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I said "relative progressive" because, relative to Republicans and the general public, she was. And she later did a lot to try to claim a progressive mantle.
by btilly 4y ago
I said "relative progressive" because, relative to Republicans and the general public, she was.
And she later did a lot to try to claim a progressive mantle. Particularly when she ran for President.
But yes, Bill Clinton got elected in part by "moving to the center". Which was moving to the right relative to the Democratic base. Given that the Democratic base as moved sharply left since, comparing past and present positions can be quite jarring.
- amanaplanacanal 4y agoIf by “left” you mean economically. I don’t see it. They have certainly moved to embrace racial and sexual minorities since then though.
- btilly 4y agoFirst of all left vs right has always been a spectrum of issues, with economics only being one. That said, the move leftward has been much sharper on race and sexual minorities. But not non-existent for economics. Particularly when it comes to social justice. For example, Bill Clinton signed into law a bill that pushes people off of welfare and into work, or simply dumps them into severe policy. This disproportionately made single mothers and blacks worse off. His position was slightly to the right of most Democrats at the time. But the Democratic party today is strongly for increased access to a wide variety of assistance programs for those in need. And programs that disproportionately hit the economically needy would not be supported by major Democrats today.