...then why are most Americans fairly consistently "left-leaning" (in the American sense) on both social and economic issues or "right-leaning" on,again, both social and economic issues?
Is there a poll that proves this? Most people I talk to when questioned carefully are an amalgam of various political viewpoints on different issues. There are also a lot of people that are kind of libertarian. For example we may not approve of certain things for ourselves but we don't think the government should be in the business of telling other people to adhere to our personal moral code. And then on other issues we may have strong feelings about them but we don't think implementing those ideas is practical. I personally think the country would be better off if we banned ALL guns. Well maybe would could have some very tightly regulated guns for hunting or sport shooting. But I realize that isn't practical so I wouldn't be inclined to vote for someone that ran on such a platform.
