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On Sunday @iamjohnoliver responded to @MittRomney's suggestion that "America is a center-right country" by saying "What the Hell are you talking about, Mitt?!" and proceeded to offer really bad evidence to the contrary. He's smarter than that, imo. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/everyone-but-john-oliver-understands-america-is-a-center-right-country
Oliver started with a Jan. 7 poll by Gallup on political party preferences, which shows that 47% of people align with the Democratic Party, compared to the GOP’s 42%. He ignored a Jan 9th poll showing despite this, a majority of voters across both parties lean right.
Party affiliation and identification aren't indicators of liberal or conservative tendencies. Though in the GOP, this has gotten VERY homogenous. The Dem Party still houses conservative sensibilities here & there. @iamjohnoliver Oliver knows this. it's weird he pretended not to
Next, Oliver distorted what support for Roe v. Wade suggests about views on the red-hot question of abortion access. He pulled a handful of recent surveys that CORRECTLY show people largely do not support overturning Roe v. Wade and are in favor of legal abortion
About 61% of people continue to say that abortion should be legal, with only 38% expressing support for abolishing abortion. But to suggest that this is a measure of America not being center-right willfully misses the point of how the abortion debate plays out. Its about limits.
NEXT! He glazes over what it means for most people to support “Medicare for All,” according to a May 27 Kaiser Family Foundation study. It’s true that when asked point-blank about Medicare for All, a narrow majority of people say they favor it...
THE VERY SAME RESEARCH found that favorable reactions to this policy dropped 14% if you used any other name for it. The study goes on to say..
that "many people falsely assume they would be able to keep their current health insurance under single-payer, suggesting another potential area for decreased support.” Oliver’s appeal that the U.S. is center-left on healthcare, w/ 56% in favor of Medicare4A, is HIGHLY tenuous.
The very polarized and limiting vessels of the GOP and Dem Party re not proper measures of judging whether the country is center-right or center-left. And, the U.S. will not always be center-right...
The Republican Party of President Trump is in many ways exceeding its mandate to re-balance the conservative-liberal paradigm. @SenatorRomney probably understands this, but he didn't take to TV to blast John Oliver. Oliver did, and he either willfully lied or doesn’t get the US.
