[lbo-talk] yakking about the right

[// ravi]

On Apr 3, 2012, at 10:27 AM, Michael Smith wrote:
> 'Polarization' seems a misleading word for this, though. It suggests 
> that the parties are off on opposite trajectories, approaching 
> the respective 'poles' of -- what? New Deal liberalism on the one 
> hand, and Falangism on the other?  
> 
> Whereas the reality is, I would say, that both parties 
> are moving right, and drawing closer to each other if 
> anything; certainly not farther apart. Those movements
> are quite consistent with the one-dimensional sorting-out 
> and stratification and increasingly coherent 'branding' 
> of the two gangs, noticed in this research. 

I agree. “Polarisation” of this type is evolutionarily ordained in a two-party system, yes? Of course polarisation implies opposite poles, which is the bit that is untrue. Sorting or bifurcation, etc, might be better terms?

	—ravi