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Democratic political strategy
This fails to recognize that for a very long time things trended left. I remember talking to someone in the 90s and we went down a list of major issues and the left had essentially won on all of them. Roe vs Wade EPA Gay Marriage Welfare Reform and Child Tax Credits
My hope for the Democratic party is that they go to a single issue for the next National election, and that issue should be Anti-trust/Breaking up monopolies
That's a slope, not an aisle
/genuine question, asides from the obvious of republicans adopting left policy, what would have to happen for another party switch to occur?
like, i know it happened once. wondering what circumstances and context brought that about and if that’s even a realistic framing to think about today’s world?
There is also the Whig party for reference. They were one of the two parties until they refused to take a meaningful stance on slavery. They were the 'bipartisanship states rights solves it' party versus the 'pro-slavery' party.
There is no longer a Whig party and the slavery party went to war over a decade or so after the anti slavery parry formed.
So there's that alternative to Party switch.
I agree. I think we're at the stage where the Democrats are the Whig party. They aren't going to change, they need to be replaced with a true progressive party.
Assuming that we continue to be as much of a democracy as we were, now might be the time for that replacement to happen.
Knowing Better has a good video about the Party Switch, although I'm not sure it's applicable to today
not saying i disagree, but people always link this article as though it even has a section on partisan politics. it doesn’t, or really even pose any evidence that suggests the effect applies to the overton window. would be curious if there are any sources that pose evidence.
i just read it and don't think it applies here. the effect seems to apply to situations where the movement in one direction perpetuates itself, due to cyclic nature or outside influences.
if the democratic party wanted to, they could totally pull the overton window to the left. it's not like there's a perpetual demanded for the democratic party to move to the right; they just want to do it.
The Overton Window is set in an abandoned lot. The house burned down a long time ago.
Meet me in the middle, says the unjust man. You take a step towards him, he takes a step back. Meet me in the middle, says the unjust man.
Frankly the people are the ones moving further to the right because the state does not educate them and regulate corporate power, transforming the public into a myopic panicked herd.
That's actually false. When it comes to policy preferences, the actual electorate swings pretty far left compared to the right wing and far right parties they can choose between. Universal health care, parental leave, paid sick leave, higher minimum wage all enjoy broad and firm popular support, and neither party is even talking about this.
!! yea
always important to remember that the electorate’s preference in policy has only a loose relationship to who they vote for. this air gap is where most elections are fought, where strong messaging tightens the gap and messaging failures loosen it. the 2024 presidential election had a hella loose connection between party and people.
That connection is much less loose if you consider how right wing the democrats have gotten over the years. And beyond that, note that a big part of Harris' loss is that her republican light "I'm basically Nikki Haley" campaign mainly reflects itself in people not voting for her. The statistics you mention (or the polls you base your comment on, not sure where it's coming from) are presumably talking about voters, not the electorate. Harris' inability to mobilize her base is the problem here, not republicans voting republican.
The rightward shift of the GOP and the tendency of the seemingly infinite number of spineless Dem careerist politicians to seek compromise is very real, but please remember the 90s and 2000s, everyone. They were not as rosy and left-wing as you remember; while not nearly enough, the Dems are notably more left than they were then.
In the larger picture the rightward trend is kind of true on economic fronts.
But yeah, since the 90s we've slowly moved left.
Since the 90s we've moved left economically as well. The 90s were where the Dems had their massive neoliberal shift, after all. Not hard to be more left than THAT.
Right, that's why I said in the larger picture. Before Reagan, taxing the rich and a living minimum wage were standard. Now it's considered radical. But we've definitely moved back to the left since then.
Always reach across the isle and punch nazis.
"Why isn't anybody voting for us"
I think the question they ask is more like "why are people voting for the other side?" ...leading to "we need to be more like them"
The problem is theres nothing on our side. Our choices are right of center and so far right they fell off the graph.
There's also the choice of doing what Bernie did, and build up an alternative from the local level, but that would require people to realise that politics aren't restricted to TV-level races nor snooze for 4 years.
If Americans did that in large scale they could to the democratic party the reverse of what the tea party did to the republican party.
The Democratic party hates Bernie though. Theyran so hard against him back in '16 and '20. I swear the Democrats would rather lose to a Republican than run an actual left candidate.
That's because there are only a handful of "Bernies". A party is not a monolithical block, it's the sum of it's members, and the centrists end up being in charge because they are the ones that end up representing the party at most levels. If you want to shift the balance you need leftists to run for school boards, and city halls, and build from there by starting taking over the state committees and DNC members elected by each state (which in turn control the DNC).
If even the most extreme of the extreme right managed to do it in the republican party, there's no reason why a moderate left movement couldn't do it in the democratic party - if anything I would expect it to be easier.
Well that would require people to actually go vote every time instead of just bitching online. Or discouraging everyone from voting by saying someone is "Republican light"