No, it means that American politics is seriously skewed to the right by any objective standard.
I have posted this recently in other threads but it seems appropriate here too. Notice that republicans started just a bit to the right of democrats in the 80s and then in the 1990s/2000s shifted dramatically to the right.
All the while democrats haven’t moved left or right at all.
I get the feeling that even though we here at the Dope decry Fox News for it’s skewed reflection of reality, some of us are simultaneously accepting their narrative for what “most Americans think” about cornerstone liberal policies.
You’ve mentioned Bernie’s Medicare for All proposal a few times now, but from the context, it’s quite unclear if you have any idea what Bernie’s proposal actually is. Please explain what you think Bernie’s proposal actually is?
I don’t speak for everyone, but I don’t want to win over Republicans. I don’t want to imitate a Republican to get their votes. I don’t want to move further right. I want to get new voters and beat the shit out of the Republicans until they return to sanity. I want to put the AOCs and Stacey Abrams of the world in charge and I’m not the far-left by any valid measure. I’m an old white man and I’m all for working towards a balanced budget and I know how to get there. We’re not all spend, spend, spend. We just disagree with the right about where to make the cuts. They want to take away money from schools. I want to take it away from the military.
I LIKE two parties (I’m fine with more, but we’d need to move to RCV or similar to make that work), but I won’t kowtow to racist, fear-mongering police-fellators to maintain that. You want fringe? That’s who should be on the fringe. What you described in the OP as “Far Left” is pretty much the norm in other first world countries. That should be the baseline for the future, not the final goal.
100% agree, hence the “scare quotes” around Far Left. You are correct, they aren’t far left at all.
Duh, like if the mention of not getting all what they want did not include that too. (And I consider myself in agreement with many of the ideas of “the far left” that is not really that.)
Looking through that link, I note there was one question to people asking them to characterize themselves as liberal, moderate, or conservative. But no definition as to what these mean specifically was given. Now, for example, we could come up with a definition of what it means to be liberal, or for the purposes of this thread, far-left, and then poll those that voted as to whether or not they belong to it. This would provide a way to determine what the far left did or did not do as far as the election ins concerned. Since this has not been done, to my mind the discussions in this thread in that context are pretty pointless. How can we know in the end if we haven’t even specified exactly who is in the far left? That is not to say that no good discussions are coming up here, as the clearly are. But I would suggest leaving the “far-left”, and any other group mentioned here, out of it. Discuss individuals, not undetermined groups.
Dare I say I seem to have triggered people? (Relax, it’s a joke.)
We are on a liberal Democratic board in a thread about the far left, bringing out all the most dogged supporters of that side, and yet they are still a tiny, if very vocal, minority of the whole, busily antagonizing people who in fact agree with many of their policies and proposals. That’s a damn fine example of what we call a microcosm of society.
I’m an old lefty, as I said earlier. I read, even subscribe to, the lefty publications, Mother Jones, The New Progressive, and such like. I know what the far left is advocating and how they advocate for it. They are ideologues. I don’t want ideologues. Ideologues have never won for the left. Politicians have. Worse, since the days of Johnson, far left ideologues have driven millions away and made them implacable enemies. We have to fucking stop doing that.
That’s all we’re saying. Nobody here is demonizing the left. We’re all on the left, except for Sam Stone and he made more cogent comments than many of the far lefties.
Getting the progressive agenda in play will take decades now just as it did for the original progressive agenda in the early 20th century. That was implemented piece by piece by making the broader public see how much good it would do for them, against all the business interests that had the money and power. It can happen again, but not all at once and not in the most extreme form. That’s called politics and as soon as I see far left politicians doing politics I’ll be right with you again.
Ok, but Mother Jones is not afraid to give them time or know that the times, they are a changing…
Honestly it seems it is the progressives who are getting under your skin, not the other way around.
The amount of time you and others spend bitching about AOC and The Squad is kind of stunning and out of all proportion to their ability to change policies in the US government.
She makes you and people like you and to the right of you positively lose their minds. It’s kind of funny to watch.
Agree, and speaking of times changing, lets not forget ever that we have hopes for some progress because of how united the “far left” was to many moderates in the effort to beat Trump.
(An update of “The Times They Are A-Changin’”) (2018 from Jimmy Fallon)
Come leaders who bully like Internet trolls
We’ll curse you with four-letter words ‘love’ and ‘hope’
For we will go high even when you go low
The order is re-arranging
For you have the power, but we have the vote
The times they are a-changin’
What are you talking about? I haven’t mentioned AOC or the Squad in this thread. I’m not sure I mentioned them at any time this year.
She was first mentioned by RyanAdam, a centrist Republican. Since then every mention of her has been either a response or a defense.
Kinda makes me think you aren’t reading this thread at all.
100 years ago it was a ‘far-left’ idea to give women the vote…
75 years ago it was a ‘far-left’ idea to legalize mixed-race marriages…
50 years ago it was a ‘far-left’ idea to legalize gay sex…
All that is now uncontroversial, and the sky still hasn’t fallen.
Who do you think represents or embodies these far left policies in congress?
The phrase “Defund the police” did not originate in the Biden campaign. It didn’t start with the squad either. It came from millions of angry people who are tired of the police murdering (mostly) black people with impunity. If you want people to stop saying defund the police you need to enact meaningful real changes in US policing. Some of this will mean transferring funds to agencies and people better able to deal with mental illness, homelessness etc. If you don’t do this, those activists aren’t going away. It’s a little nauseating to have people say, in effect “Accept that police will murder your people or else you get the Trump again.”
I do appreciate the deep concern shown by conservatives though. The deep sincere concern.
That’s certainly one way to characterize what has transpired in this thread… 
Of course, one might point out that you are the one who has been on the attack all thread. No one “antagonized” you.
I’m still waiting for an answer for this same sort of question from @urbanredneck2
The “far left” is not being demonized, it’s being criticized. If you think that’s the same thing, that’s a large part of the problem.
The only thing people in this thread have done so far to “criticize” them is accuse them of being socialists and claim that they cost votes without actually giving any evidence of this claim. When presented evidence to the contrary, rather than address it they just claimed we were being “triggered” by them.
It’s fine if you want to criticize policy or messaging. I’ll be here when someone starts doing so.
EDIT: I appear to have confused you with another poster and am sorry about that. I edited my post not to refer to what YOU have done in this thread, but rather what OTHER PEOPLE have done so far. I hope you bring constructive discussion in the future 