Reality’s Liberal Bias: Most Americans NOT racist

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Neither are most of us isolationists, expansionists, or completely unaware of our footprint on this globe. We do need, however, leadership that can tap into the altruistic nature most of us seem to possess…

A large majority of Americans feel that US foreign policy should at times serve altruistic purposes independent of US national interests. Americans also feel that US foreign policy should be oriented to the global interest not just the national interest and are highly responsive to arguments that serving the global interest ultimately serves the national interest. Americans show substantial concern for global conditions in a wide range of areas.

^{cross posted at Daily Kos}

We do, btw, have statistics to tell us who we are and what we believe. And, according to statistics, we are a LIBERAL country. How do progressives reach out to this middle, who may vote Republican but in poll after poll are much more like us????

…the average for the past 30 years: 20 percent liberal, 33 percent conservative, 47 percent moderate. And yet when “moderates” were questioned by pollsters for Louis Harris and Associates in 2005, they turned out to share pretty much the same beliefs as self-described liberals-they just couldn’t bring themselves to embrace the hated label.

Over the past 25 years or so, regardless of the party in power, about 37% of the country has self-identified as liberal or progressive or Democratic or “Blue;” about 25% of the population has self-identified as conservative or Republican or “Red,” and the remaining 35% percent – call them moderates.

It should come as no surprise that conservative media figures repeat the myth that most Americans share their views. Even when Democrats win, conservatives claim that their ideology is still dominant. On election night 2006, Fox News Washington managing editor Brit Hume acknowledged that Democrats were winning, but stressed that “from what we could see from all the polling and everything else, it remains a conservative country.”

I’ve read a lot about how horrible McCain supporters are. They’re like a lynch mob and they’re haters and they’re racist and they’re……… our neighbors, family members, and friends as well. And most of them do not fit into the caricature being painted. By a corporate media that wants us to feel overwhelmed by an image of our fellow citizens as a bunch of crazed white power freaks.

Most are not. They’re just afraid and mis informed. Our disdain of them does nothing to help bring them into the clearing… and sometimes it feels like we hate them, just as we accuse them of hating others. Well, these people are our “others.” I don’t pretend to know how to change the dynamic. I just know this overwhelming anger and fury at these people doesn’t help any of us.

So………….. remember, we all have the potential to be better. For your consideration:

In Defense of White Americans

^{Frank Rich}

…the other, less noticed lesson of the year has to do with the white people the McCain campaign has been pandering to. As we saw first in the Democratic primary results and see now in the widespread revulsion at the McCain-Palin tactics, white Americans are not remotely the bigots the G.O.P. would have us believe. Just because a campaign trades in racism doesn’t mean that the country is racist. It’s past time to come to the unfairly maligned white America’s defense.

That includes acknowledging that the so-called liberal media, among their other failures this year, have helped ratchet up this election cycle’s prevailing antiwhite bias. Ever since Obama declared his candidacy, the press’s default setting has been to ominously intone that “in the privacy of the voting booth” ignorant, backward whites will never vote for a black man.

Desperately Seeking Seriousness

^{Paul Krugman}

… the Barack Obama voters see now is cool, calm, intellectual and knowledgeable, able to talk coherently about the financial crisis in a way Mr. McCain can’t. And when the world seems to be falling apart, you don’t turn to a guy you’d like to have a beer with, you turn to someone who might actually know how to fix the situation.

The McCain campaign’s response to its falling chances of victory has been telling: rather than trying to make the case that Mr. McCain really is better qualified to deal with the economic crisis, the campaign has been doing all it can to trivialize things again. Mr. Obama consorts with ’60s radicals! He’s a socialist! He doesn’t love America! Judging from the polls, it doesn’t seem to be working.

… right now, to paraphrase Rob Corddry, reality has a clear liberal bias.

World Public Opinion.Org

A very strong majority favors a US role in the world that puts a greater emphasis on US participation in multilateral efforts to deal with international problems and on a cooperative approach wherein the US is quite attentive to the views of other countries, not just US interests.

…large majorities do favor putting diplomatic and public pressure on governments to respect human rights.

We’re a good people, we Americans. And I believe we can take our leaders along with us… when those leaders have the potential of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

You know something? This is really worse than, as a kid, waiting for Santa Claus to come with the presents. Good god… I’m living in Europe and will have to wait until I wake up to find out the results. Holy-election day-moly. It can’t come soon enough.

And that’s a 30…