Is America Turning Left?

Is America turning left? is the cover story in the August 11, 2007 edition of The Economist that I thought was a very good read. It illustrates how the Bush Administration has caused the political pendulum to shift left. Now, whether it reaches left of center remains to be seen. The article points out that most American distrust government strongly. “Forty years ago they (Americans) turned against a leftist elite trying to boss them around; now they have had to endure a right wing version.” A great example given in the article is the government intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.

Whether the Democrats retake the presidency in 2008 is up for debate, but at least for now Democratic candidates are favored over Republican ones by a wide margin. Only time will tell how far the pendulum will swing and once it is there how long it will stay. If the Democrats regain power in 2008 the pendulum will probably start to swing back to the right after awhile. One thing we always know for sure is that it always swings from left to right and then back again.