I was having a discussion with Kerry the other day and he said (paraphrasing) that the US is a center-right nation. I immediately concurred as I have been hearing this piece of conventional wisdom for 25+ years. But then I wondered.

The US has changed a great deal in my lifetime. I recall when the nation was waiting for its 200th million occupant. I believe the current population exceeds 300 million. So perhaps the conventional wisdom of the US being center-right has out-lived its usefulness.

But, if we assume for this discussion (though feel free to differ) that the US is a center-right nation I ask this question:

How come so many of its institutions are clearly populated with center-left (many would call themselves progressives) people. Here are a few examples -

1. The press, media, news organizations

2. The educators from K-12 and college/universities

3. The unions

4. The entertainment industry (except, perhaps sports): TV, Movies, books, music, etc.

5. Most main-stream religions (I'm limiting this to Christianity only because I am not qualified to discuss the make-up of other faiths). The religious-right is a favorite 'bad-guy' for progressives but most main-stream religions: Episcopalians, main-stream-protestants, Catholics (except for their teachings on sex), etc. It's actually a fairly small segment of the self-identified Christians who would ascribe to the values of what is called the religious-right. Most main-stream Christians are both taught and personally subscribe to beliefs that are much closer to the left than the right.

So. If this is a center-right nation what groups or organization have anywhere near the number of members of the above groups and espouse a center-right agenda?