Somebody: So, because Callaghan in the UK and Carter in the U.S. both supported their own austerity measures against the working class, we can't really say that Thatcher and Reagan did any worse than the liberals. Does this make sense to you?
I'm not saying you should support the center-left, because I daresay we could use a proper left in most of these countries. But the fact that so many people are being drawn to conservative ideologies as a reaction the recession is pretty bloody depressing.
I'll give you an example of the difference between being a liberal or conservative in the U.S. This was discussed on this list, but in a February 2010 Gallup poll, an extraordinary 61% of self-identified liberals had a favorable view of *socialism*, while only 20% of conservatives did. This is in a country where virtually nobody of public prominence ever speaks positively of socialism and where no major party or institution has even vestigial historical ties to socialism. Whether the ultra-leftists out there like it or not, the average liberal is much closer to genuine left-wing politics than the typical conservative. So, yes, it is depressing that people are being pulled towards conservative politics.