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The Republican Party has moved to the left, not the right, since the 80s. The Democrat party has moved farther to the left than the Republicans have. It's act
by jki275 7y ago
The Republican Party has moved to the left, not the right, since the 80s. The Democrat party has moved farther to the left than the Republicans have. It's actually a reasonable analogy.
- dragonwriter 7y ago> The Republican Party has moved to the left, not the right, since the 80s. No, they've moved consistently to the right, the most dramatic manifestations of this movement being with the Contract with America in 1994 and Trump in 2016+. > The Democrat party It's the Democratic Party; the misuse of the noun form in place of the adjective is a weird tic of Republican activists. > has moved farther to the left than the Republicans ha Well, it's moved a little to the left recently while the Republicans have continued their journey to the far right, after basically moving to a position nearly identical to the Republicans of the time on economic issues and slightly to the left on, but deprioritizing, social issues with the Clintonian center-right neoliberalism of the 1990s.
- jki275 7y agoMost of the "Contract with America" is not a right wing thing (shown by the fact it had broad support and catapulted the Republican Party back to power), and Trump is not a right wing person. He's a barely middle of the road person who would have been considered quite unsuited to be a Republican in the 80s. The Republican Party of the 80s would never have nominated someone who would nominate a gay ambassador -- the Democratic Party likely would not have either. Washington in general has shifted quite far to the left since the 80s. And "democrat" vs "democratic" is probably an autocorrect "tic". I'm also not a Republican, and certainly not an "activist" in any way. My personal beliefs are that almost all politicians are simply interested in power and say the things they think will get them elected -- and in general the striking differences between the parties are on which programs they want to spend the money that does not exist. Bill would not be able to get the nomination of the Democratic Party today -- he would be considered far too right wing.
- mikeash 7y agoTrump is a far right authoritarian. If he seems to be left of 80s Republicans, it’s only because Republicans have waged a fairly successful campaign to equate authoritarianism with leftism.
- jki275 7y agoTrump is a sort of left leaning libertarian. He doesn't align socially or fiscally with the Republican Party on any issue other than perhaps abortion and it's an easy argument to make that he changed that position solely to get the evangelical vote so he could get the nomination. He could have credibly run as a Democrat, probably won the nomination, and had the Democrats singing his praises now. His policies on immigration align with Clinton, Obama, Schumer and others from less than ten years ago. He's to the left of both of the Clintons on prison reform. He's to the left of both of the Clintons and Obama on gay marriage (well, Hillary changed her position two years ago, but otherwise). He's to the left of Bill on fiscal responsibility. etc. I could go on.
- mikeash 7y agoLibertarian, really? Since when do libertarians lock people up without trial, advocate against free speech, and vastly bloat government spending?
- dragonwriter 7y ago
- mikeash 7y agoNote that “Democrat party” is not a weird tic, it’s a deliberate insult. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(epithet) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(epithet)
- jki275 7y agoThe things you all create to be offended about are so numerous as to be impossible to continue to track. I don’t really care what new thing you’ve dreamed up this week.
- mikeash 7y agoThe history is clear. If you were ignorant of it, I don't care, it's easy to miss. But now that you know, you can run with it or stop using it, your choice.