Though I agree with you in principle, I think the urge to declare that both sides are equally to blame is a dangerous one. The U.S. is not divided along progressive and conservative lines, not really. What we have is an extreme, radical right wing battling to pull the country ever further into their nihilistic vision with moderates and p…
Though I agree with you in principle, I think the urge to declare that both sides are equally to blame is a dangerous one. The U.S. is not divided along progressive and conservative lines, not really. What we have is an extreme, radical right wing battling to pull the country ever further into their nihilistic vision with moderates and progressives resisting that pull. Practically speaking, the end result has been that the center is far from bare; rather, the extremity of the rightward pull exerted by Tea Party/Trumpists had dragged the entire debate to the center and away from true progressive values.
But you have to look also at the stresses and strains in the Democratic Party showing similar movements away from what was called the center. Biden is not a SuperHero with infinitly stretchable limbs enabling to hold the different sides together and keep a foot in both camps indefinitely on his own. Then I would say that, currently, the center is stretching thin in the elected sense and not in the electors sense of things. The largest part of the electorate will always huddle around the middle and thus the parties are leaving space for others to represent them more closely.
If I understand what you are saying here, the insistence of the progressive wing of the party is exerting a strain from the left, but I would contend that what the progressives are advocating are inherently centrist views. Universal health care, racial justice, wealth redistribution, tax fairness, and reproductive rights are only controversial because a radical right has indoctrinated so many people to think of those principles as dangerous socialism, when what they are in fact is common sense and simple decency.
Reid, I agree. For a number of years, I’ve watched this shift in the political spectrum. It makes me laugh, when rightists tar progressives with the Leftist Liberal brush. There is, in effect, no Left left. The space formerly occupied by moderates is now to the right of center. Center is as far left as we go. When the center is viewed as radical socialism, something’s bad wrong.
You know, I've been thinking for some time now that how in the heck did we, as a country, come to accept "cheating" as an OK thing? We're taught from an early age not to cheat and yet the Republicans have now agreed that cheating is fine. It is as basic as that.
I have to admit that, 65 years into this life and 30 years into right wing lies as Republican policy, my breath can still be taken away by the sheer audacity they show. Either they are severely mentally ill or they have to know that most of what they're saying isn't true. Or perhaps Orwell was right that the lies you tell to control others eventually take over your reality. In either case, I cannot, even with my fertile imagination, get inside those twisted heads enough to understand.
Though I agree with you in principle, I think the urge to declare that both sides are equally to blame is a dangerous one. The U.S. is not divided along progressive and conservative lines, not really. What we have is an extreme, radical right wing battling to pull the country ever further into their nihilistic vision with moderates and progressives resisting that pull. Practically speaking, the end result has been that the center is far from bare; rather, the extremity of the rightward pull exerted by Tea Party/Trumpists had dragged the entire debate to the center and away from true progressive values.
Yes. Well said. Sadly.
But you have to look also at the stresses and strains in the Democratic Party showing similar movements away from what was called the center. Biden is not a SuperHero with infinitly stretchable limbs enabling to hold the different sides together and keep a foot in both camps indefinitely on his own. Then I would say that, currently, the center is stretching thin in the elected sense and not in the electors sense of things. The largest part of the electorate will always huddle around the middle and thus the parties are leaving space for others to represent them more closely.
If I understand what you are saying here, the insistence of the progressive wing of the party is exerting a strain from the left, but I would contend that what the progressives are advocating are inherently centrist views. Universal health care, racial justice, wealth redistribution, tax fairness, and reproductive rights are only controversial because a radical right has indoctrinated so many people to think of those principles as dangerous socialism, when what they are in fact is common sense and simple decency.
Reid, I agree. For a number of years, I’ve watched this shift in the political spectrum. It makes me laugh, when rightists tar progressives with the Leftist Liberal brush. There is, in effect, no Left left. The space formerly occupied by moderates is now to the right of center. Center is as far left as we go. When the center is viewed as radical socialism, something’s bad wrong.
It's propaganda, pure and simple. Pound away at a lie long enough and loudly enough and it eventually becomes a self-evident truth.
Just like Goebbles used.
Yes. I suspect even he is sitting in hell lost in admiration for the sheer audacity of our current Republican party.
I agree Reid.
Depends where you put the goalposts; where they have been or where one might like them to be.
Or whether you allow one team to illicitly drag the goalposts to a position that favors their side.
You know, I've been thinking for some time now that how in the heck did we, as a country, come to accept "cheating" as an OK thing? We're taught from an early age not to cheat and yet the Republicans have now agreed that cheating is fine. It is as basic as that.
I have to admit that, 65 years into this life and 30 years into right wing lies as Republican policy, my breath can still be taken away by the sheer audacity they show. Either they are severely mentally ill or they have to know that most of what they're saying isn't true. Or perhaps Orwell was right that the lies you tell to control others eventually take over your reality. In either case, I cannot, even with my fertile imagination, get inside those twisted heads enough to understand.
I've wondered that myself, too, Annette.
Which is what the Republicans have been doing since Reagan. The “center” is much further right than it once was.
that's the name of the game.