(February 3, 2019 at 5:25 pm)Yonadav Wrote:(February 3, 2019 at 4:45 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: The democratic party would be seen as radically right wing by UK standards, and we aren't that left wing. The US has been nudging further and further right for decades until the last election where you took a massive lunge to the right which has emboldened the worlds arseholes.
Our left took an ass beating in 1972. Centrist Dems have been terrified of leaning left ever since. The New Democrats completely took over the party in the 90s. The New Democrats are guided by a think tank called The Progressive Policy Institute. Al Frum says that he named it that so that the media would not call it the Democrats conservative think tank.
I don't think that Trump's election was a massive lunge to the right. We've been trending to the right, largely with the help of the New Democrats. If there was a massive lunge to the right, it happened during the rise of the Tea Party and the Republican capture of the House in 2010.
I'm not certain how much you can blame us for emboldening the world's assholes. Before Trump, there was Brexit. And before that, illiberal democracies were on the rise. I don't think that it is possible for a democracy to become illiberal without illiberal elements dominating both the right and the left. So we have a huge problem with a growing illiberal mentality. It's convenient to put it all on Trump. But that's giving Trump way too much credit. He has been putting on the world's most embarrassing shit show, but Trump is a symptom and not the disease.
BM. So true, and a shameful comment on what a lot of people in this country are really like. The decent people may have to hold their noses again and vote for "not the chump", instead of cutting them off to spite the system.
If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.
