To conclude, I would like to reiterate my argument that the conservative and right wing politics seem to enjoy a much higher popular support than left-leaning politics. I would use the Nixon-McGovern split as a proxy to estimate the popular support of center-left (McGovern) vs a conservative candidate (Nixon) which is 38% vs. 61%. I would use the Nader vs. Wallace split (2.7% vs. 13.5%)as a proxy to measure the popular support of left vs a far right candidate in the US.
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Perhaps.
There certainly is a mountain of anecdotal and statistical evidence to support your position.
But still, I'm reminded of something Karel von Wolferen (I believe) said a number of years ago about Japanese culture. Asked by an interviewer whether or not the stereotypical attributes we associate with the Japanese (consensus, teamwork, deference to authority, excessive dedication to your employer) were not, in fact, innate characteristics von Wolferen replied that if they were so natural there surely wouldn't be a need for the nearly constant propagandizing on behalf of these ideas you see within Japan. He then went on to briefly educate the journalist about Japan's post-war trade union upheavals and, centuries before that, sengoku jidai period of internecine strife. Where was this "predisposition to consensus" at these times?
I think of this and then I note how various elements of the Right have funded and supported, for decades, a near relentless propaganda campaign to convince Americans that left leaning ideas are, at best, well meaning but soft headed and, at worst, subversive "anti-Americanism".
To rephrase: in the case of Rush Limbaugh and his meme children is it the case, as I think your ideas suggest Wojtek, that his uncritically "conservative" program is popular because it captures the feelings of the great majority of Americans? Or is that Limbaugh et. al. take advantage of a pool of (mostly) legitimate frustration and provide a channel for its expression -- something a left-leaning media star could do (IS doing in the case of Jon Stewart) if only the backing and organization were in place.
If far-right notions are so innately popular, why do elites spend millions to support a radio-television-print media complex of right-wing agitprop?
Surely this propaganda would be wholly unnecessary and an incredible waste of capital and energy if most Americans were already onboard?
.d.