The Muddled Middle – A revealing look (updated 11feb15)

George Rebane

The nonsense that truth and goodness lies in some romantic purple region between the Right and Left ideologies is an idea long contended in RR.  Here we have always advanced the notion that presenting clear and complete arguments from both sides is the sum and stuff of a working democracy.  In my 2012 post ‘The Muddled Middle’ I summarized the utility of such ‘polarized’ arguments –

Nothing will make it more clear to the dimly lit electorate than highlighting the differences as much as possible.  Everyone knows that the so-called center of the road is where the business-as-usual takes place which has gotten us to where we are, where all principle winds up as putrid roadkill.

In his How Not to be Wrong – The Power of Mathematical Thinking (2014) Jordan Ellenberg serves up a powerful graphic that documents how our current ideological spectrum divides itself on the Right/Left vs More/Less Informed plane (see figure).  The data points are generated from “a political survey taken by Public Policy Polling on December 15, 2011; there are one thousand dots, each representing a voter who responded to a twenty-three question poll. The position of a point on the left-right axis represents, well, left and right: people who said they supported President Obama, approved of the Democratic Party, and opposed the Tea Party tend to be on the left-hand side, while those who favored the GOP, disliked Harry Reid, and believed there is a “War on Christmas” are over on the right. The vertical axis stands roughly for “informedness”— voters toward the bottom of the graph tended to answer “don’t know” to more insidery questions like 'Do you approve or disapprove of the job [Senate Minority Leader ] Mitch McConnell is doing?” and to express little or no excitement about the 2012 presidential election.'"

We see that the contention about the muddled middle has a more solid basis than just anecdotal experiences as attributed by our polarized political pundits.  The most convincing argument about the intellectual paucity found near the yellow stripe on the road is that none who hang around there can define the tenets of their ideology, perhaps because they truly don’t have one (recall that an ‘ideology’ is a well-structured belief system that bears analysis and can be communicated).  The basis for the hubris shown by most middle-roaders remains a mystery to me.

[11feb15 update]  One of the wonders of the world is how America’s blacks swarm to support Democrat candidates.  These are politicians of the party that has had African-Americans screwed, blued, and tattooed for at least half a century.  It was Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society that gave rise to the destruction of a robust black middle class and its strong family culture.  Today almost all of that is gone, and only remnants remain at the margins.  To divert attention, the successes in these remnants are ballyhooed by the lamestream and Hollywood as evidence that leviathan is the best agent for righting the wrongs of history, heritance, and fortune.  Ignored are black crime rates, educational achievement, and the fact that 7 out of 10 blacks are born to single undereducated mothers.

Liberal intellectual Dr Daniel Patrick Moynihan, at the time a member of the Johnson administration, warned everyone to what kind of a plantation blacks would return if the Great Society approach were to be implemented.  Jason Riley in ‘Still Right on the Black Family After All These Years’ recounts Moynihan’s words from the 1960s  –

The fundamental problem is that of family structure, …the evidence - not final but powerfully persuasive - is that the Negro family in the urban ghettos is crumbling.

These predictions were vehemently rejected by the liberals of the time busy fashioning Great Society’s disasters-to-be in the workplace, education, and welfare.  By his own party “Moynihan was denounced as a victim-blaming racist bent on undermining the civil-rights movement.”

Now on the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act these prescient echoes from the past are being quietly but understandably ignored by the lamestream.  And in the interval no one in the government schools has told black children or parents about the socialist ideology that put them in their place and keeps them there today.  The dole level that plundered black culture and families comes to $88,000 annually – that is what the $20,000 incentive then given to single mothers calculates out to be.  And today that continues to be a mighty barrier to keep fathers out of the household, and the mother from seeking education or productive labor.  Its horrible impact on the children is another story whose chapters we read daily in the news.  But the greater tragedy in the making is that these central planners have the rest of us in the same sights.

And with evidence like that it is no wonder that the middle can be called muddled for not rejecting the ideology of class destruction, while they cling to the hollow solace of the yellow stripe.

Comments

[George Rebane]

Administrivia - Readers have contacted me that TypePad's Captcha(?) robot detector is not letting them post comments. I have a problem ticket in to TypePad on this and hope they can fix the problem quickly.

Since ToddJ successfully posted a comment earlier today, I would appreciate if some readers would post a test comment here to see how widespread the problem is. Thanks for your patience.

[Russ Steele]

I was wondering were all the voices were, the comments column was static for a long time. I was about to send you an e-mail when Todd broke the ice. The Captcha is not working. So I tried the Facebook log in.

[George Rebane]

RussS 1207pm - Thanks for checking in. I have disabled Captcha until TypePad can implement a fix. Everyone should now come through loud and clear ;-)

[fish]

I am enjoying seeing that those outliers circling the drain in a swirling pool of utter cluelessness and old Obama campaign promises are on the "left" side of the spectrum.

[Barry Pruett]

It seems that there a lot more data points on the far right side of the spectrum as well as a lot of data point on the left side of the spectrum who are ill-informed. Just an observation.

[fish]

Of course not all leftists are clueless.....some are pretty sharp.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/09/obama-hints-immigration-will-drown-conservatism/

Remember when it was just about humanitarianism?!?

[Bill Tozer]

Test # 1,387:

[Bill Tozer]

It worked!! It just posted without asking for the weird numbers or letters. Test # 1,388

[Bill Tozer]

The muddled middle is commonly know as No Man's Land. At least our friens on the far far hard extremist radical Left believe in something. I give them credit for that.

https://www.facebook.com/PatriotPost/photos/pb.51560645913.-2207520000.1423611183./10152794704945914/?type=3&theater

[Bill Tozer]

M
https://www.facebook.com/PatriotPost/photos/a.82108390913.80726.51560645913/10152789059055914/?type=1&theater

[Bill Tozer]

The hard left extreme radical Purple People really hated this man.

https://www.facebook.com/PatriotPost/photos/a.82108390913.80726.51560645913/10152783667380914/?type=1&theater

Guess the far far Radical hard Purple Lefties just see things differently.

https://www.facebook.com/PatriotPost/photos/a.82108390913.80726.51560645913/10152794412030914/?type=1&theater

Ok, ok. I hear ya. Enough visual aides......for awhile.

[fish]

Posted by: Bill Tozer | 10 February 2015 at 04:16 PM

The poor King of Jordan is going to find himself Rope-a-Doped off his throne!

[Bill Tozer]

X
What is a Muddled Middler going to do? I suggest the eat a bag of M&Ms.

http://m.thefiscaltimes.com/all/columns-2015-02-04-how-prepare-obama-s-spending-avalanche#1

[Bonnie McGuire]

George, you are so wonderful to have this site for people to discuss various subjects. With regard to what's politically left or right here's one test I heard during the early 90s. It turned out to be a surprise. Those who didn't like excessive government were liberal, and those who wanted more laws, taxes and government were conservative. Much like religious belief. Those who prefer the direct route of simplicity (or personal discipline and prayer) compared to those who like doctrine and ritual.
A wise man once said that politics is a circle. Left and right meet at some totalitarian point. The laws and regulations we make for others eventually strangles all of us. Our well intentioned big mommy government has turned our great society into the great American zoo by creating a society unBle to fend for itself....at the expense of heavily regulated and taxed producers...with no accountability nor responsibility required by the recipients. Is this kind and moral?

[Russ Steele]

Looking at the scatter plot, I wanted to draw some lines. Go to the top of the More Informed arrow, and draw a line in your mind that is perpendicular to the vertical arrow shaft at the very top end. There are a significant number of left-wingers that are reported to be "more informed" above this imaginary line. Can we assume that these dots represent the lefty professors at our colleges and universities?

Now go to the mid-point of the vertical arrow and it is easy to see there are more left wingers that are less informed than right-wingers, below this imaginary line. The left-wing plots dribble down the page, well beyond the right-wingers. Can we assume this represents the lefty low information voter crowd?

The left wing represents the extremes, the well informed and super less informed at the very bottom. I would like to see another layer, perhaps some colored dot for those considered to have a mental impairment, especially those at the extremes. It has been said that liberalism is sign of a mental illness. More work needs to be done on this analysis of left and right, there is more to discover.

[Gregory]

It would be interesting to see the questions and acceptable answers. It may well be the scoring is arguable, as there are more than a few undeniable truths the left hold sacrosanct that libertarians and conservative see differently.

It's undeniable the least informed are the idiot left. At least in that sample, they outnumber the idiot right handily.

[George Rebane]

I draw your kind attention to this post's 11feb15 update.

[Bill Tozer]

Well, I suppose you can't please all the Intellectual Lefties all the time. Just as things started to look bright, they start fighting amount themselves. Think I will run to the Muddled Middle until the shooting stops.

http://breakingenergy.com/2015/02/11/why-are-green-groups-unhappy-with-apples-big-solar-buy/

[Joe Koyote]

"It has been said that liberalism is sign of a mental illness." That sounds like a Fox news report, "people say the moon is made of green cheese and now lets watch this poor man get burned alive in a cage, which will be followed by a commercial for home security devices." What about the narcism associated with greed? That is not a mental illness? It has been said that conservatives are dumb as rocks and that is why they think liberals are mentally ill.

[fish]

What about the narcism associated with greed? That is not a mental illness? It has been said that conservatives are dumb as rocks and that is why they think liberals are mentally ill.

That's exactly the kind of comment that I'd expect from a disgruntled aging white male like yourself JoKe. What's it like to be in "the" demographic?

[Joe Koyote]

Carp --- It has been said that conservatives are dumb as rocks and that is why they think liberals are mentally ill. -- it was a play on Russ' earlier statement in case you missed it … Rocky

Does the fact that conservative's political support goes toward those with a true psychiatric disorder, narcism/greed, while suggesting that those who oppose the policies of the wealthy are “mentally ill” set off any alarms?

[Todd Juvinall]

There are more wealthy men and women of dem/lib registration in Congress. Dems like Steyer and Buffett and Soros are billionaires. Where do you libs get your bogus info? From out of your arse? You can't sell it anymore JoeK, we know the truth about all this "class warfare" and you are just a dumb foot soldier for it.

[fish]

Posted by: Joe Koyote | 11 February 2015 at 02:15 PM

I am as interested in the narcissism of leftist politicians...cough....President Teleprompter.....cough as you are in the narcissism of the wealthy.

Alarm bells....? All the time! I am smart enough to know though that I'm not going to be "rescued" by leftist politicians!

[drivebyposter]

"I am as interested in the narcissism of leftist politicians...cough....President Teleprompter."

I have to admit that I never thought that we would see another President as ill-suited and unprepared for the job as Bush II in my lifetime, but I was proven tragically wrong. Maybe the ecosystem of salesmen vs buyers (or, in this case, politicians vs voters) has fallen into a permanent sellers market. Modern sales techniques and delivery system of propaganda have improved so much that you could get a video game character elected President with sufficient funding. We'll end up with tailored political media buys for every individual in the country pushing a personality cult du jour.

All this talk of greed (other peoples', naturally) makes me think of an excellent topic for the host to cook up. The roots of altruism, especially the group variety.

[George Rebane]

drivebyposter 517pm - were you thinking of roots of altruism going back beyond Rousseau and the French revolution that ultimately led to Marx and the perfected society of 'communist man'?

[Paul Emery]

RE Drive by poster 5:17

I cant agree more. If Bush and Obama were first round NFL quarterbacks they would have been dumped after four years but due to our two party system they were rehired and enhanced the agony of incompetence. Thats because they made he big money people corporates happy that their interests were protected and since they control our two party system they were rehired. It's all so obvious why are we even talking about it.

[fish]

Posted by: Paul Emery | 11 February 2015 at 09:22 PM

Thats because they made he big money people corporates happy that their interests were protected and since they control our two party system they were rehired.

Yep that about sums it up Paul. By imbuing government with so much power to do good and allowing it intrusion into so many corners of our lives to do good you've made it an attractive target to wealthy and powerful men who will use it for their own ends. Maybe in a hundred years we'll have a government that protects against force and fraud, takes less from the citizenry, and minds its business overseas.

But then again......It's all so obvious why are we even talking about it.

[Paul Emery]

Fish

That's a respectable true Libertarian position

[drivebyposter]

" were you thinking of roots of altruism going back beyond Rousseau"

Back.

I'm thinking more about the evolution of altruism and it's expression in both physical and cultural evolution.

As a quick example, religion can be thought of as a mechanism for nudging people in the direction of altruistic behaviour towards non-related individuals. You can argue that humanity has evolved to be religious (whether it's Animism, Catholicism, or the canon of Progressive thought) in order to provide an emotional substrate for altruism.

Altruism, and the different ways and degrees to which it can be felt, strikes me as a relatively unexamined prime mover in peoples' political beliefs.

[Bill Tozer]

I think the highest altruistic plane is definitely owned by the Intellectual Progressives. They even reach down to speak up for our muddled mutts of inferior status. Bless them.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rxAaK0iJ2vQ

[fish]

Pivoting off our earlier exchange Paul.....the QB of TEAM EVIL is busily electing himself a new people. Presumably one more amenable to his wants.

"UPDATE: Amnestied illegals eligible for tax refunds -- even if they never paid taxes!

OH: Exec amnesty paves way for aliens to vote..."

Damn those evil Koch Bros and their nefarious plans!

[Joe Koyote]

"There are more wealthy men and women of dem/lib registration in Congress." prove it Todd.. where is your source? Besides, who cares.. it is the people behind the scenes that are important. Congresspeople are just shills for the powerful.

[Todd Juvinall]

Do your own homework JoeK. You are the typical liberal BSer. The reason the number of democrats in Congress are the richest is evident. They have the wealth. The R's are just mostly regular Americans and many are middle class. Your ilk is the socalled 1%. Live with it.

Regarding behind the scenes. Your ilk is also way ahead in money. Just take a few minutes and do your homework and you will see that the democrats are funded by the billionaires.

[Todd Juvinall]

Oh and one more thing. Since California is run by your ilk and in great numbers, does your thesis apply here too? Come on, tell us the truth.

[Bill Tozer]

Well, Dr. Rebane, I finally feel your dismay when no one comments on your subject at hand. Specifically the update on the destruction of the black family via the Great Society, thus by extension the destruction of the Black Middle Class,, including the unacceptable and astonishing piss poor unemployment, high school drop out, and out of wedlock birth rate just off the top of my head without going into the income levels.
Who screwed the black family unit and the myriad of ensuing societal headaches is a topic dear to my heart. Pick any long term secular study and its origins point to the carnage left in wake of The Great Liberal White Guilt Feel Good Society.
But, noooo, nobody wants to discuss this topic. I guess (besides sharing your disappointment concerning zero comments) I should thank my lucky stars that we don't have to go back and debate endlessly over 5,956 years of slavery and the horrible empowered ruling class Whities keeping the uppity Negros under their thumb. Seems we cannot discuss anything without some historical excuse from 1,200 years ago which overrides each and every topic. For that I am grateful.
The Black family enact unit survived before and after both world wars and was the foundation of local communities, churches, and support system.
Since Lydon Baines Johnson, that fiber of black society has been torn asunder. Gone with the wind.

[George Rebane]

BillT 1226pm - correctamundo Mr Tozer. Against that overwhelming example of failure of big government and socialist thought there is nothing to say. People of that mindset do best when they act as if it never happened, or better, promoting the lie that it was again the fault of free markets and capitalism. Our leftwing neighbors would rather talk about things like global warming in which the 95% of Americans who are innumerate can be bamboozled by more accessible, yet equally false, arguments like government constructed consensus science.

On a broader note, I often post on subjects, beliefs, interpretations about which I expect little or no comments. You see, part of the motivation for RR is for me to leave a record of such perceptions and understandings for those (besides my progeny) who in the future may be interested from an anthropological sense in what some people were thinking of in this day and age.

[Walt]

Progressive racism is alive and well. Here we go again with "Democrats" wanting to keep guns away from people on skin color alone,, then do their best to keep their views out of the public eye.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/13/michael-bloomberg-blocks-video-of-pro-gun-control-talk-from-being-published/

[Bill Tozer]

Back to altruism for a moment. This article addresses the topic of alturism. I have to admit the Left indeed has cornered the altiurism market.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/merrillmatthews/2015/02/13/busted-obamacare-co-ops-are-underwater-and-sinking-fast/

[George Rebane]

BillT 455am - Mr Tozer, we would both agree that the Left cornered the altruism market during the French Revolution (i.e. before Marx) when it picked that very selective and mostly absent character trait to be the basis for its newly prescribed social order. That selection heralded from the gitgo the Left's intellectual poverty. And they have been going downhill ever since, as they piled on newly patched public policies on older ones that never worked, all the while puzzled why humans don't behave as envisioned by the likes of Rousseau, Thoreau, and Marx.