Democratic Candidates

[ndrosen]

I am not happy with most of the Democratic politicians who are seeking their party’s presidential nomination. They are proclaiming their intention to enact various far-left policies, with enormous new federal spending programs as well as other intrusions into private business, which distresses me for two reasons.

One reason is that one of these people may actually win the nomination and the election, and then succeed in accomplishing a substantial part of what she or he promises, which I oppose. The other is that one of these people may win the nomination, and contribute to Dishonest Donald serving a second term, and not in federal prison. Some conservatives and moderates may dislike our Orange Overlord, but nonetheless vote for him if the alternative is what would have been regarded as a left-wing extremist a few years ago.

I wish that some major candidate were running on a platform of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and respect for the Constitution; unfortunately, our politics have become highly polarized, and that is not one of the two poles.

Comments

[litalex]

If you actually look at the polling, etc, a lot of the Dems' positions aren't that radical. It's only far left because Republicans have moved a lot to the right.

[ndrosen]

If you mean that polls show substantial numbers of people supporting the Green New Deal, you may have a point. If you want to accuse many Republicans of being jerks, or of being invertebrates who don’t dare speak out against God-Emperor Darth Cheetoh, you have a point.

However, I would not agree that Republicans have moved a lot to the right. They are not attempting to abolish Social Security and Medicare, or even to reform these programs so that they will not go bankrupt. They are not attempting to abolish the Department of Education, or greatly reduce the federal government’s involvement in education. They are not seriously attempting to undo same sex marriage, or to end abortion pretty much at will. When they had majorities in both houses and a Republican President, they did not act to repeal and replace Obamacare.

I’m not arguing about the merits of these, for now, and no doubt you can point to some things the Republicans have done, like refusing to take action against climate change, which can be called conservative, if not conservationist. You can talk about cruelties inflicted by the Trump Administration, like child separation; however, being a spiteful SOB is not the same as being a right-winger.

However, the Republicans have not really been pursuing a radically rightist agenda, while many of the Democrats advocate drastic changes in a leftist direction.

[litalex]

Republicans might not be trying to repeal Social Security and Medicare in name, but they are trying to underfund it to a degree that they might as well be abolished. They might be keeping the Department of Education, but they have also made someone who seems fundamentally opposed to the idea of public education the head of that department. In fact, that was Trump's go-to strategy. Appoint to the agency/ministry the person who was fighting it tooth and nail.

Republicans might not be abolishing abortions, but they are making having a clinic that provides abortion so difficult that they might as well have abolished it. And lastly, come on, they definitely tried their very best to repeal ACA, or else McCain's dramatic thumb-down wouldn't have occured, though I do agree that they didn't try to replace it. In fact, Trump just recently said he would focus on healthcare again, even after the last two defeats. And let's not forget how much Republicans have moved to the right in regard to gun control or how much to tax the rich. After all, the tax rate for the rich was once over 70 percent.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-republican-party-has-changed-dramatically-since-george-h-w-bush-ran-it/

[kk1raven]

I'm not very enthused about any of the candidates so far. I don't necessarily disagree with what some of them want to do, but I'm having a hard time understanding how they plan to pay for those plans. I tend to be moderately liberal on social issues and fiscally conservative and that's not a combination that is at all common in politicians.

I'm with you in worrying that whichever candidate wins the Democratic nomination will not be able to win the general election. If there's any choice left by the time my state's primary occurs, I'm going to base my choice on who is most likely to be able to keep the orange toddler from winning a second term.