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Many of President Obama's initiatives have been very progressive and even hard-left. No other president has every put forward such a radical restructuring of the health care industry as did Obama who pushed it forward on a party line basis. He's been pushing hard for radically changing the labor laws in this country, and has actually changed the rules in favor of unions in the NLRB. He's a big advocate for expanded government presence in schools, as well as in the bedroom with his push for free prophylactics as well as promoting the courts to legislate same sex marriage, instead of leaving it to the state legislatures. He actually accomplished increasing tax rates both in income tax as well as the death tax.
You can like Obama's actions, or dislike them, but there is no denying that they have been uniformly hard left and progressive, even with a minor amount of push back from the loyal opposition in Congress (which FDR didn't have).
Hoo boy. He gave us a health care system invented by a conservative think tank and you call that radical?
And free ... prophylactics? Besides wondering who talks like that nowadays, I'm dying to know where you got that from. No, really.
Plus the man is in bed with Wall Street.
Then you bring us this "minor" opposition from a "loyal" opposition ... To describe a GOP that declared their only goal would be to oppose everything he did, thought or said almost before the inauguration.
Do you write fiction for a living, or do you just dabble a bit here on CD?
The Democratic Party has been pretty solidly center left since Reagan. It is the GOP that has been killing its moderates, and drifting right. A center left candidate has nothing to worry about in the primaries. A center right candidate would be attacked from the right. We have seen just that in the last few election cycles.
I suppose if you were in a boat drifting out to sea, you would perceive the shoreline drifting away from you...but you would be wrong.
How are Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton any different from FDR?
I am confused. If FDR is a progressive then that only goes to show how far right this country has turned. Because "progressive" in today's language is levied as an insult.
The Democrats seem to me to have been toothless for decades. No president can fulfill all of his campaign promises- and I never expect that. But I really did expect more from Clinton, our prosperity at the time notwithstanding (on AIDS especially). And apart from Clinton we seem to be operating in an increasingly rightist atmosphere since Reagan (who of course, is the great hero of the Far Right). There is a growing entrenched influence from the Evangelicals that is more than a bit terrifying. I am a believer in Jesus, but the Christian church has changed DRAMATICALLY in this country into a terrifying Shira-law-esque juggernaut. This is where we are going.
Centrist is a place that takes time and effort and thought to arrive at. You can't believe in simple answers because there aren't any. People seem to fall for slogans, they desperately want someone to blame, and their fears and best intentions can be used against them. The dialogue has completely broken down and I do blame the right for that. Bringing religion into our political discourse and not only religion but a certain narrow interpretation of what you believe is right is absolutely a dangerous place to be, whether that is from the left or from the right. It only makes all of us more entrenched.
Hillary has never struck me as someone I'd vote for. I have never cared for her personally- she seems rather stilted and much more of a typical politician. She may be interested in many of the same things as alot of other liberals, but she seems much more likely to fall into a Washington groove and not do a whole lot but pontificate. I am a woman and I always say two words when other women I know want to vote for Hillary because "women would do a better job"...."Margaret Thatcher". I didn't vote for Obama because he was black either. I thought he was the best person for the job. People have to think about their choices. I am an independent Jesus follower but I am not a Christian and I NEVER want the government representing me in the name of Jesus. NO THANK YOU. Do your job. You are NOT my priest, my council. The Democrats have not stood up clearly enough and if going more to the left will eventually help us regain some sort of equilibrium and understanding then I am all for it.
As an actual socialist...there is nothing about the Democratic Party that has "shifted left"...at all. If anything, they've shifted right a bit. Social issues don't really count since every generation is "more socially liberal" than the previous - if you get distracted by social issues, then you've let the mainstream media make decisions for you.
OTOH the GOP has completely destroyed their moderates and keep going further and further right, so in comparison it looks like the Democrats are moving left, but they're actually pretty much staying where they were.
Economically speaking they are both neoliberal parties. One a bit moreso than the other.
I always find it hilariously sad when people brainwashed by Fox News propaganda try to define what left, right, socialist, liberal, "progressive"-whatever that is, conservative, etc. are. It never fails to sound like a two year old trying to explain the fundamentals of astrophysics.
Today's Democrat Party has effectively purged all moderate Democrats and there is no such thing as a conservative Democrat anymore. The reason the party has lurched so far to the left is that the people left in it are members of special interest identity groups such as illegal aliens, gays, blacks, public sector union members, and environmentalist extremists.
If the Democrat Party weren't falling off the left end of the political spectrum as it is now, the LWNJs that make up the base would bolt. Remember, the LWNJ base is the same group of people that thinks Obama is "moderate." This despite the fact that while in the Senate Obama had among the most liberal voting records of any Senator in U.S. history.
As an actual socialist...there is nothing about the Democratic Party that has "shifted left"...at all. If anything, they've shifted right a bit. Social issues don't really count since every generation is "more socially liberal" than the previous - if you get distracted by social issues, then you've let the mainstream media make decisions for you.
OTOH the GOP has completely destroyed their moderates and keep going further and further right, so in comparison it looks like the Democrats are moving left, but they're actually pretty much staying where they were.
Economically speaking they are both neoliberal parties. One a bit moreso than the other.
I always find it hilariously sad when people brainwashed by Fox News propaganda try to define what left, right, socialist, liberal, "progressive"-whatever that is, conservative, etc. are. It never fails to sound like a two year old trying to explain the fundamentals of astrophysics.
Here's a good example of what I was talking about in the prior post.
The Democratic Party has been pretty solidly center left since Reagan. It is the GOP that has been killing its moderates, and drifting right. A center left candidate has nothing to worry about in the primaries. A center right candidate would be attacked from the right. We have seen just that in the last few election cycles.
I suppose if you were in a boat drifting out to sea, you would perceive the shoreline drifting away from you...but you would be wrong.
And another one. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
. It is the GOP that has been killing its moderates, and drifting right. A center left candidate has nothing to worry about in the primaries. A center right candidate would be attacked from the right. We have seen just that in the last few election cycles.
I don't know where you get this idea, the Republicans seem to be killing off its conservative wing in fairly efficient manner.
The conservatives were really thrown to the curb in the past 2 pres. elections especially, the party hasn't elected a solid, movement conservative since Reagan. Unapologetic conservatives like Jesse Helms have faded from the scene.
Here's a good example of what I was talking about in the prior post.
I am not a Democrat, so no, I don't fit your preconceived notions of what Democrats are that were built by Fox News propaganda.
Thanks for playing though.
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