The sad future of the democratic party

[TaraJo]

I think the problem for the democrats has been of their own doing. Two problems, really, that are both from the same root.

In 1992, Bill Clinton ran as a moderate. He adopted many of the more popular Republican positions and was known for pushing through Welfare reform. Short term, this helped the democrats because the Republicans adopted an increasingly extreme position in order to paint themselves as in opposition to Clinton. It worked for Clinton; even though the GOP despised him enough to impeach him over a blowjob, he was able to pass legislation effectively.

However, there was a big cost. Over time, as the GOP was forced to take extreme positions, those extreme positions became the new normal, American politics in general got pushed to the right. Obama tried something similar, and while he wasn't as effective, he again pushed things to the right. Combine that with the VERY hard right the Republicans took in the wake of 9/11, and the country has moved so fucking far to the right that Eisenhower, a Republican, and even Nixon, would have been considered too far left for even mainstream democrats and even Ronald Reagan is routinely quoted by many Democrats. The previous positions of Democrats have largely been abandoned, alive through only a few hold-outs like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

If the democrats really want to stand for something, if they really want to change things, they need to start taking a hard stand on left wing politics. Get the corporate influence out of their party, strengthen labor unions, raise the top tax rate and for god's sake, yeah, find a way to talk about legitimate identity politics issues without being an asshole. Me, I'd be much more thrilled to vote for a Democrat that could do these things.