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>>I worry about that a lot more than I worry about That is largely your left bias showing, where you completely discount the positions of everyone not on the l

• cromwellian 8y ago
  Evidence in studies of vote patterns of the house suggests otherwise and that it's the Republicans who have became more extreme, and the Democrats have largely remained the same range, but many argue have become moderate Republicans. (https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/06/polarization-1.jpg&w=1484 https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://...) Nixon proposed national healthcare and created the EPA. Ronald Reagan raised taxes multiple times, gave amnesty to illegal immigrants, and signed the Montreal Protocol to salvage the Ozone layer, he even came to support Gun Control. George Bush Sr signed the ADA, strengthened the EPA, Clean Air Act, signed the Global Climate Change Research Act, etc. George W Bush created Medicare Part D. These Republicans would be considered RINOs in todays party. Trump isn't a Republican. He supported national healthcare. He came out for gun control. He was anti-Abortion. He supported a wealth tax. One could say, if anything, he was an opportunist, and has no discernable consistent ideological core other than nationalism and racism. He lacks neither the economic conservative libertarian values, nor the social conservative religious values. You can see this by going back to his politicking in the 80s, where he was constantly harping on the Japanese back then, and where he was involving himself in cases like the Central Park 5. If you want to gauge if the Democrats are "far left" you need to survey the American people, and when you do so, on issues like Gun Control, Health Care, Education, Benefits, you find they line up with the majority of Americans. By large margins, ranging from 60-80%, the public supports common democratic positions. So if they're far far left, of whom? No one supports infinite immigration, other than some old school extremist libertarians, that's a strawman used to attack Democrats. Most people acknowledge there is some limit or capacity to absorb people, since there's a limit to how fast housing, schools, and other infrastructure is even built. But illegal immigration has been declining for decades, and was at a record low in 2016 compared to its heyday in the 80s, 90s. It was a "problem" that was on its way to self-correction. The fact that it has been made a front and center issue for the last 2 years is entirely a racist xenophobic phenomena, no different than the people who were scaremongered over Sharia law in the US. Given it was a declining problem, not a crisis, one has to suspect other factors driving the interest. This is not a 'left' position, it's a logical one -- why are so many people so upset over something that had already declined by 3x and during supposedly a red hot economy with low unemployment? Why are the Trump supporters still angry at the immigrants in a supposed "time of plenty"? I really really don't want to get into a debate about this, but it is patently obvious that reactionary politics are using the immigration issue as a way to distract from all of the other problems we are facing: widening income inequality, a healthcare affordability crisis, an education affordability crisis, environmental crisis, etc because to address those issues would require the government actually taxing and regulating the winners in the economy, and their stooges in Congress needed to come up with a way to divert people's attention.
  • syshum 8y ago
    Unironically citing the Washington post as a non-bais source... that is funny. Further you did not even cite your source just an out of context graph >If you want to gauge if the Democrats are "far left" you need to survey the American people, and when you do so, on issues like Gun Control, Health Care, Education, Benefits, you find they line up with the majority of Americans. By large margins, ranging from 60-80%, the public supports common democratic positions. So if they're far far left, of whom? No they really don't, not when you get into the actual issues with actual facts, not bumper sticker rhetoric like "Do you support Reasonable Gun Control" without specifying what they gun control is or "Do you support an assault weapons ban" without saying what an assault weapon is. On Gun Control most people support the level of Gun Control when having today once they are educated on the actual laws we have, and generally reject the massively expanded democrat policies once they are explained in full to them Democrat's are good at marketing and pulling the wool over people's eyes >No one supports infinite immigration, other than some old school extremist libertarians, that's a strawman used to attack Democrats. Better tell that to the leading democrats as they call for open borders. AOC for example is huge open borders advocate >widening income inequality, a healthcare affordability crisis, an education affordability crisis, environmental crisis, etc because to address those issues would require the government actually taxing and regulating the winners in the economy, and their stooges in Congress needed to come up with a way to divert people's attention. That is funny given that all of those problems were caused by government in the first place. Government creates problems it never solves them