Public Opinion: Rethinking Left's Pushback Against 'Center-Right Country'

From Gallup, "Labor Unions See Sharp Slide in U.S. Public Support":

Gallup finds organized labor taking a significant image hit in the past year. While 66% of Americans continue to believe unions are beneficial to their own members, a slight majority now say unions hurt the nation's economy. More broadly, fewer than half of Americans -- 48%, an all-time low -- approve of labor unions, down from 59% a year ago.

And note this part about how unions harm workers and the economy:

The percentage saying unions mostly hurt the companies where workers are organized has risen from 39% in 2006 to 46% in the latest poll. As a result, Americans are now evenly divided over whether unions mostly help or mostly hurt these companies, whereas in all previous measures the balance of opinion was positive.

There has been an even larger jump in the percentage saying labor unions mostly hurt the U.S. economy, from 36% in 2006 to 51% today. This is the first time since the question was established in 1997 that more Americans have said unions hurt rather than help the economy. Americans' general concerns about the current state of the economy could certainly be a factor in these more negative views of unions, in addition to specific perceptions about unions.

When I read findings like this I'm always struck by how little leftists are now crowing about how we're no longer a "center-right nation." Christopher Beam echoed the leftist triumphalism last December, attempting to smack down the "center-right" meme:

Since the election, conservatives have consoled themselves with the idea that Obama may have won, but America is still a "center-right nation." But the phrase is tossed around with little evidence—possibly because there is none. Even if there were evidence, the term is so muddled as to be meaningless.

There are some still clinging to the notion, however ... for example, the hard-left netroots types, at Daily Kos: "It is NOT a Center-Right Country!."

We may have a Center-Right Media.

We may have a Center-Right Punditry-ville.

But our Country, and the majority of the American People in our "Two America's" are NOW decidedly a deeper shade of Blue!

Now, if you check the post, the polling items seem to suggest a huge left wing orientation. But then again, when we look at Gallup's results above, the latest surveys on generic ballot preferences for the 2010 midterms (trending GOP), as well as President Obama's steep deterioration in public approval, leftists can't be too confident that America is no longer a "center-right nation."

Related: New York Post, "President Obam's Poll Numbers Continue to Tumble," and Patterico, "Obama’s Poll Numbers Keep Going Down." Even the communists are noticing! See, the International Committee of the Fourth International, "Obama’s Poll Numbers Plummet."