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>In the US that bandwidth is from conservative to very conservative. The democrats are a right wing party. Nonsense. Those (both American leftists, and Europe
by TMWNN 5y ago
>In the US that bandwidth is from conservative to very conservative. The democrats are a right wing party.
Nonsense.
Those (both American leftists, and Europeans who listen to them) who say that "Democrats in the US would be right wing in Europe/Canada" have to (for example) then agree that all major political parties in Canada and every European country outside the UK and Ireland are right of US Democrats, because there is no significant opposition to voter ID laws anywhere. Macron's Les Republicains got elected because voters liked his vow to get tough on unions and union pensions, and privatize more infrastructure, neither of which appears in Biden's campaign platform.
Speaking of which, several European countries have privatized post offices; not just telecom companies that were parts of PTTs, but entire postal services. It is the rare European country that hasn't sold off at least part of their postal services. The EU explicitly requires postal monopolies to end in member states; whether government-owned or not, EU postal services do not have the USPS's monopoly on first-class mail. Yet no major party in the US seriously talks about privatizing the USPS.[1] Does this mean that American politics is "far to the left" of that of Germany and the UK, both of which have completely sold off their postal services to private investors?
PS - For another example, consider the liberality of abortion laws in the US versus Europe.
[1] And no, it's not because of the Constitution. Article I Section 8 only gives Congress the authority "To establish Post Offices", as opposed to requiring a government-run one. Certainly nothing in the Constitution mandates the USPS's first-class mail monopoly.
- fleddr 5y agoOdd example, a post office. Here's some things that actually matter: a livable minimum wage, universal healthcare, accessible and affordable education, advanced safety nets for the unemployed and disabled, and so on. Fundamental progressive values available in western Europe since about 5 decades. Normalized to not even count as explicitly progressive, instead seen as just basics.
- jgwil2 5y ago> Macron's Les Republicains got elected because voters liked his vow to get tough on unions and union pensions, and privatize more infrastructure, neither of which appears in Biden's campaign platform. This might be a valid point if American unions had anything close to the level of influence over US society that French unions have over France, but they don't, so it isn't.