There’s a theory called the Overton Window and Dems moving to the center has shifted this whole country to the right.
I don’t agree. I don’t think Democrats shifted anything, they were just going where the voters were. Democrats have to win elections and that requires getting people to vote for you. The Democrats didn’t shift voters to the right, the voters shifted Democrats to the right.
We lost abortion rights because of it
I think abortion rights are a winning issue for Democrats, but not because it’s an exclusively progressive policy. I think abortion rights is a very popular policy among moderates.
If you want to look at a winning strategy that directly refutes your point look at FDR.
I’m talking about where American voters are today, not where they were 80 or 90 years ago, and today I think a majority of Americans are politically moderate.
American’s support “progressive” policy when it’s not framed as a political question.
That article you linked to supports my point. From the article:
Consider: Ordinary people in both parties turn out to like ordinary people in the other party well enough. In a 2021 study in the Journal of Politics, researchers found that when a person in one political party was asked what they think of someone in the other party, their answer was pretty negative. That certainly sounds like polarization. But it turns out the “someones” respondents had in mind were partisans holding forth on cable news.
If told the truth—that a typical member of the opposite party actually holds moderate views and talks about politics only occasionally—the animus dissolved into indifference. And if told that the same moderate person only rarely discusses politics, the sentiment edged into the positive zone. These folks might actually get along.
“There are people who are certainly polarized,” says Yanna Krupnikov, a study co-author now at the University of Michigan. “They are 100% polarized. They deeply hate the other side. They are extraordinarily loud. They are extraordinarily important in American politics.” But those people, she adds, are not typical Americans. They are people who live and breathe politics—the partisans and activists whom academics refer to in this context as elites.
That hardly recommends today’s politics, and goes a long way toward explaining why many people avoid partisans. “They dislike people who are really ideologically extreme, who are very politically invested, who want to come and talk to them about politics,” says Matthew Levendusky, a University of Pennsylvania professor of political science.
But, yes, moderates can, like progressives, want to improve the healthcare system and address climate change. Where they differ is in how they would go about it, and I think most moderates would prefer to go about addressing those issues by making as few radical changes as possible.
We differ on a salient point I think. You view progressives as radicals.
I really don’t, and that’s not the point that I’m making at all. I’m saying, the majority of American voters view progressives as radicals. Bernie Sanders and AOC, and any other politician who identifies as a socialist, Democratic or otherwise, as well as politicians who advocate for Medicare for All, a green new deal, etc, are seen by a majority of American voters as radicals. That’s what I’m saying.
I don’t agree. I don’t think Democrats shifted anything, they were just going where the voters were. Democrats have to win elections and that requires getting people to vote for you. The Democrats didn’t shift voters to the right, the voters shifted Democrats to the right.
I think abortion rights are a winning issue for Democrats, but not because it’s an exclusively progressive policy. I think abortion rights is a very popular policy among moderates.
I’m talking about where American voters are today, not where they were 80 or 90 years ago, and today I think a majority of Americans are politically moderate.
Buying power and income disparity are at the same levels they were 80-90 years ago.
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2019/4/1/18286084/gilded-age-income-inequality-robber-baron
Americans support “progressive” policy when it’s not framed as a political question.
https://time.com/6990721/us-politics-polarization-myth/
Lastly, you think Americans were more progressive on average 90 years ago?
That article you linked to supports my point. From the article:
But, yes, moderates can, like progressives, want to improve the healthcare system and address climate change. Where they differ is in how they would go about it, and I think most moderates would prefer to go about addressing those issues by making as few radical changes as possible.
We differ on a salient point I think. You view progressives as radicals.
I don’t think what the progressive wing of the party are asking for is radical. Neither does the article I posted.
I really don’t, and that’s not the point that I’m making at all. I’m saying, the majority of American voters view progressives as radicals. Bernie Sanders and AOC, and any other politician who identifies as a socialist, Democratic or otherwise, as well as politicians who advocate for Medicare for All, a green new deal, etc, are seen by a majority of American voters as radicals. That’s what I’m saying.