More generally, if you don’t/haven’t lived in the United States (or have only ever visited/lived in a large city,) and only consume “mainstream” US-based news,

More generally, if you don’t/haven’t lived in the United States (or have only ever visited/lived in a large city,) and only consume “mainstream” US-based news, like the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, etc., you’ll get a center-left-slanted view of the United States. The first problem with that, from the perspective of forming an accurate view of the populace, is that, as a whole, the US leans ever-so-slightly center-right[0]. The second problem is that much of our political news is a circus whereby both political parties attempt to paint a picture that the “majority” of the country is behind more extreme interpretations of their platforms — that the country leans more heavily to the left or the right than it really does. The Republican Party has been doing this for more than a generation; its a more recent phenomenon with the Democrats. 0 - https://news.gallup.com/poll/275792/remained-center-right-ideologically-2019.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/275792/remained-center-right-id...