Chart: Proof America Is A Center-Right Nation | Right Wing News

Chart: Proof America Is A Center-Right Nation | Right Wing News:

Paul Waldman over at the left-wing American Prospect noted a handy-dandy new chart from Pew Research and realized he was more of an extremist than he'd thought,

As a progressive, I tend to think the Republican Party is much more ideologically extreme than the Democratic Party. There are many reasons, some of which may be more legitimate than others. But it turns out that my opinion isn't representative. According to this research from the Pew Research Center, the typical Democrat thinks the GOP is kind of conservative, while the typical Republican thinks the Democratic Party is really, really liberal.

Waldman went on to wonder why Republicans think the Democratic Party is so liberal,

What's really interesting here isn't so much the views about Democrats -- that's pretty much what you'd expect, that voters of the opposing party would find it to be far more extreme than its own partisans, who know where their own party has disappointed them, would place it. What's odd, though, is the fact that on average there's so little difference between how Republicans and Democrats see the GOP. There's obviously some diversity within those groups -- some Democrats see the GOP as extreme, while others see it as moderate -- but it's still notable.

So why is this? It's hard to say, but my nominee would be the differing media systems partisans are drawn to. Conservatives are more likely to seek out highly partisan information sources -- Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, etc. -- than Democrats are. The latter may take in the occasional episode of Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow, but they're getting most of their news from more neutral places like NPR and CNN. What makes the difference is that the idea that the Democratic Party is a bunch of socialists with a radical leftist agenda is a core component of the rhetoric on Fox, Limbaugh, et al. If you get your news from them, you'll hear that message every day, again and again. And eventually you'll start to believe it.

Let me suggest an alternate theory that explains why all three groups have a relatively homogenous view of the GOP and a divergent view of the Democratic Party.

Simply put, liberalism is unpopular, while conservatism isn't. That means conservatives feel comfortable campaigning as conservatives, while liberals, outside of left-wing enclaves, don't tell the truth about their views.