Are we a conservative nation?

Yglesias and Krugman are not very impressed with a Newsweek editorial that claims that America is a center-right country. But it's hard to deny the article's conclusion - compared with Europe or Canada, we have "a much higher tolerance for inequality, much greater cultural conservatism, a higher incarceration rate, legalized handguns and greater distrust of the state."

Krugman and Yglesias think that the article is wrong because the failure of conservative rule will change America's mind about conservatism. I am skeptical. More lenient crime laws, gun control, abolishment of the death penalty, and "redistribution of wealth" are not even on the table, as far as this election is concerned. And they're not on the table because Obama knows they are not winnable issues. Bush's failure soured America on tax cuts and war, but it did nothing to change America's opinion on a host of cultural and quasi-cultural issues. The article is right to point that out.

One thing the article neglects, though, is that it ignored America's long, slow drift toward cultural liberalism - a drift that s independent of any election cycle. Americans used to oppose interracial marriage - we now support it. We used to oppose gay marriage, but we're close to accepting that too.

Another mistake the article makes is that it compares us only to other majority-white countries. If you compare us to China or Japan, we look like total liberals. Remember, those are countries where drug dealers are executed, beggars aren't tolerated on the street, race and gender discrimination is perfectly legal, and there is no right to a jury trial. And it is these and other Asian countries against which we will increasingly be forced to compare ourselves.

So I think Yglesias and Krugman are wrong - "conservative" sentiment will still be a powerful force in this country long after Obama moves into the Oval Office (knock on wood). But not forever. In a decade or two, we might look like a bastion of liberalism.