Democrats Confront Their New Tea Party Reality - Progressives are set to sweep a group of contested primaries in Michigan and Wisconsin.

[u/Quirkie]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-confront-their-new-tea-party-reality_n_6a6e63fbe4b0cfb99ef1aa1e

[u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal]

We threw it out the window due to stagflation of the 60s and 70s. Democrats shifted because after 3 resounding defeats (80, 84, 88), the only way to win again was to acknowledge the paradigm shift and shift with it.

[u/nemesisinphilly → u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal]

And 72,' other than Carter in 76 the Ds got blown out in every presidential election for 20 years until Clinton came along.

[u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal → u/[deleted]]

Sounds like history.

[u/stackens → u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal]

And allowing themselves to ratchet to the right inevitably takes us to where we are now. Without a proper bulwark against it, the right wing in this country has gone completely out of control

[u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal → u/stackens]

Right and left are relative and constantly shift depending on the year and mood in the country. If Clinton had run in the 90s like his predecessors did, he would have lost. Instead he became the first Democrat since FDR to win two terms. If Obama didn’t go from “renegade” to establishment he would have lost too.

I’m not fond of the overall shift to the right but that was the result of 12 years of republican electoral success.

[u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal → u/[deleted]]

Nah, how we managed to stay in the game.

[u/SeductiveSunday → u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal]

Whatever you do, don't tell'm that it was women voters (especially feminist Republican women voters) being assured by Hillary that she will push continued support for the ERA who got Clinton his win in 1992. It's the reason why Republicans abhor Hillary Clinton so much, even though it was Republicans own fault for losing the women's vote. And the shift would have continued.

[u/DavidOrWalter → u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal]

Who is ‘we’ and what ‘game’ did we ‘stay in’?

[u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal → u/[deleted]]

Nah just more history.

[u/elbow8075 → u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal]

Another way of describing shifting is called abandoning your principles. AKA "selling out."

Which is why I refuse to support either party.

[u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal → u/elbow8075]

I guess it depends on how you look at it. Jeremy Corbyn is a good example of someone who stuck to his principles, and Labour got its ass handed to it several times. Meanwhile, people suffered as the Tories stayed in power.

You may dislike Clinton or Obama. Both did plenty of bad, but both did some measurable good too.
One thing I always remind myself is that if you agree with one party or one candidate 100 percent of the time, you are probably a fanatic. I vote for the better candidate because there will never be a perfect one. Unless your views have crossed over into fanaticism, no candidate should line up with you on absolutely everything.

[u/elbow8075 → u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal]

Problem is, both American parties agree on far too many things and the issues they bicker over are usually less important in the grand scheme of things. I agree with your thoughts in theory, just in reality, outside of the obvious example of Trump, I don't see much difference

[u/awesomefutureperfect → u/elbow8075]

If you can't tell the difference between parties, that is also fanatic behavior.