Are liberals the new moderates? Is the left the new center?

Please bear in mind, as party is not equal to Party, the "left" is not the "Left." If the former describes a relative position on a bi-directional, uni-dimensional spectrum of ideology, the latter describes a political movement with certain core ideological principles of political economy. They are not the same. What I am talking about below is the former, the "left."

And further, I'm not going to spend time here addressing ideological labels like "liberal" and "progressive" (as well as "moderate" and "conservative") and what they mean. As such, labels are proper nouns and things like "left" and "right" and "center" are terms of relative position on the aforementioned spectrum. And even further, I am not going to address the multi-axial, perhaps multi-directional nature of ideology in terms of both mass versions in the electorate and on an individual level. Too much for a quick exposition of ideas that seem more operative in a sense of timeliness. And I suppose, these relative and proper labels are certainly not integrative of the discontinuity of self-identification and policy preference.

I've been reading and hearing a lot that the difference between Larry Summers and say, a David Sirota, in terms of ideological approach, is much less than say between Larry Summers and a Henry Paulson. I think that this is probably true, regardless of the timing. In terms of real ideological character, I'm not so sure. But that's not my point here.

The somewhat radicalizing terms in which we live, both by virtue of the tail end of the Bush years, and the consolidation of the effects of a 30 year-plus dominance of conservatism and market fetishism, has perhaps altered the relativity of the ideological spectrum. Liberal is now the new moderate. See: regulation and government intervention into the economy for the purposes of public good. And left seems to be the new center. More on this later, but it's an idea of weight, I think.

What this means in terms of consequent action by virtue of the national mood and public acceptance of different policies and political approaches...wow. It could be drastic.

(Note: I think I spent more time explaining what I was and wasn't going to say versus saying something. That's OK. The idea itself is merely being tossed out - understanding what that idea is can be very important.)