In politics, you always have to ask, "compared to what"? Yes, Trump is bad in all sorts of ways. So are the far leftists who are increasingly dominating Democratic politics.

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WarOnPrivacy 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Who are some leftists in power (or likely to be in power) who are as comparably awful as the current PotUS ?

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dlcarrier 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Besides Biden and Harris having some of the worst draw in any presidential election, check out the candidates for California's gubernatorial election. They're tripping over each other, trying to show that they can all be more scandalous than the current governor.

	▲	bediger4000 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They weren't really "leftists", though.

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baggy_trough 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

DSA for example. They are increasing their influence, for example they have several elected members on the LA Board of Supervisors, not to mention the mayor of the most important US city. They are absolutely dedicated to wrecking the place and they are doing a great job of it in LA at least. That's the direction I see the Democrats going, somewhat in response to Trump, which is bad all around.

	▲	guzfip 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It’s the same on the right. If all you have to offer is the same corrupt schmucks, people will vote for the more extreme option out of spite

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marssaxman 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> far leftists who are increasingly dominating Democratic

As a far leftist myself, I can only wish that were true; it would be a great problem to have! No, the Democratic Party is a fundamentally non-democratic institution, run from the top down by an insiders' club who care about 1) their own careers, 2) the priorities of their millionaire donors, and 3) the results of opinion polls, strictly in that order. You may be hearing more leftist voices than you're used to, but they are appealing to the party - with little effect - and certainly not dominating it.

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tts626 8 hours ago | parent [-]

The far left is inherently non-democratic, so it's kind of an odd thing to complain about.

The only way far left policies are ever enacted is by a top-down insider's club of elites who think they know best for everyone else.

Of course, that's the same for the ultra-conservatives too. Extreme policies have never been popular with the American people.

In both cases, you have authoritarianism and statism differing only by sentiment and temperament.

But despite Trump's personality, he has a very broad appeal to ordinary people, speaks plainly, and for better or worse, does exactly what he says he'll do.

Conversely, Democrats seem to do nothing but back pedal and blame shift whenever their pie-in-the-sky policies fail miserably.

And of course, whenever the Democrats lose, their radical base takes to the streets, because obviously democracy has failed.

You may think of yourself as a far leftists, but if you really do embrace democracy, rule of law, and stand against authoritarianism, you're probably not nearly as far left as you imagine.

	▲	marssaxman 6 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> In both cases, you have authoritarianism and statism differing only by sentiment and temperament. We certainly agree there! - those tendencies are not exclusive to either end of the political axis. One of the fun truths about leftists is that we disagree with each other as vigorously as we do with folks from the other side of the aisle: there are many forms of leftism, and they are certainly not all authoritarian or statist. In some strains of leftism, there is no role for the state at all; in others, opposition to authoritarianism is a primary concern. I am sure that from a conservative viewpoint the other side looks like one big undifferentiated mass of crazy people, but from where I sit, the Democratic party looks like a fundamentally centrist institution which mostly prefers business-as-usual, occasionally proposing small tweaks in the direction of slightly softening the rough edges of the system when that will make the big donors happy. Leftists describe this as "liberalism". Voters may call for radical change from time to time, but the party never gets around to doing anything about it. > probably not nearly as far left as you imagine I am not sure how you can get any further left than libertarian socialism.
	▲	guzfip 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> The only way far left policies are ever enacted is by a top-down insider's club of elites who think they know best for everyone else. Kinda like the pedowood actors and financiers on the establishment left/right screaming at young men about how they need to die in some stupid war between two rapist dessert tribes.

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krapp 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's weird that the narrative is still that the Democrats are "far leftists" when they basically tanked their last campaign because they loved American imperialism and genocide so much.

I mean, Kamala Harris' pivot to the right is going to be studied in political science textbooks for years. And Biden was a pro-police DA who (contrary to Republican propaganda) was aggressively anti-immigrant and he betrayed labor unions during the rail workers' strike.

Not even Obama, the Great Marxist Antichrist (as far as Republicans were concerned) was that leftist.

In my experience the only people who use the term "far leftist" to describe the Democrats were never going to vote for them to begin with. No actual leftist thinks the Democrats are allies, they're just the lesser evil. If anything, more people are disillusioned with them because they aren't leftist enough.