just as the poster you are replying too overestimates the liberalism of the country, you seem to overestimate the conservativeness. This is a midterm election, where the party in power is usually on poor ground, and the economy still sucks. That more than anything is responsible for their troubles. The rightward swing of the Republicans has more complicated causes, but it seems unlikely to me that it is because the American people as a whole are getting more conservative. The people who vote in primaries are a small minority.