Where do most people fall on the political spectrum?

Answer 1

Mainstream liberals tend to lie somewhere within the centre-left portion of the political spectrum while mainstream conservatives lie within the centre-right. Moderate Democrats tend to have more of a centrist position in regards to economic and fiscal policies as does moderate Republicans as well. Moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans are also categorized as centrists. The centre-left (or Liberals) tend to be categorized as Progressives and social Democrats. Forms of socialism and even the Green Party are also within the centre-left spectrum, although they are often labeled "far-left" because they are considered to be fringe liberal groups. Liberals are often socially liberal and fiscally liberal (but some have indicated being fiscally centrist at times). The fiscally liberal liberals support highly funded social safety nets such as welfare and higher taxes, especially for the wealthy as well as strict regulations on businesses.

The centre-right contains the mainstream conservatives. The Republican Party has several prominent conservative politicians and political pundits that have proved to be influential such as Mike Huckabee. These people are often socially conservative and advocate a free market system with minimal regulations and lower taxes.

Libertarians advocate a totally free market place, low taxes, individual liberties. Most Libertarians describe themselves as "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" though there is a few who have also indicated that they are socially conservative.

The Green Party that I briefly touched on above favors heavy regulations on businesses (especially big businesses), high taxes on the rich, highly funded social programs, "green" jobs, and eliminating corporate influence in politics. They also advocate socialized medicine, environmentalism, and state-owned banks. The Green party also favors withdrawing from NAFTA, CAFTA, and other free trade agreements (which could be why they are labeled as far-left).

I honestly do not know a whole lot of information about the Constitution party though I know that they are often categorized as paleoconservatives (the old right). They are socially conservative but their stance on free trade agreements are similar to that of the Green party, though for different reasons. The Green Party feels that the Globalization movement and free trade agreements exploit the workers in developing countries, and the Constitution Party feels that free trade and globalization weakens the American workforce and the Constitution party advocates a nationalistic view of American workers. However though, there is people in the Constitution party that have expressed concerns over the exploitation of workers in developing countries as well. To a certain degree, you can see an overlap of the so-called fringe of the left and the right in regards to Free Trade and other economic policies. The Constitution party is also referred to as being far-right sometimes. It could be just another label that's applied to them by those of the mainstream conservatives circles as well as those of Liberal circles.

Centrists and Moderate voters are also upset at what they call "hyper-partisanship" and bickering between liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans in Washington DC. Several groups such as No Labels are trying to promote rational civil discussions instead of bickering and political rancor. They also routinely applaud politicians who are willing to put aside their differences and cooperate with each other. There is also centrist parties starting to form as a response to hyper-partisanship in Washington today, such as the Modern Whig Party.

I have only provided a brief summary of different American political parties. I would recommend you to do further research on your own.

Answer 2

The ideology changes with every election. Each party tries to form a majority and win the election. At the moment the

Democratic Party leans toward

• Higher taxes on upper incomes
• continually increasing national debt
• sustained or increased spending on social programs
• amnesty for illegal Immigration
• continued porous borders
• gay marriage

Republicans tend to favor

• no new taxes
• balanced budget
• sustained defense spending
• tight borders
• no amnesty for illegal immigrants
• marriage only for members of the opposite sex

Answer 3

Generally speaking, most people are in the middle of the political spectrum. This refers to the position of most people in relation to the nation they live in. For example, in the UK, which can be objectively described as a welfare state, most people expect the government to run the coal mining industry and to have free medical care provided by the central government. This system has been in existence for decades and decades. And, to be clear the term "welfare" is not related to what that term means in the US. It simply describes a government that uses tax revenue to supply a large number of social programs.In the US, the middle of the political spectrum is one where free social programs are expected to a point, however, few people have the view that the means of production should be in the hands of the central government in order to pay for a huge amount of social programs. If it were not so, then one of the major political parties would have "socialism" as part of their party's platform.

And, as noted in the last election cycle in the US, a socialist Democrat, Senator Bernie Sanders did not run on a platform to have the US government socialize the private sector. He simply wanted more government sponsored social programs such as no tuition higher education.