General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why is the American left not as effective as the European left? [View all]laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)but it was pretty long. I see why you got a lot of tl;dr.
My opinion? Don't agree. At all.
1. The country ALREADY has its values. It just doesn't know it because of corporate control of media.
2. Have never seen this. If anything, this is a problem on the right not the left.
3. This is an issue among corporate dems, but almost never the true left.
4. lol wut? If you mean that they pretend to support stuff but never pass anything - and that this only happens on the left, um, haha. I see this as an issue with the 'pragmatic' wing of the party, not the left.
5. So, criticism is out? This is what I hear, "The left needs to shut up and be happy with the crumbs we give you." That impedes progress rather than forwards it.
6. That is what the third way does. The left wants a 50 state plan.
7. huh? I don't think so. This, again, is the right wing of the dems that does this. I see the leaders on the left actually fighting and trying to pass legislation, while those on the right of the party become Debbie Downers "Oh, the republicans will NEVER go for that, let's water it down" without going to the PEOPLE and fighting for their stance.
I think "it's the system, stupid". The way the American system is set up compared to European systems (which, from what I understand, are almost all parliamentary set ups) inherently favors a conservative stance. It's difficult to get anything passed without almost unanimous agreement and so is set up in such a way that change is ridiculously slow. This favors conservatives.
Where I am, here in Canada, the system is set up so that if a party gets a majority(coalitions only happen in a minority situation), generally they can put their entire agenda through in a short amount of time. Progress and change happen quickly. So, what ends up happening is when the Liberals get into power, they are able to do everything they said they'd do. Then when the Conservatives get into power, they can try to roll it all back but inevitably, there is backlash against certain things (for instance, the Conservatives here would never dare roll back Abortion rights, Marriage equality or Health care, because once the people had it, they wanted to keep it). From what I understand, European systems are the same way. The US eventually will get all of these things - but because the way the system is set up, it moves at a snail's pace. Especially recently. The system is set up in such a way that it relies on human goodwill TOO much. We all know that the Republicans have figured this out - all they have to do to thwart any progress is refuse to participate. That would be impossible in a majority parliamentary situation. This is why the left in America cannot move forward. Not because of the left, but because the right has figured out how to game the system. It's the system that needs changing. The only way to get things through is to take it to the people. However, this has been difficult because the media has been taken over by right leaning corporations. Instead, Democrats are still trying to get Republicans to cooperate in the same way a parent tries to get their child to eat spinach. "Please? Just one bite. You'll like it! You can have dessert if you eat it. C'mon, I know you can do it." It's not working. Until the system changes, or the parent can convince the child to eat their spinach, nothing will change. It has nothing to do with how the left supports the Dems or not. Nothing.