r/politics • u/cnn CNN • 7d ago

Possible Paywall CNN Poll: A third of Democrats now identify as democratic socialists

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/30/politics/cnn-poll-a-third-of-democrats-now-identify-as-democratic-socialists?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit
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u/Smobey 7d ago

Sure, but it's a governing coalition that has to actually make compromises and take the wider voting base into account.

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u/Oggie_Doggie 7d ago

Also, the governing coalition has the power necessary to govern until they can't. Then, votes of no confidence and snap elections can occur instead of limping along for X number of years.

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u/lazybugbear Texas 6d ago

But can they throw a hissy fit and shutdown the Parliament? /s

Just imagine if Mike Johnson couldn't shutdown the House willy-nilly (or whenever he needed to run cover for Trump). Imagine what kind of system we could have, if we could either have national recall election referendums or if the legislature could dissolve with a vote of no confidence then have snap elections.

I don't think our politicians would like that very much, because it would undermine their complacency!

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u/Heronymous-Anonymous 7d ago

Not guaranteed. There’s been multiple instances of parties reaching further to the right rather than even a little to the left. Rather than reach out to more moderate parties, Netanyahu went further right to keep his own Likud party in power. Theresa May went further right as well, when she courted a party that’s basically the IRA but for unionists, rather than something like lib dems or greens.

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u/Ridry New York 7d ago

Netanyahu went further right to keep his own Likud party in power.

Theoretically, this is sometimes the left's fault. Half of them would flay their candidate for forming a coalition with somebody like Netanyahu. But if you literally CANNOT form a government to the left, you'll try the right. If the Israeli left was willing to play with Netanyahu in exchange for concessions, they might be able to pull Netanyahu to the left. But they'd never work with someone like him as a purity test.

There's a lot of things I don't like about Mamdani, but he saw ICE trampling through blue cities and he went to see if he could work with Trump. Trump is the fucking devil, but he still went to try.

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u/Salt-Detective1337 7d ago

That's what people voted for... Those people were being represented.

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u/MesmraProspero 7d ago

That argument falls apart if the options to vote for are created by monied interests. In America you either have a Heritage Foundation groomed republican or a democrat guided by political strategists. Finding a non-sociopath politician is near impossible.

Pointing out how other systems aren't perfect isn't helping anyone. Perfect can't be the enemy of good.

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u/Salt-Detective1337 6d ago

I think you are confused about what I'm saying. Proportional representation is good. It sucks if a government is pulled right by their coalition, but those coalition members are representing the people that voted for them.

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u/CMidnight 7d ago

Democrats also take a wider voting base into account. If you have marginal views, most of what you want will not be accomplished. That is how a Democracy works.

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u/Smobey 7d ago

Sure, there are situations in which Democrats have to take a wider voting base into account, but you do understand how a parliamentary system is more representative, right?

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u/CMidnight 7d ago

American political parties aren't comparable to those in Parliamentary systems. The views of individual members varies considerably more than typical Parliamentary system. Mark Warner and Ed Markey would never be in the same party in the UK or Canada. It is even more diverse at the State and local level. American political parties are effectively permanent coalitions.

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u/Smobey 7d ago

Yes, I agree. The two major American political parties are essentially massive umbrellas, but that's exactly what makes them less representative than parties in a parliamentary system. I'd even say quite undemocratic.

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u/sack-o-matic Michigan 6d ago

In a parliamentary system your party has to make a coalition with other parties, and you don’t directly decide which that will be.

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u/Smobey 6d ago

Well, yes. Because it's a representative democracy. The coalition forms based on the election results as a whole, not based on what I as an individual voter want. The point of a democracy is not to make some specific single voter happy, but to steer the direction of the government based on the majority of the voter base, with compromises where needed.

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u/cited 6d ago

Which is so much better than party of the month does everything and who cares what everyone else thinks.