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1) The far-right, which wants to turn back the clock to 1890. It's an odd coalition of libertarians (who seem unaware that the Gilded Age ever happened), the Religious Right, and Alt-Right nut-jobs. This faction is the "grass roots" or "base" of the Republican Party.
2) The rational-right, which is mainly made up of Big Business interests who want neoliberal economic policy and open borders. This faction is represented by the establishment of both the Republican and Democratic Parties.
3) The far-left, which is made up of anti-vaxxers, New Age quacks, career academics, urban hipsters, angry feminists, over-zealous environmentalists, anti-nuclear people, etc. This faction is is the "grass roots" or "base" of the Democratic Party.
What we really don't have in this country is a "rational left" that focuses on economic issues. We don't have a significant faction that cares about the following: the growing gap between the rich and everyone else, job losses due to neoliberalism and automation, employee rights, working conditions, vacation time, corruption of politics by corporate interests, etc.
In my opinion, we desperately need a Rational Left that focuses on the economic issues facing the bottom 99%, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual preferences, etc. We need a new FDR and a "New" New Deal. Enough with the identity politics that divides the 99%!
Hillary was a rational/centrist Democrat. As were many of the people who voted for her.
Bernie was on board with the gap between rich and poor, etc - but I think you would classify him as 'far-left".
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Fail. There isn't a far left in this country. Even Bernie Sanders would have been a mainstream Dem in the 1970s. We have far right, center right, and center left. There is no far left. No one is speaking for progressive environmental policies, or for unionization and workers rights, not in any real sense. The modern Dems are 1970s Republicans, and modern Republicans are just so far right it is ridiculous.
1) The far-right, which wants to turn back the clock to 1890. It's an odd coalition of libertarians (who seem unaware that the Gilded Age ever happened), the Religious Right, and Alt-Right nut-jobs. This faction is the "grass roots" or "base" of the Republican Party.
2) The rational-right, which is mainly made up of Big Business interests who want neoliberal economic policy and open borders. This faction is represented by the establishment of both the Republican and Democratic Parties.
3) The far-left, which is made up of anti-vaxxers, New Age quacks, career academics, urban hipsters, angry feminists, over-zealous environmentalists, anti-nuclear people, etc. This faction is is the "grass roots" or "base" of the Democratic Party.
What we really don't have in this country is a "rational left" that focuses on economic issues. We don't have a significant faction that cares about the following: the growing gap between the rich and everyone else, job losses due to neoliberalism and automation, employee rights, working conditions, vacation time, corruption of politics by corporate interests, etc.
In my opinion, we desperately need a Rational Left that focuses on the economic issues facing the bottom 99%, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual preferences, etc. We need a new FDR and a "New" New Deal. Enough with the identity politics that divides the 99%!
I disagree with the premises. This seems to be a false equivalence claim, ignoring the fact that the mainstream left exist. In fact, there was NOTHING far left about the DNC Convention.
I continue to be confused as to why you think things like ubiquitous automation and rampant human disemployment, UBI (and universal government-provided other things), and elimination of property ownership, privacy, and human self-determination will, as a matter of course, lead us to more liberty. All of these things -- that I think we are headed toward -- appear to be the antithesis of liberty to me.
Technology has always eventually helped the masses. Once sufficient technology comes at a sufficiently low cost people will push for libertarianism because they will be able to be 100% self sufficient. A universal basic income is there to get us over the gap between mass unemployment, and mass self sufficiency.
Technology has always eventually helped the masses. Once sufficient technology comes at a sufficiently low cost people will push for libertarianism because they will be able to be 100% self sufficient. A universal basic income is there to get us over the gap between mass unemployment, and mass self sufficiency.
Thanks. I understand your reasoning more now (though I still see the outcome differently).
I think self-sufficiency is hard. I don't know if there's any coming back from this:
But, I also always thought the Earth of Star Trek: TNG (post-scarcity) was where communism and libertarianism met and had a beautiful baby.
While I agree with some of what you said, as a Libertarian I find the inclusion as being far right laughable. We are the centrists, the Constitutionally wise, the small government party, the live and let live while keeping government out of our business. We are the adults in the room.
Dude! You're like MSM. Every hundred posts You call out conservative anything 99 times and give a token nod to something moronic and undeniable (like Wiener) on the left sparingly. I can;t recall anything from you being negative on anything Obama did, you even backed the Iran deal.
Yep, you are totally balanced.
I don't think I've ever heard of libertarians being centrist before.
No, we don't. "We" need to go back to the Constitution as it was originally intended and get rid of all of the failed socialist liberal policies that have undermined the integrity of the Republic.
We need an anti-new deal and to go back to grass roots movements without thinking the magical Fed fairy has the answers to life's woes.
The USA was libertarian from 1776 until FDR. It was hell on earth, unless you were born into wealth and privilege.
LMAO. You call a country that practiced slavery & had Jim Crow laws "libertarian"? I don't know what your definition of libertarian is, but that definitely isn't it. Libertarians are not "right wing" in the traditional sense of left vs. right in the United States.
There were some libertarian aspects of the founding of the country, but there was plenty that was not libertarian also.
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