‘There Is Going to Be a War Within the Party. We Are Going to Lean Into It.’

[Cow Poke]

[Starlight]

I'm already well aware of this, and it's great!

Bill Clinton deliberately repudiated traditional US liberalism and the New Deal, and took the party to the right as part of his Third Way. This was known as "triangulation", and the idea was to find the middle ground between liberals and conservatives and thus capture the centrist and moderate voters while retaining the base. It failed for a number of reasons, a major one of which is that the voters themselves are influenced by the positions and speeches of politicians and change their own views in response to what they hear, and another major one is that over time the base gets demoralized and stops fighting for you if you stop pushing policies that excite them. An unfortunate truism in US politics in recent decades has been that Republican politicians are afraid of their base and cater to them (and the Tea Party primaried those who didn't), while Democratic politicians are contemptuous of their base and mock them (and are now scared of the idea their base might send Justice Democrats like AOC to primary them like the Tea Party did on the right).

The Democrats would do well to return to the popular left-wing positions their base favors and abandon attempts to placate increasingly non-existent centrists and/or right-wingers who are never going to vote for them anyway. Polling consistently says that the left-wing political policies are overwhelmingly popular. Over at Fox News they've been panicking because even their own polls show people want the rich to be taxed more.

The same thing happened with the Labour party in the UK, which Jeremy Corbyn has now successfully returned to its left-wing roots over the political dead bodies of the Tony Blair-ite neoliberal politicians who had moved the party to the center-right like Clinton did.

[Cow Poke]

I appreciate your endorsement for this, Starlight. It proves what a nutty insane leftist pinko commie liberal idiot idea it is.

[Starlight]

Back when Democrats were New Dealers and real leftists...

The US populace kept electing FDR until he died in office during his 4th term, and the Democrats were the majority party in both the House and Senate for 44 out of 48 years.

What a nutty idea to go back to the policies that won so massively! Obviously it would be terrible to sweep to overwhelming victory!

[Bill the Cat]

I'm already well aware of this, and it's great!

Bill Clinton deliberately repudiated traditional US liberalism and the New Deal, and took the party to the right as part of his Third Way. This was known as "triangulation", and the idea was to find the middle ground between liberals and conservatives and thus capture the centrist and moderate voters while retaining the base. It failed for a number of reasons, a major one of which is that the voters themselves are influenced by the positions and speeches of politicians and change their own views in response to what they hear, and another major one is that over time the base gets demoralized and stops fighting for you if you stop pushing policies that excite them. An unfortunate truism in US politics in recent decades has been that Republican politicians are afraid of their base and cater to them (and the Tea Party primaried those who didn't), while Democratic politicians are contemptuous of their base and mock them (and are now scared of the idea their base might send Justice Democrats like AOC to primary them like the Tea Party did on the right).

The Democrats would do well to return to the popular left-wing positions their base favors and abandon attempts to placate increasingly non-existent centrists and/or right-wingers who are never going to vote for them anyway. Polling consistently says that the left-wing political policies are overwhelmingly popular. Over at Fox News they've been panicking because even their own polls show people want the rich to be taxed more.

The same thing happened with the Labour party in the UK, which Jeremy Corbyn has now successfully returned to its left-wing roots over the political dead bodies of the Tony Blair-ite neoliberal politicians who had moved the party to the center-right like Clinton did.

The US is finally starting to see just how crazy the liberal leftist ideas are. And the left is graciously supplying the fodder, like post-birth infanticide, up to 90% tax on the rich, and the like.

[Sparko]

I am hoping that these radical leftists ("Starlighters" we should call them ) will do their usually thing and overplay their hand. By announcing their strategy and coming at the Democrats in power they might actually force the DNC to repudiate these nutjobs, because the Democrats in power ARE the more conservative ones (which is still nothing like "radical conservatives" more like "moderate liberals") and they have to power to stomp these moronic socialists into the ground at the moment.

There might be a war coming but these socialist green weenies are going to be on the receiving end of the moderate liberals AND the actual conservatives. And we have all the guns. And the bacon.

the other thing these far left nutjobs are doing is forcing moderate democrats over to the republican party. I already told how my cousin is switching sides after a lifetime of being a moderate democrat.

[mikewhitney]

Isn't it odd that everything is considered 'radical' except the leftists attempts to overthrow the freedoms that were secured to us against government infringement?

[Cow Poke]

Isn't it odd that everything is considered 'radical' except the leftists attempts to overthrow the freedoms that were secured to us against government infringement?

And that the extremist leftists think that their own party leaders are "radically conservative"?

[Starlight]

And that the extremist leftists think that their own party leaders are "radically conservative"?

I saw a useful guide on twitter this week explaining to non-Americans how to translate American political terminology into internationally used political terms:

A guide for Europeans following American politics, translating common terms:
"Extreme left wing" = center left
"Left wing" = center right
"Moderate" = right wing
"Right wing" = extreme right
"Extreme right wing" = fascists

"Communist" = left wing
"Socialist" = anyone not a libertarian
"Libertarian" = complete jerk

[Sparko]

I saw a useful guide on twitter this week explaining to non-Americans how to translate American political terminology into internationally used political terms:

A guide for Europeans following American politics, translating common terms:
"Extreme left wing" = center left
"Left wing" = center right
"Moderate" = right wing
"Right wing" = extreme right
"Extreme right wing" = fascists

"Communist" = left wing
"Socialist" = anyone not a libertarian
"Libertarian" = complete jerk

And for people like you, they need to shift everything about twice as far.

Extreme left wing = Alt-right in Starlight world.

[One Bad Pig]

I saw a useful guide on twitter this week explaining to non-Americans how to translate American political terminology into internationally used political terms:

A guide for Europeans following American politics, translating common terms:
"Extreme left wing" = center left
"Left wing" = center right
"Moderate" = right wing
"Right wing" = extreme right
"Extreme right wing" = fascists

"Communist" = left wing
"Socialist" = anyone not a libertarian
"Libertarian" = complete jerk

I appreciate you explaining how you think.

The "Extreme right wing" definition is especially ironic given the extensive connections between US progressives of the 1930s and National Socialism/fascism.

[Starlight]

I appreciate you explaining how you think.

Given it is pretty common for US conservatives to dismiss Europe as a whole as "socialist", do you not agree that a significant swath of the US would agree with me that on the whole the US political spectrum is much further to the right compared to elsewhere in the Western world?

The "Extreme right wing" definition is especially ironic given the extensive connections between US progressives of the 1930s and National Socialism/fascism.

I am unfamiliar with any connections, and when googling it now I am not hitting on anything relevant. Perhaps you could outline your case or link me to something relevant? I will note for now that progressivism has changed a bit in 100 years, just as conservatism has, and the progressivism of the early 20th century isn't the same as the progressivism of the 21st century.