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Are the tankies in the room with you now?
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this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
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Can you define center-left in global terms and then in the context of US politics? There's a very important distinction there that you are glossing over.
The way i see it, the global center-left refers to political ideologies and parties that advocate for a moderate form of social democracy or progressive policies while still operating within a capitalist framework.
In America, center-left describes individuals or movements that align with progressive or liberal values which includes things like support for social welfare, promoting civil liberties and backing environmental initiatives.
Although I'm not American, this is how i usually see them being portrayed in the media, so i could be glossing over some things.
In the global terms of political discourse the Democratic party is as of the most recent election now Center Right and the Republican party is Far Right. The Dems in the US, in recent history, started moving to the right with Clinton, arrived at the center with Obama and have now moved into the right with Biden/Harris/Walz.
https://manifesto-project.wzb.eu/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/26/opinion/sunday/republican-platform-far-right.html
https://lawcha.org/2016/11/23/bill-clinton-remade-democratic-party-abandoning-unions-working-class-whites/
https://www.politico.com/story/2008/07/obamas-steady-centrism-011880
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-10-10/2024-election-kamala-harris-policy-shifts
Hmm interesting context i didn't know about. It would seem to me, however, that this is only a reflection of the direction the party leaders are taking the party towards and not actual sentiments of party members. The democrats are a huge contradiction basically.
Sanders in 2016 proved that only the Dem Party leader interests matter to the Dem Party.
Guess that explains why Trump is back
I wouldn't go that far. Billionaires want fewer regulations on taxes and monopolies. Trump and Kamala were going to allow the same profits for the oligarchs.
Democratic leadership didn't want Trump elected. They don't have the same levers of power with a Republican majority government.
Dem leadership however has been very disconnected from what the common voter experiences since Clinton. Obama and his grass roots efforts were too large to ignore. They made changes to the process during Obama's second term to favor establishment candidates and representatives. Then made further changes in 2016/2020 during those primaries and didn't hold primaries in 2024.
These led to low voter engagement as they didn't talk about what the common voter was upset about. And during Biden's presidency didn't highlight Republican obstructionism nor did they do anything that would've lowered prices for Americans like medicare for all or breaking up grocery/pharmaceutical/agribusiness monopolies that were price gouging under the auspice of inflation.
This all led to Harris not being elected, not Trump being elected. This is however a pedantic distinction in a two party system.
Fair enough