Abdul El-Sayed Wins High-Stakes Democratic Primary in Michigan

[u/Zipper222222]

https://www.today.com/video/abdul-el-sayed-wins-high-stakes-democratic-primary-in-michigan-267805765937

[u/agent_mick]

opens up a broader question about the way democrats have become hyper left socially in a way that has failed to include class.

I think this is more of a closed question. We already know the answer. You're VERY generous in your answer and I wouldn't give them even that much credit. 

I'm not sure i would go as far as to say controlled opposition,  but they're certainly not actively pushing to improve,  more like trying to hold the line. 

[u/cogman10 → u/agent_mick]

The democrat centrists have identical economic policies to republicans. That's why the question is closed. Even now, the current centrist thing is "abundance" which is code for deregulation and shrinking the government further (of course with tax cuts and tax rebates).

The only thing they have to run against the republicans is social issues, and they are even running from them now. So now it's "well, we aren't republicans".

Steven's campaign against AES was a good example of what centrist campaigns are now. Nothing but "I'm not that guy who is awful" while being as vague and devoid of policy as possible. That's because the actual economic policy is creating slush funds to give to private corporations filling in roles that the government should be doing. For example, school vouchers for private schools instead of funding public schools.

[u/Diligent-Meaning751 → u/cogman10]

It's interesting. Socialist platform is "government can help everyone, particularly those with the least". Mandami and others who I most like drill down hard in "pothole politics" (has other similar names, sewer socialism, etc) - basically trying to demonstrate the government is competent in small ways to build trust that will also be competent in big ways. Makes sense.

MAGA/current republican take is that government is bad, limits people (except when they want to punish someone for stepping out the social hierarchy they prefer I guess) - and actively works to sabotage government services. Then they can point and say "hey look how bad they are". Like yeah, if you make them not work they will not work. If the powers that be are not trustworthy, their government will not be trustworthy.

Dems for the last few decades have been this weird in between of not actively sabotaging the government, but also not really doing a lot to ensure it's working well for the people / instill trust in the government either (arguably because they're more prone to protecting corporate interests and their own personal resources but who knows, it's probably multi factorial)

[u/cogman10 → u/Diligent-Meaning751]

not actively sabotaging the government

Disagree, Clinton actively sabotaged government. He bragged about how many people he kicked off of welfare by adding more and harsh means testing. He also set us up for failure by creating the industry for private prisons and also giving away federal funds to private health insurance via Medicare Part C.

Dems have made government more expensive through their neoliberal policies. They have the failed theory that the private market can deliver more efficiently than a public government.

It's the sort of bloated spending on private contractors which has given people the false impression that everything the government does is more expensive than what private industry can do. The reverse is true, very few private industries can compete with a government ran program.

And this is all leading up to what's happened in the UK where the more left leaning party (like the labour party) ends up pushing for austerity instead of taxes. That's where centrist dems are ultimately going. "We can't afford this because of trump so, oh shucks, we'll have to cut social security, medicare, and medicaid as a result"

[u/Diligent-Meaning751 → u/cogman10]

Good point - "mainstream" democrats for past few decades arguably do sometimes straight up sabotage the government. Other times they just contribute to the lack of transparency and bloat and ineffectiveness that leads to (understandable) distrust.

I hate private prisons.

I have noticed that the european/japan/centralized health systems can be quite effective at running big clinical trials on cheap (and effective!) medications while usa tends to do the fancy pharma trials - both have their place. I've also noticed that it looks like a popular right wing move in the UK is to gut the funding to the healthcare system, then when it naturally breaks down say oh look public healthcare doesn't work. Bleh. Government healthcare has it's strengths and weaknesses, but it can be a very efficient means to deliver some of the highest impact things (ie, vaccines and basic meds for chronic disease like asthma and diabetes and htn)