Both parties kicked out most of their moderates this cycle though.
The Far Left in America is basically Moderate anywhere else in the world.
Ah yes, I hear that quite often. But it is inaccurate to say that the US is simply more right-wing than say, Europe; in fact, the Left-Right spectrum as used in the US is different than Europe.
In Europe, the Left is associated with less government, anti-establishment groups, and individualism. Anarchists are considered a far-left ideology in Europe. The Right is associated with tradition, the establishment, and collectivism. Fascism is considered a far-right ideology in Europe.
Now, the US spectrum is iffy. The Left is associated with egalitarianism, secularism, opposition to big business, and progressivism. The Right is associated with religious fundamentalism, support of big business and free market capitalism, emphasis on "traditional values," and an Ayn Rand-esque "everybody's out for themselves" mantra.
So in Europe, the far-right (nationalists and fascists) is anti-capitalist and anti-big business, while in the US it staunchly supports deregulation and cutting vital government services. On the European scale, neither the Democrats nor Republicans are left-wing because they want more government control in certain issues.
In the latter case, the American Far Right has a long history with States' Rights and white supremacist circles, who historically supported weakening the federal government so that they can get away with oppressing non-Caucasians. In many ways, they're not small government so much as they approve of near-autonomy for state and local governments to do whatever they please. This would effectively allow small towns and rural states full of right-wing nutjobs to ignore the Constitution and act tyrannical towards people they hate.
So basically one ideology which is right-wing in the US can be liberal in Europe. Take Libertarians: they're fond of Ayn Rand, capitalism, and associate with the GOP as the "lesser of two evils," and they dislike liberals for supporting social security, healthcare, welfare, and regulation. In Europe, they'd be considered far-left for their distrust of government in almost everything.
Strangely, Communist regimes are considered left-wing in both America and Europe, even though many of them were authoritarian or relatively conservative on social issues.
Politics is weird like that.
