BarraCain? Does it matter?

[gagged_Louise]

Most American's self-identify as Center-Right, regardless of how they vote -- so from our perspective, most of Europe appears to be Commie-bastards -- while from yours we look like a bunch of Fascist-pigs.

Yeah it's true much of the mainstream field of political beliefs in Europe is more to the centre-left, plus it's overall wider. And the parties as such are stronger here too, taking charge, so it doesn't leave the leadership and guiding of a party to the Chairman/elected President/PM in office and some leading party bosses (I know the US President isn't chairman of their party, but during their tenure he/she is in many ways the most important person in the party, right?)
. Looking at domestic political fighting in the States from Europe, you can feel like you're watching an accordeon being played. It pushes together, it's pulled out and then comes rushing to the centre again in a loose rhythm, and tones change all the time. There seems to be few steady positions and not a very great distance between the two parties in some key issues; the span within either party is bigger than between centrist Democrats and the GOP centre. On non-election years, the parties seem to be half asleep, what really counts are the individual positions and decisions of high-profile members. That's much less true in Western Europe, the parties as corporate leagues, and the people who voted for them, identify with them, define much more of what's going on, not just a bunch of leading men defining their positions.

I once saw a clip of a republican senator - no idea of his name - saying in a booming voice "I'm tired of all those liberals and communists!!" The line sounds pretty corny to any European - how could anyone confuse liberalism and communism? Liberal and socialist governments here fought and fended to hold off the Warsaw Pact for fifty years! Now liberal in the US isn't the same as in England, Germany or Sweden for sure - to you it means radical, anti-traditionalist (and sloppy?), it's moral as much as political, but that quote pinpoiints how different the political fields in Europe and the US really are.