General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why is the American left not as effective as the European left? [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Trust me. I lived in Europe some years, and I read the European press from time to time.
"opening up healthcare to tens of millions of more Americans, opening the military to gays, preventing war with Iran, using Executive Orders to advance all sorts of labor and environmental objectives, etc. etc. - these things are not liberal achievements because (as with the 100% vs. 80% example above) there is some divergence with a perfect, ideal system that never existed.
Obama halted the march to war with Iran in its tracks and opened up diplomacy, but because the US still wages war somewhere, on some level, he's Dick Cheney. We have Obamacare, but because it involves mandates and private health insurers rather than a purely public system, it's the same as doing nothing and letting millions die from lack of healthcare. "
Obama's achievements are nice. But they do very little for working people. They don't increase job security. They don't lower the retirement age. Only in the past few years has Obama strongly come out in favor of raising the minimum wage.
Obama gave his all to save the banks, appointed Geithner and Summers, et al. to carry out the bankers' policies. He showed little concern for working people. He created jobs at the deepest part of the recession -- but not really enough to create any upward wage pressure.
Worst of all, he put Social Security on the table at the same time that healtcare costs for sniors have risen. The ACA is nice but Bush's donut hole for seniors will not close until 2019.
Obama's failure to really, really support the strikers and demonstrators in Wisconsin was a watershed moment for the liberal, progressive movement in the US. Obama's silence as that movement gained momentum spoke volumes about why the left does not gain traction in the US. Who can trust a political party that claims to represent working people when the leaders of that party respond in a lukewarm way when the rights of working people are trampled?
That is the key. When the Democratic Party, the left party of America starts really taking the side of working people and the middle class and lets the press, the working people and the middle class know that they have the Democratic Party on their side, we will see the rise of the Democratic Party.
Unthinkable that a European left party would do well if it did not strongly defend the rights of working people to things like unemployment benefits, education, good schools, universal healthcare insurance in one form or another -- including dental care -- good pensions, etc.
If you want to grow a garden, you have to make sure it gets the right amount of water and plant it at a time that it will hopefully get enough sun and warmth. And you had better amend the soil if it needs it.
Democrats don't take care of their constituents. Some of them are too busy taking care of the conservative constituents -- the corporations -- to dare to show real concern for working people.