"Ruth, I think you are being manipulated by the media. If you look at sheer numbers, American would have to be "more" right wing than Britain, but if you compared percentages I am sure that we are about the same, if not more liberal.

Socialism is a dirty word around here, just like liberal, ONLY because the definitions are different between the two countries. Socialism and liberalism is equated to communism by the wacko conservatives in this country, but if you look at our system of government and services - there is more socialism at work than most people realize."

Hi Ron. I'm only speaking as I find. Please remember that I spent my first 23 years in America and the next 18 in the UK. I was once a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. This is a party that many of my family (white, working-class Catholics from NJ) saw as "extreme left", yet it embodied many policies that were not only mainstream, but actually a part of daily life in the UK: stuff like free healthcare. When I talk to my family about how I miss free university tuition, their jaws drop at the very suggestion that such a thing could even exist, and they are amazed whrn I tell them how little university place sstill cost here, largelythanks to government subsidy. And my conversation with one of my cousins about voluntary philanthropy vs the welfare state just last week demonstrated to me that there is still a huge gulf between what is accepted as mainstreamn policy in the UK and what would be considered pretty radical in America.

I know that there are left-wing people in America, and having lived in NJ, NY and Los Angeles, I met a fair few. I took part in my share of political action before I ever came to the UK, and met lots of liberal, free-thinking people. I'm a member of the Billy Bragg internet forum, where I meet numerous Americans who are very much on the same political spectrum as me. But my experience of growing up surrounded by "average Joes" suggests that these people are the exception rather than the rule.

Alice: read my post again. I am not projecting the Bliar experience onto Obama. That's my whole point.