What has the party done recently to earn your continued membership and support?
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I’m not sure I would agree that it’s a radical leftwing idea anymore. Twenty years ago, it definitely was, but I don’t think it’s radical anymore.
I agree funded college tuition probably is farther left, farther than medical care is. But, cheaper more affordable tuition and a way to eliminate huge debt from education is a much more central idea. Different ways to get there, fall in different areas.
I think you are overestimating the support here and how people define “rich”. For the 0.1%, at a substantially higher marginal tax rate than the current bracket, I think you’re correct. But, looking at the 1975 tax brackets (based on the random search I did), I doubt there is huge support for a 50% rate at $151K for a single filer. There’s probably not even agreement here on if that’s a “rich” person or not. Is a dual income family of four with combined income of $300K “rich”? They’re definitely well off, don’t get me wrong. They’re certaining living a significantly easier life than than the same family on $30K. But, there’s no yachts involved, they’ll still have debt sending kids to school, and they’re not out lighting cigars with $100 bills, and they’re still just one medical issue away from bankruptcy. They can definitely pay higher tax rate than they do today, but it’s not fair to lump them in with the $3,000K range that’s 10 times higher.
Instead, if feels like we have the fascist party and the neoliberal party, and then a lot of apathy about the entire system and people that are disengaged in the middle.
Those on the edges are voting purely on issues, typically on one specific issue with blinders on to all others. Whatever that issue might be to them personally, that one thing is what they’re voting on even if everything else that comes along with that vote is bad for them.
The current platforms of issue positions typically don’t make any sense if you try to reconcile them with each other.
In the middle of what? Undecided between neoliberalism and fascism?
I’d argue that most of the disengaged non-voters are actually to the left of both parties.
I can’t answer for @NashRambler, obviously, but in my case, it’s that I live in a Red county in a closed-primary Blue state, and most of the action in the local primaries is in the Republican party - historically, we have a lot of Democratic primary candidates running unopposed. Since qualifying as a primary elector is just about the only thing that a party registration does, I might as well register for the party that actually has a contested ballot. (This year was a strange exception, in my district, all the R candidates were unopposed.)
Besides, with my wife registered Democratic, the household at least gets to cast one vote in each primary.
Also, there’s an extremely narrow window in my state for changing party affiliation to qualify as a primary elector - only a few weeks, since the deadline for declaring your party affiliation here is six weeks before the preceding general election! I haven’t caught the window on the last cycle or two - I just haven’t been able to get down to the town hall when the window’s been open (and it has to be done in person). For the above-stated reasons, I’m not entirely sure I want to change, anyway.
I think that my vote in the R primary for school board or library trustee or town supervisor or state assembly is much more likely to make a difference - and to affect my life - than a vote in the D primary for Federal office, since whoever wins those local R primaries is likely to win the general election even without my vote. Remember, all those down-ballot races are important, too! I can direct my primary vote to whoever seems the least insane of the R’s, and I don’t have to vote for them in the general! (In fact, the last cycle or two, in the general I’ve found myself voting a straight-party ticket, for the party that isn’t mine. Which is odd, usually there’s a local judge or school board member or town clerk whom I know personally and trust to do an honest job, whatever party endorses them.)
So, I guess I’ll say that in my case, the party has my membership without my support.
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Reagan might have sealed the Bargain, but Nixon began it.
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Well, ok. I thought I was stretching, but knock yourself out. 3.
I don’t know if medicare for all is so much a radical left idea, but that it’s been long suppressed on the right and center. (I’d be curious to know, when other western countries were implementing it, who was moving to keep discussion of that out of the mainstream in America.)
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It was a radical left wing idea two years ago. Hilary Clinton compared it to giving every American a free pony in the primaries.
It was definltely a radical left wing idea eight years ago when Obamacare, was broadly opposed by the right wing and by the majority of Americans.
Every study I’ve seen on the matter suggests this is true. Independents vote between R and D, but if you give them policy issue questions, they are to the left of the Dems (as are most registered Democrats, and some Republicans)
It was implemented over a lot of objection in other countries. It isn’t like it was welcomed openly. In Canada had it not been for Tommy Douglas (was a radical left winger) introducing it in Saskatchewan I don’t know if we’d have ended up in the same place as America. And when our federal government did adopt it, that was because it became too popular an idea for them to run against, so they adopted it as a political move to stop the rise of the New Democratic Party even though they were against it in principle. Basically you need a few states to bring it in, show off how it works, and get everyone else angry that they don’t get what New York has.
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That’s been the role of the left since Bismarck’s day, through the New Deal and beyond: “Ah shit! This left idea is really popular, and the financial numbers make sense. We’d better steal it or we’ll lose votes next election.” *
I’m still curious if no one in America was paying attention when all the debate and objections were happening in other counties, or if someone at the time was making sure that no one paid attention.
* alternately they come up with a half-assed alternative like Romneycare as a stop-gap. (And now they’re trying to destroy their own stop-gap, smh.)
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