

[SniperFire]

The study also made pretty clear the Democrats aren't much better.

It has been reactionary to the Left's sudden lurch toward communist totalitarianism.

This should be of no surprise to anyone.

 

[imbalance]

I guess it depends on how you define "conservative" and whether you believe fiscal conservatism is at the right end of the political spectrum.

 

[SniperFire]

Evidently, the Professor thinks Republicans are freaky extremists for wanting to end trillion and a half dollar deficits.

 

[Ernie S.]

I'm seeing a graph with criteria designed by liberal academics. While the GOP has moved right since Nixon, I would put GW Bush to the left of Reagan but Carter, clinton and obama much farther left of JFK and LBJ.
Kennedy couldn't get the Democrat nomination for the Senate in even Arizona today, much less the Presidential nomination from the whole country.

 

[jillian]

Evidently, the Professor thinks Republicans are freaky extremists for wanting to end trillion and a half dollar deficits.

no.. you're "freaky extremists" because you can't even tell how fringe you are.

 

[Papageorgio]

You guys realize you can't hold the left to any standards, that would be very unfair, and, well, you know, I mean come on, they are going to start crying, and that would be, well, sad.

 

[jillian]

I'm seeing a graph with criteria designed by liberal academics. While the GOP has moved right since Nixon, I would put GW Bush to the left of Reagan but Carter, clinton and obama much farther left of JFK and LBJ.
Kennedy couldn't get the Democrat nomination for the Senate in even Arizona today, much less the Presidential nomination from the whole country.

you're seeing a graph with criteria based on normal political thought over the time period designated. the fact that you think the "criteria" should have changed, kind of proves his point, imo.

Carter Clinton and Obama are not further left than JFK and LBJ.. .in fact, the most liberal president in my lifetime was Richard Nixon...

if he ran today, he wouldn't get anywhere near the GOP nomination... he opened china, so he'd be called a commie..., ended the vietnam war, so he'd be a 'cut and run' type... and started the EPA, so he'd be called an enviro-wacko..

Kennedy wasn't really a liberal at all, btw.. he was a cold warrior. Nixon was far more left.

isn't that funny?

 

[Middleoftheroad]

I'm seeing a graph with criteria designed by liberal academics. While the GOP has moved right since Nixon, I would put GW Bush to the left of Reagan but Carter, clinton and obama much farther left of JFK and LBJ.
Kennedy couldn't get the Democrat nomination for the Senate in even Arizona today, much less the Presidential nomination from the whole country.

I don't think the graph is of presidents, but the party as a whole. Also JFK was pretty far left, he basically forced the Steel industry to lower their prices through threats, and it worked.

 

[rdean]

Republicans don't believe things that come from "scientists". Because education is for snobs.

 

[ThinkCritically]

I thought the right had drifted to far to the left with all the massive imperialism spending....hell they aren't just big government.....they are in the business of making governments....

 

[imbalance]

Kennedy wasn't really a liberal at all, btw.. he was a cold warrior. Nixon was far more left.

Nixon does not fall into any traditional classification imo. I still can't decide whether he was one of the US' best or worst executive leaders. Either way, I can easily call him the most important as far as the world today resulting from his unilateral Nixon Shock and establishment of global petrodollar hegemony.

I agree that JFK was not a modern liberal. Classical liberal perhaps as his economic views were often libertarian-leaning:

To the Economic Club of New York, he spoke in 1963 of "... the paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and revenues too low; and the soundest way to raise revenue in the long term is to lower rates now."

John F. Kennedy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I should add that I wasn't born until the 80s so how much can I actually know lol

 

[Ernie S.]

I'm seeing a graph with criteria designed by liberal academics. While the GOP has moved right since Nixon, I would put GW Bush to the left of Reagan but Carter, clinton and obama much farther left of JFK and LBJ.
Kennedy couldn't get the Democrat nomination for the Senate in even Arizona today, much less the Presidential nomination from the whole country.

you're seeing a graph with criteria based on normal political thought over the time period designated. the fact that you think the "criteria" should have changed, kind of proves his point, imo.

Carter Clinton and Obama are not further left than JFK and LBJ.. .in fact, the most liberal president in my lifetime was Richard Nixon...

if he ran today, he wouldn't get anywhere near the GOP nomination... he opened china, so he'd be called a commie..., ended the vietnam war, so he'd be a 'cut and run' type... and started the EPA, so he'd be called an enviro-wacko..

Kennedy wasn't really a liberal at all, btw.. he was a cold warrior. Nixon was far more left.

isn't that funny?

Of course Carter clinton and obama are vastly left of Kennedy. Did you even read what you typed?
You contradicted me and then agreed.
I see GOP presidents generally moving right from Wilson to Reagan, but to the left since.
Democrats moved right from FDR to JFK and then left since.
Granted Republicans in Congress have moved right since Nixon, but the Democrats have completely screwed the pooch since 1960. Had John Kennedy lived to the ripe old age of 90, he would have slapped his youngest brother up along side the head every day. If he were president today, he would likely put up a Naval Blockade around New England and likely nuke California.

 

[Unkotare]

Political scientists are about as objective as climate scientists at grant writing time.

 

[jillian]

Kennedy wasn't really a liberal at all, btw.. he was a cold warrior. Nixon was far more left.

Nixon does not fall into any traditional classification imo. I still can't decide whether he was one of the US' best or worst executive leaders. Either way, I can easily call him the most important as far as the world today resulting from his unilateral Nixon Shock and establishment of global petrodollar hegemony.

I agree that JFK was not a modern liberal. Classical liberal perhaps as his economic views were often libertarian-leaning:

To the Economic Club of New York, he spoke in 1963 of "... the paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and revenues too low; and the soundest way to raise revenue in the long term is to lower rates now."

John F. Kennedy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I should add that I wasn't born until the 80s so how much can I actually know lol

with respect to nixon, it's always been my opinion that if he hadn't been paranoid and crazy, or hadn't gotten 'caught", he'd have been considered one of our best, if not the best of our modern era presidents.

i don't believe there's such a thing as "classical liberal". i know it's been pointed out to me that the term has been used in the past, but not in the self-serving way it's being used by some on the right today.

that said, i think there are presidents who try to do the right thing regardless of whether the right thing is "left" or "right"... i don't think in this political climate such people get very far.

 

[jillian]

Political scientists are about as objective as climate scientists at grant writing time.

yeah, darn educated people...

 

[kiwiman127]

Looking at the chart, the Democrats are most liberal than they've been in 100 years.
Yet, what does the title of the article say?
Can you say "Journalistic Malpractice"?

You do have a point there.
However, look which ideology has the bigger swing towards extremism. Of course as a moderate, I'd like the two parties to be closer to the middle. Then maybe our government could solve the problems they created.

 

[jillian]

I'm seeing a graph with criteria designed by liberal academics. While the GOP has moved right since Nixon, I would put GW Bush to the left of Reagan but Carter, clinton and obama much farther left of JFK and LBJ.
Kennedy couldn't get the Democrat nomination for the Senate in even Arizona today, much less the Presidential nomination from the whole country.

you're seeing a graph with criteria based on normal political thought over the time period designated. the fact that you think the "criteria" should have changed, kind of proves his point, imo.

Carter Clinton and Obama are not further left than JFK and LBJ.. .in fact, the most liberal president in my lifetime was Richard Nixon...

if he ran today, he wouldn't get anywhere near the GOP nomination... he opened china, so he'd be called a commie..., ended the vietnam war, so he'd be a 'cut and run' type... and started the EPA, so he'd be called an enviro-wacko..

Kennedy wasn't really a liberal at all, btw.. he was a cold warrior. Nixon was far more left.

isn't that funny?

Of course Carter clinton and obama are vastly left of Kennedy. Did you even read what you typed?
You contradicted me and then agreed.
I see GOP presidents generally moving right from Wilson to Reagan, but to the left since.
Democrats moved right from FDR to JFK and then left since.
Granted Republicans in Congress have moved right since Nixon, but the Democrats have completely screwed the pooch since 1960. Had John Kennedy lived to the ripe old age of 90, he would have slapped his youngest brother up along side the head every day. If he were president today, he would likely put up a Naval Blockade around New England and likely nuke California.

yes, i did contradict myself. sorry. i'm tired. what i was trying to say is that they aren't particularly that far left... well, carter was. but clinton? the guy who signed NAFTA? agreed on DADT instead of pushing for what we have now?

I see GOP presidents as moving more and more to the right... to the point where the GOP almost can't nominate someone who says they believe in evolution. Try putting forth a pro choice candidate...see how far they get.... or a candidate who says they would do what reagan did and raise taxes to pay the deficit off.

On social issues, JFK would have agreed with Teddy... and I don't think Teddy refused to sign off on necessary military force. I could be wrong about that, but i don't think so.