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I can't help but gasp at how tragically the american political spectrum is skewed. I mean, looking at it from europe, breitbart is "crazed right wing extremists", obama is center-right, and the guardian is center-left.

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And is the European perspective more valid than the American? Why isn't it Europe that's skewed?

Also I note that "Europe" is a big place and quite politically diverse.

It isn't a question of validity, but rather a semantic dispute as the US spectrum has shifted to the right quite a bit during the last half of a century (it’s quite easy to see remnants of the red scare to this day). And you are left with a two-party system, both very liberal economically, but one who is reactionary & openly religious-backed while the other arguably tries to be liberal in other social facets.

Yes, Europe is a big place, but the US is too, and it's quite common to travel a few hundred kilometers in europe and see a completely different political situation. Of course they are still large tendencies (synthesized into european parliament groups), but they really don't mean much and more importantly have no decisive power on their own.

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