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Why do Americans think the Democrats are left wing?

Locut0s

Locut0s

Lifer
They aren't. The US doesn't have a serious left wing voice on capital hill, aside from maybe a person here or there. They have right of centre, right, and crazy screaming rabid hyena right. My own politics are what I'd consider left to left of centre. There are lots and lots of people farther left than me and while they may not have a lot of representation in govenment here, there is at least the sense that there is representation even out that far left. For the mainstream left, and centre left there is quite a lot of representation. And I'm not talking about having separate left wing political parties, voting in MPs (senators, members of congress whatever title they may have) is all the representation I mean. Like I said I know there are a few voices here and there in the US that ARE liberal/left in this sense but from a global perspective they are extremely underrepresented. For example we currently have a majority conservative government, and fairly conservative at that (at least from a global point of view) and yet the major opposition party is the NDP (a party with many views to the left of my own).

It always stuns me when people in the US get riled up about the liberal media, the left wing this, the left wing that. There IS no left wing to talk about for the most part. You are kidding yourself if you think Obama is anything but a centrist, and right of centre on a lot of things.

QUESTION FOR THOSE OF YOU HERE LIVING IN THE US WHO SELF IDENTIFY AS LEFT WING: Do you agree with the above assessment or not?
 
Locut0s said:
They aren't. The US doesn't have a serious left wing voice on capital hill, aside from maybe a person here or there. They have right of centre, right, and crazy screaming rabid hyena right. My own politics are what I'd consider left to left of centre. There are lots and lots of people farther left than me and while they may not have a lot of representation in govenment here, there is at least the sense that there is representation even out that far left. For the mainstream left, and centre left there is quite a lot of representation. And I'm not talking about having separate left wing political parties, voting in MPs (senators, members of congress whatever title they may have) is all the representation I mean. Like I said I know there are a few voices here and there in the US that ARE liberal/left in this sense but from a global perspective they are extremely underrepresented. For example we currently have a majority conservative government, and fairly conservative at that (at least from a global point of view) and yet the major opposition party is the NDP (a party with many views to the left of my own).

It always stuns me when people in the US get riled up about the liberal media, the left wing this, the left wing that. There IS no left wing to talk about for the most part. You are kidding yourself if you think Obama is anything but a centrist, and right of centre on a lot of things.

QUESTION FOR THOSE OF YOU HERE LIVING IN THE US WHO SELF IDENTIFY AS LEFT WING: Do you agree with the above assessment or not?
Click to expand...

Yes, completely. I think a lot of people in the US have no clue as to what Liberalism actually means, and most that seem to pit those with the Democratic party as being liberals are (surprise surprise) the "Republican" party.

That's not to say any of those two parties are good; they both suck.
 
ProfJohn said:
Ok, try this answer:

Because we are Americans and don't care how other countries do it...
Click to expand...

This doesn't answer the question. I know for a fact that there are a lot of people in the US that share my political leanings, and many that are farther left, just as there are in most countries. But they don't have any representation to speak of.
 
ProfJohn said:
Ok, try this answer:

Because we are Americans and don't care how other countries do it...
Click to expand...

No one is asking you to care how anyone else does it (by the way, your ignorance is why America is tending to suck these days), the fact is that the political scale is not something decided by America.

Left is left, center is center and right is right.

Left is Marxist/communist. The democrats are neither.
 
ProfJohn said:
Ok, try this answer:

Because we are Americans and don't care how other countries do it...
Click to expand...

That doesn't change the fact it's incorrect. Just because a lot of people believe something doesn't make it right (see appeal to the majority). As said above, the political scale is not something decided by the US.

The US Democratic Party is not left-wing by definition.
 
we are late bloomers, or had to be whipped and hated to learn your ways.

i'm not an american. only the peer pure sure says it.

conclusion - i don't care.
 
RbSX said:
No one is asking you to care how anyone else does it (by the way, your ignorance is why America is tending to suck these days), the fact is that the political scale is not something decided by America.

Left is left, center is center and right is right.

Left is Marxist/communist. The democrats are neither.
Click to expand...

Marxist/Communist is FAR FAR left. In the same way that Facism is FAR FAR right.

I'd say strong Left would be European style democratic socialism, see the Nordic countries. The NDP sort of fills this roll here.

Centre left would more be the liberals here.
 
Jaskalas said:
Socialism is communism with a smiley face of Democracy on top. That's precisely what they would like to be even if they practically fall short.
Click to expand...

Depends on what you label socialism. Most of the worst communist parties considered themselves "socialist". They were not, they were Marxist communist. Modern socialism as in socialist democratic can be seen in places like the Nordic countries in Europe, a place I would not mind living one bit.
 
PeshakJang said:
Right is totalitarianism/dictatorship. The republicans are neither. So, there is no right-wing in America.

Are you guys seriously having this stupid conversation again?
Click to expand...

No you most certainly DO have a right-wing in America. Like I was saying above I would not call left-wing communist/marxist at all, any more than I would consider right-wing to be fascism. In between there is a a BROAD political landscape dotted with many a party around the world. Many of which I would consider left and right wing. Your right wing is pretty far right.
 
Liberal or progressives feel that the government is the answer to every problem. The democrats and our president share this view. More accurately for the current democratic party they feel that they have the answer and are going to spend the private sector money to fix what ever ails you.

Most of the high income types are less concerned with how much is taken from them and more concerned with how that money is spent.
 
The simple wiki-description:

The left–right political spectrum is a common way of classifying political positions, political ideologies, or political parties along a one-dimensional political spectrum. The perspective of Left vs. Right is a binary interpretation of complex questions. Left-wing politics and right-wing politics are often presented as polar opposites, and although a particular individual or party may take a left-wing stance on one matter and a right-wing stance on another, the terms left and right are commonly used as if they described two globally opposed political families. In France, where the terms originated, the Left is called "the party of movement" and the Right "the party of order".[1]
Traditionally, the Left includes progressives, social liberals, social democrats, socialists, communists and some anarchists.[2][3][4][5] The Right includes conservatives, libertarians, plutocrats, reactionaries, capitalists, monarchists, nationalists and fascists.[6]
The terms left and right are often used to spin a particular point of view rather than as simple descriptors. In modern political rhetoric, those on the Left typically emphasize their support for working people and accuse the Right of supporting the interests of the upper class, whereas those on the Right usually emphasize their support for individualism and accuse the Left of supporting collectivism. As a result, arguments about the way the words should be used often displace arguments about policy by raising emotional prejudice against a preconceived notion of what the terms mean.[7]
Click to expand...


Fits American Left/Right descriptions.
 
Locut0s said:
They aren't. The US doesn't have a serious left wing voice on capital hill, aside from maybe a person here or there. They have right of centre, right, and crazy screaming rabid hyena right. My own politics are what I'd consider left to left of centre. There are lots and lots of people farther left than me and while they may not have a lot of representation in govenment here, there is at least the sense that there is representation even out that far left. For the mainstream left, and centre left there is quite a lot of representation. And I'm not talking about having separate left wing political parties, voting in MPs (senators, members of congress whatever title they may have) is all the representation I mean. Like I said I know there are a few voices here and there in the US that ARE liberal/left in this sense but from a global perspective they are extremely underrepresented. For example we currently have a majority conservative government, and fairly conservative at that (at least from a global point of view) and yet the major opposition party is the NDP (a party with many views to the left of my own).

It always stuns me when people in the US get riled up about the liberal media, the left wing this, the left wing that. There IS no left wing to talk about for the most part. You are kidding yourself if you think Obama is anything but a centrist, and right of centre on a lot of things.

QUESTION FOR THOSE OF YOU HERE LIVING IN THE US WHO SELF IDENTIFY AS LEFT WING: Do you agree with the above assessment or not?
Click to expand...

Canada has a demographic far different from the US. Canada does not have millions of poor uneducated illegals invading its country. All of its immigrants are educated with technical college degrees. Canada does not have a welfare queen mentality where everyone can have 20 babies and suck the government tit.
 
tm37 said:
Liberal or progressives feel that the government is the answer to every problem. The democrats and our president share this view. More accurately for the current democratic party they feel that they have the answer and are going to spend the private sector money to fix what ever ails you.

Most of the high income types are less concerned with how much is taken from them and more concerned with how that money is spent.
Click to expand...

You have no clue of what you're talking about. Just thought I'd let you know.
 
Those on the left are going to define themselves as the 'center'. Those on the right will tend to do the same thing. Each group will view themselves as closer to the center, and the others as to their respective direction, left or right.

They are relative terms, and to try to scale them to world and/or historical standards is useless, as you will always be able to find examples of politics further to each extreme.
 
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