Well, I would generally agree with you, but I think some of the posters here who like to paint mainstream Democrats as being too conservative to win might not. (Biden, for example, is not to the right of Obama, and was certainly to the left of Clinton, at least back in the day.)
The oft-quoted “political compass” results for politicians always show every politician running for the presidency in the upper right hand corner - conservative-authoritarian.
With one exception: some old guy from Vermont.
The sad truth about the candidates that TPTB “allow” us to choose from is reflected here:
As Chomsky so astutely observed, “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”
That is a perfect description of US elections.
1 Like
That assumes the Political Compass is reliable and accurate. Looking at how it clusters everybody like that, and puts Bernie only a little outside the mass, I come to another conclusion: it doesn’t accurately reflect the differences between various politicians, putting people with very different policies and personalities together.
4 Likes
“oft-quoted”?
The links you provided say Jill Stein was a less conservative-authoritarian candidate than Sanders. Is that what you’re trying to say?
1 Like
It’s always a good thing to investigate the methodology behind something before condemning it as “inaccurate”.
Admittedly simplistic (the current iteration uses 62 multiple choice questions), after examining it I find it fairly accurate; even if one disagrees with its absolute rankings, its comparative rankings are hard to dispute.
BTW, IMHO, it underrates neoliberal’s economic conservativism.
That could very well be the case since Stein is a member of the Green Party, and Sanders is an Independent who self-identifies as a Democratic Socialist.
After reading this thread again (hey, I was bored and had reached my sprint goal!), I feel the whole entirety can be summed up as follows.
- “You see? Bernie is gonna win it!”
- “Pfft, it was only a third. Besides, I prefer [insert candidate here]”
- “Still, he’s the best! Everyone else are losers!”
- “Other candidates are pretty good too. You’re not helping!”
- "I never said that! Sure, [some candidate] is a war monger, and the others are corrupt, but I like [woman candidate] even though she can’t beat President Biff!
- “Let’s now nitpick what socialism means, and snark about socialism for the rich!”
Now, I am being unfair and distorted, but hey, it’s pretty much like a standup comic’s take would be. And with only one troll so you know what? This thread actually had a bunch of thought provoking views!
5 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
