What does “Center Left” mean?
Just riffing here. The Center is where they say the Democratic Party needs to go … Where is that?
I’m hearing a bunch of chatter about the Democratic Party losing voters because it maybe got too far out in Left Field.
Folks are saying the party needs to get a little closer to the center … Huh? Ya think? So, how would that look? What does the party do to move toward that desired “center”?
And do they mean on all fronts? Or more to the center on social issues? More to the center on economic issues? Whut!?
Socially, maybe drop some of the DEI talk? Not remain full-throated champions of the Big Tent, with a place for everybody to be included and valued? Let the “culture” even out how it treats people, and not try to enact laws to do it? Too intrusive on individual freedom of behavior?
And unions .. stop it with the unions … talk about INTRUSIVE, eh?
Is that what they mean?
Maybe Democrats shouldn’t be so quick to point out that some of the migrants coming here are legitimately seeking asylum from dangerous lives. That’s not really our problem, just because we have laws that say people are allowed to ask us for a safe place to land. {Churches used to do that — Christian Churches guaranteed asylum to people entering their sanctuaries and asking for it ... Maybe that’s old hat now? Would that mean granting asylum is TOO Christian? Mmmmph.}
How about, mmmmm, backing off on marriage equality — maybe rethink same-sex-same-gender marriages? Kick some people the hell back out of the military?
And what about gender itself? Back off recognizing more than two genders, even ..? No more preferred pronouns? Knock it off with supporting trans? Put ‘em all back in the closet? Would that make more voters happy?
{And who knows what it would mean on the criminal justice front … policing … incarceration … I hesitate to even guess…}
Uh, but maybe the people who want a more centrist party do NOT mean those social issues. Maybe they’re really only talking about ECONOMIC centrism?
So how would that look?
Forget about supporting equal-pay for equal work? Women, give it a rest complaining about not getting paid enough, for crying out loud, you’re such nags!!?
Drop the idea of paid family leave?
Don’t propose raising the minimum wage?
DO NOT review tax codes, and DO NOT ditch loop-holes that shelter top tier incomes from income tax?
Keep the Social Security cap right where it is?
Leave trans-national corporations the hell alone, and stop letting government interfere in regulating commerce? The free market Uber Alles?
I want to know what the Center looks like.
And do we really want to go there?
If some people DO want to go there, I have to ask them “What?” and “Why?” And I think that calls for some serious conversation between now and when we get started on another national election that’s gonna have a HUGE impact on all our lives into the foreseeable future …
Oh, yeah. We need to talk …
Listening to the news tonight — talk of Democrats “abandoning” working class people.
That is so much bullsh*t …
The Democrats did NOT abandon the working class. The PANDEMIC {remember that?} created tough times for all of us, seriously decimating our standard economy. And Biden was pulling us out…What Democrats did was forget who they needed to keep TALKING TO, while they kept on doing the job the country needed them to do …
Democrats stopped talking about the issues the labor sector talks about — the “conversation” around the country shifted well toward social issues, maybe because that’s where the Republicans steered it — fragmenting people along social lines…gender, religion, migration …
But Democrats and the Left have continued to work for labor values - LOOK at the bills Biden has put through — bringing back manufacturing in tech and auto; supporting unions; bringing infrastructure money to regions all over the country, Red and Blue and Purple; supporting a higher minimum wage; improving the tax code; paid family leave; early childhood education; so many labor issues!!!
SO, the R’s successfully painted Dems as elitist and claimed they were focused on far Left social issues, but Dems kept putting dollars back into the economy and people’s pockets. It takes TIME for the economy to respond to legislation aimed at fixing it. It take TIIME to feel the rising tide.
TRUMP is going to benefit from an improved economy based on BIDEN’S policies and legislative successes.
Labor swallowed a line of bull from the R’s …
And here we are …