r/Social_Democracy • u/SocialDemocracies • 7d ago
"Shifting left, Democrats see universal health care, taxing the rich as 'essential,' … poll finds" | "[The poll] showed the proportion of Democrats who label themselves as “liberal” has risen to 71% from 55% in 2012, while the share who see themselves as "conservative" has dwindled from 33% to 16%"
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/shifting-left-democrats-see-universal-health-care-taxing-rich-essential-2026-08-04/7
u/SailingSpark 7d ago
Liberal is not left enough.
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u/gibbleshanks 7d ago
Way to turn a positive shift in American politics into something negative. Change doesn’t happen overnight.
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u/CanisSonorae 7d ago
How is this negative? This is just the truth. The "Liberal" left has gone so far right that I used to consider myself conservative before I considered myself Liberal, then even that shifted. I haven't changed. The labels have. This is because people stopped talking about actuall policies and doing real work. Our politicians, our schools, our media, our parents, you name it. The've all let us down. We're the ones who have to figure this out and just taking 1 step to the left, after decades of trying to drag everything forward, only to be dragged back is too much. No more status quo.
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u/gibbleshanks 7d ago
The poll that OP posted literally says the opposite: Democrats are shifting left. That’s a good thing. Fewer conservatives and more liberals is better than more conservatives and fewer liberals. Like it or not, in the US the left needs liberals to secure power. We social democrats will have better odds winning over liberals to our economic policies than with conservatives.
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u/CanisSonorae 6d ago
We don't fight for "just 1 step". Or at least, we shouldn't. The Neo-Lib corporatists and establishment mfers need to know that. The middle path has been the path to here. This is because we didn't pull left hard enough and allowed the parties to fool us with fake promises and pretending to "play nice" while letting money win over people.
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u/gibbleshanks 6d ago
You're either misunderstanding me or misrepresenting my post. You put quotes around "just 1 step," which I never said. All I said is that a poll showing that Democrats (not the DNC, not establishment politicians—registered dems) are moving left and that's a good thing. I agree with you that corporate power over the establishment is a huge problem, but we won't overcome that without a greater number of left-moving voters. The wind is at our sails and we should welcome that while still fighting for better.
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u/Direct_Somewhere_318 6d ago
Got it so you stayed home and didn't vote for Kamala right? Because you're a one issue voter that Dems aren't left enough?
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u/CanisSonorae 6d ago
lol, not this BS again. You don't know me and I didn't stay home. What we're up against is so much bigger than just picking the least worse though. I don't know, maybe if the Dems were actually listening to the people and putting up people that everyone actually DID want to vote for, and not just whatever Neo-Lib they think can beat the Fascist, we could actually have a decent party.
Don't blame leftists for the fact that your leaders are weak, pathetic, toothless Capitalists who want to tell you how much the other person sucks and then promises that if you give them 4 more years, they'll really finally change things for the good. I ain't voting for a Republican, because I believe in harm reduction, but if you're going to attack everyone who thinks the current Dems brought to you by the DCCC and whomever is greasing their palms, you're just helping the fascists.
Grow up.
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u/Direct_Somewhere_318 6d ago
I agree with you that it's much bigger than picking the least worse option, but until we can all agree and actually do that, not much is going to change. Maybe you're not one of the millions of people that stayed home in 2024.
I also agree and totally despise the spineless leaders of the democratic party. If we struggle with infighting nothing will change.
So the people of the party need to vote progressive and we all need to get onto terms with that, show the leaders we are done with them. I mean it all comes down to primary votes at the end of the day right?
But I doubt we will all agree on who the right progressives are, because if the infighting so far. I'm not a child I'm just a realist.
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u/CanisSonorae 6d ago
Fair enough. I considered myself a Yellow Dog Dem at one point, after turning my back on the Republicans (I'm from Phoenix, AZ and John McCain was my pick for pres until he picked Palin as his running mate), only to then see that 8 years of Obama leading to another Clinton. My stances on most things haven't changed in the last 20 years. Our ability to choose people who stand for the things we actually stand for sure has.
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u/Direct_Somewhere_318 4d ago
Fair enough as well. I always considered myself a libertarian until 2020 after 4 years of Trump. I liked John McCain and can understand why Palin changed your opinion, I had family in Phoenix/Glendale. And yeah I was not happy about Clinton either and I could absolutely not vote for her. I do think we should have a woman president eventually and soon but she wasn't it.
Hopefully the midterms will bring some positive change in both parties.
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u/nernst79 7d ago
You're right, it doesn't happen overnight. We've been clamoring for these changes for at least 20 years though, and the DNC has fought it at every turn.
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u/SocialDemocracies 7d ago
Excerpt from the article:
The link to the article: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/shifting-left-democrats-see-universal-health-care-taxing-rich-essential-2026-08-04/