Tuesday, August 19, 2003

Winning from the "hard right"

Today, from the Guardian, another article that says so much about columnists who cannot understand why parties on the right win elections. Hugo Young refers to the Bush administration as "hard right" without any "soothing niceties that might make it more electorally attractive to voters who are not Republicans".

It seems the Democrats are trying to gain the center, but those snakeoil salesmen - the Republicans - have moved the center to the right. So, now all the poor Democrats can do is vie with one another for a softer right position.

What a load of nonsense. The political center is where it's always been - right in the middle of the two extremes of left and right. That the American center might be more "to the right" than would be the case for a European electorate does not mean that this election is taking place entirely on the right. That simply makes no sense.

Why does logic and/or mathematics seem to elude so many people who write for newspapers?