Are the Democrats back on track?

I’ve said many times that I think the Democrats lost their way under Clinton when it began to embrace neo-liberal economic ideas (as did Tony Blair and New Labour in the UK) something that was still there with Obama.

For me that lurch to the right was a big mistake as it sided the party more with wealth and moved it away from working people that it should have been serving.

I can only hope that with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, indicates that era of the Democratic Party is over.

 

As you said yourself: you can only hope at this point

Better vote 3rd party or independent. No alignment with the retarded status quo

 

If we vote with third party or independent the end result would be a Republican win. We'd be better off if the Democrats become more inclusive...enough to draw Green and Independent voters. That way we can push the wagon over the top of the mountain. What we need to do is to restore equality, environmental protections, labor rights, endangered animal protections, water and food safety, government ethics, military spending cuts, and take away guns from Republican fanatics.

 

Yeah... so no big chance on the horizon

 

No

 

Unfortunately, they're going the route of "Grandma Clinton, Part II".

 

Asmo

Which 3rd party or independents do you vote for?

 

You know I'm dutch. Thank god i actually have something to choose.

 

I think we should repeal the second amendment and confiscate all guns and confiscate all diesel pickup trucks from the Republican polluters. After that, I want to put them in re-education camps.

 

Asmo

Sorry had fogotten you're dutch - so which 3rd party or independents should Americans vote for?

 

Depends on the individual. But voting Democrat or Republican to keep the other big party from gaining more power is not going anywhere. Expecting either of these 2 parties to change to your liking is at least as hopeless as voting for a smaller party or independent. At least with the latter you can actually support something that's more in line with your principles. If it becomes a visible option more people may see the use. There's no use voting for the big 2 parties if you want progressive change.

 

It's genuinely time to create something like the American Party: holding firm to constitutional principles (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness) and a basic social safety net (single payer, welfare reform), and investments in infrastructure, education, and displaced workers.

 

I'm afraid third parties aren't the way to go in the short run. The two major parties have made it difficult for third parties to get on the ballots, and the two lesser parties that are already established--Libertarians and Greens--are currently not likely to attract enough voters nationwide. Voting for any political party can be a tug of war between heart and head--i.e., purity of principles vs. a chance of actually winning elections. The Libertarian population attracts folks who tend to be more anti-government, pro-capitalist than the republicans. Marijauna reform is taking away one of their key issues, and they seem clueless in areas of foreign policy and national defense. The Green Party has been narrowly defined by two issues which, oddly, seem to be losing ground in public opinion; environmental protection and preventing nuclear war. Only old fogies remember the flaming waters and suffocating pollution of the sixties. The way Pruitt is going at EPA, those may be coming back, but in the meantime we have mainly Climate Change to rally around, and the Republicans have done a good job of persuading people, falsely, that that's a myth. Besides, Jill Stein is a bit too left-brained and emotionally deficient to attract the bulk of American voters, and she did not help herself by that photo of her sitting at the table with Putin and Mike Flynn when she went to Moscow to denounce U.S. human rights (during the Obama Administration). An American Party combining a civil liberties emphasis with social safety net emphasis? Sounds good, but could it win? What that party would be is the very essence of Liberal, and would have to contend with Republicans on the right giving their standard anti-Librul schpeil, and the Democrats saying "me too". A majority of the electorate in this country is moderate, and its that component that's been neglected in recent years, as the major parties are pulled by their polar wings.

A lot will depend on what happens to Trump and the Republican Party. Maybe a Phoenix party can rise from those ashes. I agree with Stormountainman that a more inclusive Democrat Party drawing in Greens and Libertarians and maybe even picking up moderate Republicans would be the way to go.

 

Maybe not go for anything in the short run for a while.

 

Careful. Notmyrealname might take you seriously and have a coronary. Or is that the idea?

 

I just mentioned Ms. Ocasio-Cortez in the Trunp thread. I like her and think she is exactly what the Democratic party needs.

And she wants Medicare for all! That should honestly be a default Democrat stance by now but the older, stodgier Democrats dont seem to be in favor of it. Ah well, they'll be voted out too eventually

 

Now if we could just get the GOP back on track.

 

I will be keeping an eye on her as well as Hawaii's Tulsi Gabbard. They both have bright political careers ahead of them and hopefully will move this nation foward

 

Both parties just need to roll over & die already. If ever there were a genuine beneficial duty they performed it has long since fallen by the way side in favor of megalomaniacs, maniacs, messiahs, & malcontents.

 

The voters keep them in position.