Some have debated which has happened more; I would sadly say the former. Democrats have moved much farther left from 2009-now than the GOP has moved right, in both issues and actual demeanor. Democrats used to not have major pols talking about “white privilege,” used to not let Israel-haters into its political mainstream (and the support level for Israel was similar to the nation as a whole), used to not allow communist/socialists into the mainstream, or shouted down the debate on transgenderism either. Sure, the GOP has maybe moved right on gun rights, and maybe immigration, but that’s about it. They’ve largely moved away from hardline positions like on gay marriage and criminal justice reform.
I bet there could be interesting opinions here about this oft debated topic.
Hah, good one, it is not just “about it” for the Republicans, I think you are ignoring what is that the Republicans are willing to get in bed with by embracing Trump at the levels they are showing now.
The Republicans stake out a position as far to the right as they can. Seeing as how often they lose because they are wrong it’s no surprise that they move slowly to the left. It’s not possible to determine the direction of the Democrats, they are in chaotic motion all the time. For every special interest group of oppressed victims/terrorist they support there’s a banker getting a tax break from them.
Democrats took a pretty big swing to the right during Clinton’s two terms. It was practical; it was how Clinton got elected.
Obama did not move significantly to the left, but pretty much maintained the Clinton line. He might (or might not) have wanted to govern more to the left, but the GOP refused to work with him in any way, whatever, so a lot of important things have gone completely unaddressed.
Hillary Clinton won’t move very far left either; she, too, will hang in the Bill Clinton zone. Bernie Sanders promised far more than he could conceivably have delivered; even were he elected, he would be able to get nothing through Congress.
So it’s center-right for the foreseeable future. The OP is full of prunes.
The big difference from 2009 is that Obama’s wised up that the Republicans in Congress are never going to work with him and acted accordingly. Thus the insanity of a “grand bargain” that would have gutted entitlements in exchange for cosmetic tax increases has been dropped. Maybe that’s moving left, I’d say it’s getting some testicular fortitude.
Again I’d like to note you have a more prejudiced views against trans individuals then Donald Trump.
Well you know except for everything else.
In other words, trivial issues highly suspectible to being influenced by the zeitgeist.
Compared to George McGovern maybe but the liberal internationalism of the Clintons and Obama is in the tradition of FDR, Harry Truman, Kennedy, LBJ, and Scoop Jackson.
Since pretty much all of your criticism of the Democratic party and President Obama has been based on fantasies and/or bigotry, I strongly disagree.
Democrats used to try to appeal to white supremacist voters, too.
What Israel-haters? Cite?
Most of the domestic policies (like single-payer health care and higher minimum wage) advocated by Bernie have been in the Democratic mainstream for decades.
Yes, the Democratic party has decided to take the non-bigoted position on transgender issues.
They’ve moved right on religious bigotry and even religious suppression (supporting a ban on Muslims entering the country, and much higher support for outlawing Islam), on religious issues like prayer in school and teaching evolution, on foreign policy (refusing to negotiate with any opponents about anything ever), on abortion (not even for rape or incest), as well as in tone in the way they talk about Obama (birtherism, accusations of treason, etc.).
When “traditional Judeo-Christian American values” gets pretzel - bent into “fuck those transgender cry babies,” among other compassionate “Christian views,” that stretch gets a little shorter.
Denigrating trans people is bigotry; denying that transgender is a real thing is bigotry; defending discrimination against trans people is defending bigotry… I’m not convinced that those things are part of “traditional Judeo-Christian American values” (though I’m not very clear on the precise definition of that phrase, anyway – does it include the very American (though, thankfully, far less influential and widespread now than in the past) tradition of white supremacy?).
He means Obama. He’s been given evidence repeatedly to counter his view that Obama hates Israel, but he keeps making this claim anyway.
Given that the only “religious freedom” all those “religious freedom” bills the Republicans have been pushing is the freedom to discriminate against others, it’s not remotely a stretch.
This could be true: if you mean that on a scale of -100 to +100 the Democrats have moved from -20 to -22 but the Republicans have only moved from +98 to +99.
It’s more definitional than a stretch. I’ve read a lot of American history. You should as well. It’s eye-opening as well as depressing.
I don’t think Trump is a step to the right. He is a step towards Making America Great Again (AKA the first step towards the implosion of the Republican party that is now just partisan for partisanships sake.
I think Democrats will only move to the left to the same extent as the general public does. My main example for this is the recent progress in rights for people who are gay and transgendered. When it comes to things like economic policy and overall governing philosophy, however, it’s not going to happen. Bernie Sanders is demonstrating why Democrats won’t move significantly to the left. We’re not willing to let the fringe take over the party the way the way the far right did to the Republicans with the Tea Party. The reason is simple. Republican voters are willing to loose with candidates like Sharon Angle. Democrats, at least the older ones, remember what happened when the party went with true liberals (Mondale and Dukakis). The best that Bernie and the far left can do is fracture the party enough to cost moderates like Clinton a shot at winning. There is no way that they can start a Democratic version of the Tea Party with any success on Election Day, I just don’t see that happening.