People from outside the United States - and quite a few from within, frankly - are amazed at how effective FOX News and their ilk have been at getting Americans to adopt a "FOX's way or the highway" viewpoint of politics and policy.
How did they do it? It's actually very simple.
Let's say there are ten possible political viewpoints in all of America, conveniently numbered 1 through 10. 1 is the furthest left on the traditional spectrum, 10 is the furthest right. A 'normal' Democrat is a 3, a 'normal' Republican is a 7.
The true centre of the American political debate, then - assuming all views are represented equally, which isn't the case but we'll say it is for the sake of this lesson - is 5.
Right-wing extremists are far more prevalent in the media than moderate right-wingers or even normal Republicans. The left, on the other hand, is represented by people generally around its norm (or closer to the centre). So when you see a left-versus-right political debate on television, it's a 3 against a 10. The middle ground between these two is 6.5 - but this is presented as the true middle ground, and thus what's perceived as a 'fair compromise' is actually almost exactly what the average Republican wants.
(It could be argued that this trick works in reverse in Canada...the Liberals are seen as centrists because we have the NDP pushing the issues of the far left.)
If the American left wants to get the centre back towards the true centre, or further? Find every communist and socialist you can, and give them airtime.
--Ryan
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