Queens, not Brooklyn, but who’s keeping score anyhoo
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Dude wears a man-bun. I would totally vote for him just to be able to see a man-bun in the halls of congress.
/would also vote for him because he’s very progressive
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When?
I can’t think of a single Democratic candidate who is far left, unless you mean the far left of capitalism. This includes Bernie Sanders.
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If he inspires young people to vote at all, good for him. Of course, the idea that you need to be excited to vote, that voting is some kind of entertainment, is terrible. I have tried to instill in my (now young adult) step-children the idea that you vote every time – whether it’s one school district funding ballot initiative that has nothing to do with you because you don’t have children, or confusing midterm elections with judicial elections that are hard to research, or exciting presidential election. EVERY TIME. They don’t always vote, sadly, but at least they’re ashamed when they don’t.
Just bear in mind, those white evangelicals turn out like gangbusters. They’re organized, and their pastors insist on it. We secular types are harder to corral, so we need to get out there every single time, even when it’s boring and inconvenient.
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If Sanders, AOC, the Squad and the rest of the Sandernistas don’t look far left to you then you’re living a far left progressive bubble. To the rest of us here on Earth, they’re too left.
I read recently that many millennial woman are becoming nuns and at an increased rate. I’m sure it’s because of the man-buns!
Leaving aside the rhetoric, I’m not certain the policies she advocates would even raise eyebrows in most of Europe.
Now, I’ll grant she is rather to the left of the American median voter, but it’s people like her that move the electorate to the left and open up unimagined possibilities.
Everything is impossible until it isn’t.
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You may be the one living in the bubble. From the point of view of Europeans, they would fall into the political centre. If they were Canadian they’d probably be part of the mainstream NDP.
Only in the U.S. would politicians calling for things like single-payer universal health insurance, subsidised college tuition, reduced military spending, a Green New Deal and slightly more regulation of the financial services sector be categorised as “far left”.
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Pretty much everything they’ve proposed is common somewhere in Europe. Is Europe “too far left” for you?
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Try asking people in Europe if they are too left wing for their liking. America is living in a far-right bubble where fascists pass for conservatives, conservative democrats pass for social liberals, and social liberals pass for socialists.
My political beliefs are similar to those of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, who fought off ISIS and are building an alternative to the al-Assad dictatorship. The last time I checked they were also part of the Earth.
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We have a long-ass way to go, before we can get “too far.”
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For some people, anything that is not full on “free market capitalism” with ANY sort of social programs or regulation on business is “too far left.” Those people apparently enjoy dystopias! I’d like to live in a world where we can all be freed up to do our best work, because we don’t have to stress about the basics… [ETA] or at the very least, there the basics are not so hard to ensure. Do I think that a complete command economy will do that? No, but neither will a completely corporate dominated economy. Some redistribution is going to be necessary in a capitalist system, until we can lick the scarcity issue, and go the the stars, and live in Gene Roddenberry’s future!
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Sanders, AOC and Omar are extremely moderate Social Democrats, who would comfortably fit into the mainstream of most international centre-left parties. The only US politician of note to the left of them is Lee Carter, who is a moderate Democratic Socialist.
None of them are anywhere near “far left”.
Note that most non-US countries have significant parties of genuine socialists.
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Don’t be so sure that many of AOC’s ideas would be OK in Europe. We’re not Europe, different culture, demographics and forms of government. What would be OK there wouldn’t here. It’s people like AOC who scare people and move then to vote Republican and for Trump. If AOC is a Democratic Socialist then run in the Socialist party and quit trying to hijack the Democratic party. Sanders, AOC, the Squad will lead the Democratic party into the wilderness and to becoming the permanent minority party.
And you do realize that many, many Americans have European ancestry, and that they came over not to long ago in many cases, right? And that our form of government was theorized and influenced by European philosophers, right?
Many European countries have socialist medicine, high levels of regulation, active unions, stronger environmental protections, higher taxation… all the sorts of things that she and Sanders, etc, advocate for. None of that is out of step with what many Europeans have, and are in fact to the right of much of what Europe has, objectively speaking… Many European parliaments HAVE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST parties.
How about instead of making up some weak excuses about how they are “too far left”, we look at what other countries have done to solve the same or similar problems, and maybe go with that. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel here, when plenty of people have already done so successfully. If we don’t do something about the environment, the student debt crisis, health care crisis, etc, we’re going to be screwed.
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We’re not Europe, different culture, demographics and governments. I live very near the Canadian border and know many Canadians. AOC isn’t very popular with Canadians. I also live in a district that went strongly for Sanders in the 2016 primary. No, the progressives are advocating FREE college tuition, an enormously expensive and unrealistic Green New Deal, 70% tax brackets, reparations, eliminating private insurance, breaking up tech companies, more than “slightly” more regulation, etc… These are not very popular outside the progressive bubble and will be a disaster if that’s the 2020 agenda for Democrats.
We’re not Europe and the progressive agenda is TOO far left for America and would be a political disaster for the Democrats.
With attitudes like
the conservative Democrats are doing a good job of that themselves. You are literally saying you don’t want our votes.
And if you are questioning me calling the right of the Democratic party conservative, read this and tell me how it doesn’t apply to them.
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If Sanders, AOC and Omar are moderate Social Democrats then we should really fear them and there fellow social democrats. We’re not Europe and I don’t think the Europeans will be voting in our elections next year, perhaps the Russians will, but not Europe.
You repeat yourself. The U.S. also isn’t the entirety of the planet, as you implied.
In terms of the OECD countries that also exist on Earth we’re more the exception than the rule. We’re also an effective duopoly in terms of parties, which is why the Dems grudgingly permit popular Socialist and DSA politicians to run under their banner.
On what basis? Most of her proposed policies are ones already long formally or informally in place in Canada, to the degree that even their Conservative Party wouldn’t dare openly oppose them (undermining them is another matter).
In the U.S., meanwhile, some of the progressives’ proposed policies, most notably single-payer universal health insurance and a Green New Deal, have widespread support not only amongst Democratic voters but also Republicans. A Fox News audience cheered Sanders’ health insurance proposal.
As is also present in some European countries. My point there was that advocating even subsidised tuition places a politician in the “far left” in the U.S. establishment political consensus
It’s a response to an existential crisis, so yes it will be expensive, just as the original New Deal was and just as the fight against fascism was. In their broad outlines, the proposals I’ve seen are for the most part grounded in reality and strive to be revenue-neutral and create jobs.
Yes, a 70% marginal tax rate for every dollar of annual income above $10-million/annum. The number of voters that would alienate is ridiculously miniscule.
Yes, as a general concept only. Serious advocates don’t envision such a programme as direct cash payments or whatever the right likes to portray it as.
Nope, not even in regard to health insurance. They want to eliminate private insurance as the only way to get medical care, as is the case in the rest of the West. None of those other OECD countries, including Canada and including the UK, has banned private health insurance. If you want to buy supplemental insurance on top of what you get from the single-payer system it’s available in one form or another.
You say this like anti-trust actions can’t work within a capitalist system. There are conservatives advocating for this in the name of increased business competition and/or to foster a healthier public discourse.
Most of them are advocating something near a return to the status quo ante Gramm–Leach–Bliley, with some new form of Glass-Steagall and more consumer protections for investors and depositors and borrowers.
Putting aside the Know-Nothing 27% (who regularly vote GOP anyhow), a candidate could sell at least 50% of the total American electorate on some or all of those policies in the broad strokes – if the party establishment and the corporate media would allow it instead of constantly framing everything in terms of the neoliberal consensus. Although it’s hard for them to completely avoid reporting the numbers:
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