Japan moves right as conservatives win big in polls

[andypandy]

12. no...

'conservative' pretty much anywhere else in the world bears no relationship whatsoever to the swivel-eyed loon-spuddery that Americans call 'conservative'.

in western Europe, Barak Obama (who i like...) would be on the right-centre wing of most of the centre-right parties, none of whom would be gun nuts, all would be pro-choice (to differing extents, but in philosphical terms they'd be pro-choice), pretty much all of them are pro Gay marriage, and pretty much all have some some form of taxpayer funded healthcare.

the politcal labels used in America have no revelence to what happens in the rest of the world, and Americans' (of all political flavours) assumption that the terms and ideologies they use are the same the world over is an unfortunate indication of how US centric, and to be frank, ignorant, many Americans are even when they are looking at the outside world.

its the serious version of 'the world series' - in which only American teams compete, but Americans haven't noticed that they are the only people who compete in'the world series'...