Also, you can say whatever you want, you can insult and even threaten politicians and you’ll be totally fine. Try doing that in non-western parts of Europe.
The only 2 political parties that practically exist in USA both finance and support liberal media, liberal organizations and liberal political parties throughout the world. They also bomb random independent countries thousands of kilometers away to bring them human rights, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria…
So in conclusion, USA is liberal, but paradoxically extremely self righteous and even liberal presidents like the former one say stuff like this:
we can stop children from being gassed to death, and thereby make our kids safer over the long run, I believe we should act… That is what makes America different. That is what makes us exceptional.
Imagine if Chinese leaders said something like that about a country thousands of kilometers away and then started bombing Colombia, Costa Rica or something.
I don’t know if I’m ‘moderate’ but voted the same in poll. And to the extent there’s any common vibe, it’s something like what you said, though I don’t think ‘extreme’ people are the only problem, maybe not even most of it. Those extremes IMO are an overlay on ‘regular folks’ not willing to realistically face problems where the solutions can’t be all ice cream and dessert, like the biggest one in public policy IMO, the looming eventual fiscal meltdown. It’s not going to be solved purely by ‘soaking the rich’ or ‘spending less’ or ‘cutting taxes to spur growth’. There will need to be some fairly broadly spread unhappiness in the short to medium term to avoid much more pain in the long term. The US (or any other country) has never had the people marching in the streets in favor of broadly painful solutions, but I think we’ve manifestly drifted further away from confronting the really hard issues, and you can’t blame it just on ‘extremes’.
It’s not much of an example of partisanship on the Democratic side, since DeVos was spectacularly unqualified and other nominees, who were qualified, were confirmed with much less opposition from the Dems. And also because the nominee directed sizable donations to all the members of the committee who subsequently approved her despite her lack of experience or knowledge of her brief, her inability to answer even basic questions about education and the fact that the example of her implementing her educational policies at state-level was an unmitigated disaster.
It’s a refusal to compromise, to be sure, but only one side of that particular event was being politically partisan and I wonder why you chose it as an example.
I’m liberal. In the grand scheme of things, America feels to me like it’s slightly left of center. There is a contingent that’s significantly to the right, and they’re impeding America’s progress to the left, but ultimately I don’t think they can stop it.
Also, depends where in the city. I live in Chicago, but my section of town, I grew up with pretty much nothing but conservatives around me, despite it being a “Democratic” town. Chicago Democrats are not necessarily of the liberal sort–the old school ones certainly weren’t. Even overall, I don’t find Chicago particularly liberal. Democrat, yes, of course. Liberal? Not like people not from here seem to think.
Politically, I’ve been on both sides (and also traveled a fair bit and lived outside the US for six or so years), but the bulk of my adulthood, I’ve been liberal with a sprinkling of small-l libertarian. America, to me, on the whole feels like a conservative country. But it depends on what aspect of American culture and politics you’re talking about.
The things that frighten me most about America are nationalistic populism disguised as patriotism (which I find a right-ward/conservative trait) and the intermingling of politics and public education with religion.
You’re on point; registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by more than 20 million, IIRC. But in addition to the Electoral College, there is also the Senate, in which sparsely populated conservative states such as Idaho and Wyoming get as many Senators - and hence as much clout - as densely populated liberal states like California and New York.
To use the most drastic example, there are 15 Republican states that add up to a smaller total population combined than California alone by itself, yet wield 30 Senate seats to California’s 2. (Not every Senator from those red states is a Republican, though.)
I’d like to think that too. HRC was a serious misstep, but a political party misstep not by the people, and it can be rectified.
It’s a generational/international thing too; the kids, like their parents and grandparents never could, see the USA existing in an international spectrum (through the Internet).
You can’t lie to these kids and get away with it via corporate media, as was the case for older generations with healthcare for example.
The conservatives have dragged the Overton window so far to the right that half of them are now satisfied and half think we oughta go at least a bit farther right. IOW, from their average POV the US seems centered. By their standards.
Meanwhile from the liberal POV, the Overton window is so far off to the right that even our leftish stuff isn’t really very left.
Which, interestingly enough, is what so far 100% of the foreigners have said. IOW our Left is to the right of their Right.
Yup. Politically America is two nations, urban and rural. Even in most deep blue states the rural areas are red and in deep red states the urban areas are blue.
On the issues, people are liberal. If you poll people there is wide support for liberal ideas like progressive taxes, basic gun control, renewable energy, universal health care, opposition to the wall, etc. But politics is to the right of the public on the issues, and people don’t vote based on issues they vote based on narratives and identity politics.
When Obama was in charge it felt centrist to me as a liberal. When a republican is in charge it feels far right. As far as mainstream parties that is our choice, centrist democrats or far right republicans. We can have democrats who want to push moderate health reform that empowers private companies and does nothing to lower costs, or we can have republicans who want to abolish medicare.
I think that is why people like Sanders got so popular, an actual progressive who wasn’t a wimp or afraid of being called a socialist. But even he is considered center-left in Europe. I hope Sanders moved the overton window to the left.
Part of it is money, both parties are beholden to wealthy interests who push conservative policies.
Another is that due to the way the population is spread out, it gives conservatives more power. They have smaller states and more land mass, which gives them a disproportionate level of power.
America feels like a country where 15-20% are insane right wing extremists, another 20-30% either don’t notice or don’t care and align with them, and the other 50-60% are moderate or liberal.
I voted I’m liberal (I’m maybe a little bit conservative in a Canadian sense) and USA seems conservative. Since I’m Canadian though even when the US is at its most liberal it still feels pretty Conservative to me overall.
*Stupid freaking poll leaving out the moderates as usual. grumble grumble grumble. *
Ex-Republican but a liberal leaning hawkish one, I feel the populous of the country is just barely liberal but concetrated in too few state so the conservatives have a larger voice in government.
Whoa, that stuff is hard to digest. Fwiw, Sankey diagrams make the churning more comprehensible, or maybe it’s just me that finds it good. This is a UK version for Bexit > this election:
