5 ms·
In what sense could that possibly be "left" then?
by mbillie1 9y ago
In what sense could that possibly be "left" then?
- leereeves 9y agoThe American sense. Europeans might disagree and say that all Americans are on the right.
- mbillie1 9y ago> The American sense. With no economic components I'm genuinely curious what you consider the "American sense" of the left, in the sense of actual policy. Pro-choice, I guess?
- leereeves 9y agoWell, look at Hillary's platform: https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/ https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/ The economic components were maybe 1/3 of her platform, and not all of her economic positions were incompatible with free markets.
- mbillie1 9y agoI would dispute that Hillary is a left candidate whatsoever - she is a centrist, hawkish free-market neoliberal.
- leereeves 9y agoOpinions differ on the meaning of left/right. Europeans would probably consider her centrist or right-wing. Californians too, perhaps. But by American standards, her platform was well left of the average politician. (Though I suspect, had she been elected, she would have ignored the platform and governed as a corporatist.)
- mbillie1 9y ago> But by American standards, her platform was well left of the average politician. Again, only if you entirely discount her economic positions, which are the core positions of any "left" figure. You're free to paint with however wide a brush you wish, and your other comments in this thread leave little doubt that you'll retain your opinion regardless of how this exchange turns out. But simply because the Democratic party is the "more PC" corporate capitalist party, and the Republican party is the "less PC", does not mean that either of them represents anything remotely resembling economic left interests.
- leereeves 9y agoI think you have a skewed idea of the American political spectrum, but everyone is free to define left/right however they wish, so we'll have to agree that we disagree about their meanings.
- LyndsySimon 9y agoI'm on the person you asked, but to me the "American left" would include things like drug legalization/decriminalization, abortion as a civil right, gun control, progressive taxation, and tax-funded social welfare programs.
- kthejoker2 9y agoThere are plenty of social policies (religion, civil rights, education, right to die, abortion, war and diplomacy, federalism, policing, vaccinations, research priorities, ) with left right vectors.
- jansho 9y agoNot all Europeans. Personally I think the French left is generally more right than the British and American left. The Swedish left is regarded by everyone else as utter madness. See how the media covered their refugee policy a few years ago.
- DarkKomunalec 9y agoIn all the ways that don't bother corporate.
- dionidium 9y agoIt's not the economics. It's all the other stuff. It's intersectional feminism, Black Lives Matter, gay marriage, abortion, diversity initiatives, and so on. There is one acceptable position on each of those issues. When somebody says, "Everybody at my company is a leftist!" they're not talking about people who read Marx and support trade unions. They're talking about culture.