I think you can make that case that the country as a whole has moved rightward since the 1960's. I'd argue, though, that the right hasn't made much of a "scam" about moving to the center (with the exception of people like O'Reilly). Most of the rhetoric I hear from the right clearly puts it on that side, and in the case of Sarah Palin and others almost seems to revel in it. There's an effort to discredit everything at the center and left as "loony," and they don't really hide the fact that they are trying to do just that.

Back to "The Economist." That magazine comes out of the UK and is actually a "liberal" rag. "Liberal" in the European laissez-faire tradition, which actually lines up with their right wing. Which can, at times, be to the left of the US left wing. Imagine that.