Reply #31: I think it depends on whether you are looking at social issues or "corporatist" issues...

[cascadiance]

If you consider right vs. left mostly a social issue spectrum, then I'd agree with you. We're moving more to the left on things like gay rights, abortion rights, civil rights, etc.

But when you start hitting any issues that hit the corporatists in the pocket book, if you consider the elites the "right", and the people underneath them "the left", then the Democratic Party is a lot farther to the "right" today. Then again someone might say that a "right" vs. "left" spectrum doesn't really fit this breakdown of agendas/positions. A better spectrum is populist/corporatist special interest spectrum, which the mainstream media doesn't want to even touch now, and want to still have everyone look at the social issues and how they fit in the "right" vs. "left" spectrum as a way of distracting us away from the corporatist affecting issues, that they don't want us to see we're getting ripped off by both parties nowadays with today's lobbyist crowd as big as it has ever been.

In today's world, Teddy Roosevelt would be considered a communist rather than a Republican for his advocacy of a "living wage".