uran10 said:
Bofferbrauer2 said:
Well, in most of Europe he would probably be a Social Democrat, maybe a Christian Democrat in some countries, but that would push him quite far to the left on some issues in such a party. Merkel not railing against healthcare is not a sign for centrism from Bernie, as this is really just one policy out of several dozens, some of which would be to far left for the Christian Democrats on their own, though feasible in a coalition government.
But you're right on american politics. I generally describe the democratic party as center-right and the GOP as right-wing (not far right or anything like that, though it attracts those types, too, since they don't have their own party with winner takes all), with the libertarians also as center-right and the Green Party USA as centist to center-left.
My guess is that this is an effect from the two red scares (one after the Red October in 1917 and a much bigger one after WW2) which pushed the US further and further to the right, plus Reagan's demonizing of the government, not realizing that due to the horseshoe effect, the non-economic policies actually getting closer to what the soviets had than what they were before the red scare during FDR's time.
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I just want to say one thing to this and that's that you're giving the republican party and even the dem party a bit too much credit imo. You're more spot on with the dems, but I'd honestly call them more of a economically right wing party, while being culturally left wing (atleast on the surface), the republicans however, are legitimately far right wingers. I'm not talking everyday republicans walking the streets, the citizens. I'm talking look at their elected members. Outside of Rand Paul (who is pretty bad on domestic issues), and Mike Lee, the rest of the party is well...... yea.
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Well, right wing is pretty narrow and pretty far to the right already. Just look at Germany for instance: AFD is right-wing, but not far-right, that would be the NPD. However, there's a very substantial overlap between the two. In fact, right wing parties are most often far-right with some more centrist policies thrown in and with the most blatant racism, xenophobia and the like curbed down a notch to not face legal troubles or other kinds of backlash. And in that regard, I consider this the perfect description of the GOP right now.
As for the Democrats, they include pretty much everything that's on the left from the GOP, so everything from center-left to left wing. But the establishment Democrats are pretty much all centrists to center-right, even culturally for the most part (it just looks much more like left wing since it's left from the GOP) and they are those who have been shaping most of the party until now. Bernie, the squad, millennials and Gen Z however are for the most part way to the left of where the Democratic party is right now, and are trying to pull the party more and more to the left. And that pull will continue over the next years.