We can blame FOX all we want but the idea that the other MSM outlets have been convinced that facts are too liberal and that having two opposing views, not necessarily polar opposites, (it's OK to have the radical right point of view but we can't have the more extreme left point of view), has helped push the country's political leanings to the right, because that's what they hear. Added to this is the FCC allowing too many right wing stations and no longer any real balance.

Alex @1,

You pointed out that machinations of the MSM "has helped push the country's political leanings to the right".

That seems to be a safe bet.

The larger populace is still less to-the-right than the government, the corporations, and the MSM.

Those three are involved with power, and we have had a philosophy or belief that "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely" in our culture for some time.

There are abiotic as well as biological factors at work in the world too, so perhaps they should be noted too.

I agree that the government is to the right of the populace (when polls are taken on any major issue the polls indicate that the people are less conservative than the decisions made).
This is because the media and political monies are to the right. The baby-boomers are still trying to prove to the world that they are "grown-ups" now, by going against everything they espoused in the 60s. To do that they are trying to be more conservative. Conservative and immature is what we are getting now from the House of Reps. Conservative does not mean grown up, and the current version is very infantile and selfish.

It is not acceptable that a handful of right-wing extremists in the House have shut down the government and are now pushing for the United States, for the first time in our history, to not pay its bills --- precipitating a likely international financial crisis.  It is widely believed that there now exists in the House a majority of members (virtually all Democrats and some moderate Republicans) who are prepared to vote for a clean continuing budget resolution which would immediately re-open the government.  House Speaker Boehner must allow the House to have that vote.
 
It is also important that people understand that the real issue here is not just the desire of Republicans to defund Obamacare. At a time when the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing, these right-wing ideologues want to repeal virtually every piece of legislation passed in the last 80 years which protects the elderly, the children, the sick, the poor and the environment.  The truth is that ending Obamacare is just a small part of the right-wing extremist agenda, which is heavily funded by the Koch brothers and other very wealthy and powerful special interests.  Their full agenda includes privatizing Social Security, ending Medicare as we know it, slashing Medicaid funding, eliminating the EPA and the Department of Energy and abolishing the concept of the minimum wage.  Needless to say, they also want more tax breaks for the rich and large corporations.  It should be clear to everyone that their long-term goal is to move this country into an oligarchic form of society in which billionaires completely control the economic and political life of this nation. Sen. Bernie Sanders