When you look at the political climate of the United States, or the world at large for that matter, there is an undeniable shift to the left. The conservatives of today hold radical ideas to the people of 100, or even fifty, years ago. Radical liberals in eras past espouse ideas that sound positively backwards in today’s society. Consider the following quote of Abraham Lincoln’s, in an 1858 debate.

I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. … And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

Today we teach our children that Lincoln was the great liberator, a man who believed in the equality of the races and who didn’t understand how blacks could be subjugated. The reality is that he opposed slavery, but was still just as much of a racist as most at the time. Imagine a politician saying something like this now, it would sound so terribly ignorant that they’d be run out of town with pitchforks and torches. Remember Bill Bennett saying that you could “abort every black baby and the crime rate would go down”? Compared to Lincoln, that statement sounds rather benign.

No one today would seriously suggest that women don’t deserve the right to vote. Grover Cleveland, a rather liberal president, once remarked that “sensible and responsible women do not want to vote.” Imagine, for a moment, that whether or not women should vote was even brought up in a presidential debate, let alone the fate of the candidate who argued on the negative.

I give this brief history lesson because of a recent poll yesterday by one Tony Fabrizio, asking GOP voters their opinion of a number of issues that we would imagine are fairly cut and dry. After discovering that over 70% of Republican voters are conservatives, which is a little lower than I would have expected, we find the meat of the article:

Fifty-one percent of the GOPers said universal healthcare coverage should be a right of every American, and 49 percent favored allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

…

Nearly four in five Republicans said that U.S. foreign policy should be based on protecting economic and national security interests, versus 16 percent who preferred basing it on spreading democracy.

Roughly half of GOP voters polled support blatantly left-wing ideas. Now think about the general attitude of Republicans and conservatives in the media and in Washington when it comes to both of these, particularly the first one. One only needs to listen to the talking points concerning Michael Moore’s new film to see what the majority of those representing the party think of universal health care. Calling it communism isn’t abnormal at all.

The country is moving to the left, slowly but surely. But a question arises: should the politicians care what the polls say? It’s a fair question. After all, if the point of a democracy is that the people are in charge, then the politicians should pay close attention and vote accordingly. If they’re in office to do the will of those who elected them, then that’s the only choice.

However, there is the “trustee” theory. Conceding that the politicians should, ideally, know far more about the issues than the rest of us, then it stands to reason that even if the majority of the constituents think one way, the official should vote on his own. The voters themselves choose who they want to make the decisions.

Neither theory is, really, ideal. In the first case, it renders party and the like moot while putting the nation at the mercy of the majority. While there is a liberal shift, it’s hard to say if it moves as quickly as it should and there are certainly examples of radical ideas being foisted upon an unhappy citizenry that eventually proved better in the long run. In the latter, then anyone in office is now isolated and the voters all just need to cross their fingers and hope they didn’t screw up.

Ideally, they should indeed pay attention to this, but not use it as an instruction manual. However, when the majority of the opposition and roughly half of your own party is starting to support or oppose something or other, it may make sense for those on the hill to pay attention. Anyone finding themselves on the wrong side of something that the country clearly wants would do wise to take note. Particularly, in this case, when it represents another step in the inevitable shift to the left that the United States continues on.

Well there’s a shocker. In a move that will surprise absolutely no one, the White House decided that, being the executive branch, they don’t need to abide by those pesky subpoenas.

Setting up a battle royal between Congress and the White House, the Bush administration asserted executive privilege Thursday morning in denying requests from lawmakers for documents and testimony from former top White House officials related to the ongoing U.S. attorneys probe.

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) immediately suggested that a contempt of Congress citation may be necessary.

“The President’s response to our subpoena shows an appalling disregard for the right of the people to know what is going on in their government,” Conyers said.

Of course! See, it makes perfect sense. The White House assures us all that they aren’t doing anything wrong, and then prevents Congress from checking for themselves. It’s win-win. The administration continues to not break the law, and we children don’t worry our poor little heads about it. Oh, and that other thing? Don’t worry. Tony Snow, of course, provides his normal idiotic banter.

Just Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, demanding documents pertaining to terrorism-era warrant-free eavesdropping. “It’s an outrageous request,” White House press secretary Tony Snow said.

“It’s pretty clear that again members of Congress are engaged in an attempt … to try to do what they can to make life more difficult for the White House,” Snow said. “It also explains why this is the least popular Congress in decades, because you do have what appears to be a strategy of destruction rather than cooperation.”

Honestly, he’s right. Congress is trying to make life more difficult for the White House. As for destruction… Whitewater? Filegate? Lewinksi? Jones? Ron Brown? Newt Gingrich led nonstop attacks on Clinton for the entire second half of his presidency, all of which amounted to nothing. Meanwhile this administration is stonewalling information on crucial matters about the legality of their activities, and Tony Show has the balls to say it’s the Congress who has a “strategy of destruction”?

Once again, fuck you Tony Snow.