Leaders of both the Republican and Democratic Parties believe, or pretend to believe, that the American people have resolutely moved to the center, abandoning the 'extremes' of left and right. But is that really so? I maintain that most Americans are clearly liberal, and many even further left. I think that this would be revealed if the public was asked questions along the following lines.

• Would you like to have a government-run healthcare system which covered all residents for all ailments at no charge at all?
• Would you like to have a government-financed education system where all schooling, including medical school and law school, should be free?
• Do you think that when corporations are faced with a choice between optimizing their revenue and doing what's best for the environment, public health, or public safety that they should almost always choose in favor of optimizing their revenue, as they do now?
• Do you think that abortion is a question best left up to a woman and her doctor?
• Do you think that the United States should officially be a totally secular nation or one officially based on religious beliefs?
• Do you think that large corporations and their political action committees exercise too much political power?
• Do you think that corporate executive salaries are highly excessive?
• Do you think that the tax cuts for the super-rich instituted by the Bush administration should be cancelled and their taxes thus increased?
• Do you think that the minimum wage should be increased to what is called a 'living wage,' which would be at least $10 per hour?
• Do you think that the government should take all measures necessary to guarantee that corporations have retirement plans for all workers that the retirement funds are safeguarded?
• Do you think that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was a mistake?
• Do you think that the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was a mistake?
• Do you think that United States support of Israel is excessive?
• Do you approve of the treatment of people captured by the United States as part of its so called War on Terror - the virtually complete loss of legal and human rights, and subjection to torture?

[...]

And for those readers who wonder where all the money would come from to pay for the education, medical care, and so forth, that's the easy part - The Defense Department would have to do what peace groups often have to do: hold bake sales.

To those who like to tell themselves and others that they don't have any particular ideology, I say this: if you have thoughts about why the world is the way it is, why society is the way it is, why people are the way they are, what a better way would look like, and if your thoughts are fairly well organized, then that's your ideology, even if it's not wholly conscious as such.