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The far left in the United States mostly doesn't exist. The corporatist center-left has given up on meaningful economic policy change and mostly just panders o

The far left in the United States mostly doesn't exist. The corporatist center-left has given up on meaningful economic policy change and mostly just panders on abortion, gay marriage, and gender identity.

nottorp 7y ago
Yeah, what left in the US? They have no idea what "left" is...
- redisman 7y ago
  The "extreme" left in the US system maps (policy-wise) almost exactly to center-right in most other western democracies. Talking about viable politicians not twitter creatures by the way.
  - morelisp 7y ago
    This was true 10 years ago, but the US finally has a few genuinely left politicians (firmly center-left outside the US), and many European democracies drifted to the right (liberals to differentiate from 15 years of neoliberal center-left parties, center-right to head off the far right).
  - philwelch 7y ago
    Er, how's that? To name some examples, many other western democracies compared to the US have the following set of policies, which would make for a far-right policy platform in the US: * More restrictions on abortion * Lower corporate taxes * No birthright citizenship for children of foreigners * School vouchers * Mandatory military service * Laws outlawing face coverings * Less business regulation than the US The American conservative think tank Heritage Foundation publishes an Index of Economic Freedom, which compares economic policies by country. The United States is ranked 12th, and is thus considered less economically conservative by economic conservatives than New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, Ireland, the UK, Canada, and Iceland. Within one point of the United States there are also the Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, and Luxembourg. (https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking/ https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking/)
- namirez 7y ago
  Sadly this is true. A big pillar of the left politics is labor unions and profit sharing, which is totally absent in the US discourse. Instead, we just hear about safe spaces and bathrooms.
eanzenberg 7y ago
The far left which suggests spending $20t on socialism and breaking up every corp with revenue > $100m sure doesn't exist in the US.. /s

nottorp 7y ago

Yeah, what left in the US? They have no idea what "left" is...

redisman 7y ago
The "extreme" left in the US system maps (policy-wise) almost exactly to center-right in most other western democracies. Talking about viable politicians not twitter creatures by the way.
- morelisp 7y ago
  This was true 10 years ago, but the US finally has a few genuinely left politicians (firmly center-left outside the US), and many European democracies drifted to the right (liberals to differentiate from 15 years of neoliberal center-left parties, center-right to head off the far right).
- philwelch 7y ago
  Er, how's that? To name some examples, many other western democracies compared to the US have the following set of policies, which would make for a far-right policy platform in the US: * More restrictions on abortion * Lower corporate taxes * No birthright citizenship for children of foreigners * School vouchers * Mandatory military service * Laws outlawing face coverings * Less business regulation than the US The American conservative think tank Heritage Foundation publishes an Index of Economic Freedom, which compares economic policies by country. The United States is ranked 12th, and is thus considered less economically conservative by economic conservatives than New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, Ireland, the UK, Canada, and Iceland. Within one point of the United States there are also the Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, and Luxembourg. (https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking/ https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking/)
namirez 7y ago
Sadly this is true. A big pillar of the left politics is labor unions and profit sharing, which is totally absent in the US discourse. Instead, we just hear about safe spaces and bathrooms.

eanzenberg 7y ago

The far left which suggests spending $20t on socialism and breaking up every corp with revenue > $100m sure doesn't exist in the US.. /s