General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Which wing of the Democratic Party do you feel fits you the closest? [View all]lapucelle
(18,411 posts)Look at the narrative that polls like this promote. For example, this poll conflates social democrats with Democratic Socialists and then characterizes them as a single "wing" of the Democratic party.
The poll also confuses readers who want more specificity concerning "old-timey" (classical or classical modern) liberalism and modern liberalism. Some old-timey (pre FDR) liberals, social democrats, or Democratic Socialists are certainly members of the party, but I wonder if they can properly be called various wings.
While the majority of the people here on DU who responded to this poll might be representative of a majority of members of the Democratic party, embracing one or the other of two divergent labels conflated as if the political philosophies were interchangeable, it seems unlikely.
Similarly, I wonder how many of the respondents who identify as "social democrat/Democratic Socialist" are proponents of the "dreaded" Third Way, one of the variants of social democracy.
With the 2016 Democratic Party Platform in mind, I like Howard Dean's characterization best: