"Democrats are right-wing, Republicans are extremely far-right"

[NineSpine]

I don't know if one is more authoritarian than the other. Obviously they both are but I would agree that there's probably less of a progressive presence in the U.S. which is good. The far right has been losing ground for awhile but I hop it doesn't get replaced by progressivism either.

Every single successful nation of the 20th century did so with progressive government. There are no small government economic superpowers.

[Nostop it]

Every single successful nation of the 20th century did so with progressive government. There are no small government economic superpowers.

Except for the U.S. We truly are exceptional.

[NineSpine]

Except for the U.S. We truly are exceptional.

Hahahahahaha the United States only turned away from progressive policies in the 80s, which times exactly with our overall economic decline. Not a coincidence.

[Rukentuts]

Except for the U.S. We truly are exceptional.

Yeah, exceptionally terrible at politics. It's why we're falling behind.

[Nostop it]

Hahahahahaha the United States only turned away from progressive policies in the 80s, which times exactly with our overall economic decline. Not a coincidence.

I'll allow you to chew on my leg a little and once your side has a compelling enough argument I'll come in and crush it. But a weak point like that won't do the trick.

[NineSpine]

I'll allow you to chew on my leg a little and once your side has a compelling enough argument I'll come in and crush it. But a weak point like that won't do the trick.

You have to make a point for there to be an argument against it. "USA RULES! FUCK PROGRESSIVES!" isn't an argument. The United States has had an interventionist, progressive government for most of it's existence in one form or another. That's a fact. We have only lagged behind the social infrastructure of the rest of the world since the 80s. Again, a fact. Up until then, we were roughly matched up with the rest of the developed world in the development of our social infrastructure.

[usiris]

Except for the U.S. We truly are exceptional.

In what?

Were pretty good at being morbidly obese I hear.

[Cthulhu 2020]

In what?

Were pretty good at being morbidly obese I hear.

Even Mexico is beating us on THAT now.

We're still #1 in lawnmower deaths.

[Deleted]

I hear this thrown around a lot, usually by liberals, but there doesn't seem to be any truth to it. This "political spectrum" of theirs is an entirely subjective and relative statement to begin with, as there is no fixed scale to go by. This is to say nothing of the fact that it is factually wrong when compared with other developed countries, or even the entire world (including undeveloped countries). For the sake of this discussion, I shall take a look at developed countries only.

Most countries in Europe have parties that are far more "extreme" than the Republican Party, and I'm not just talking about fringe groups. Look at centre parties like Civic Platform, the largest party in Poland, which opposes gay marriage and abortion and supports the drug war, chemical castration and Christian theocracy (prayer in school). This isn't an exception, this is the rule in Eastern Europe.

Western European countries also have their fair share of radicals, and these guys are much more radical than any office-holding Republican; take a look at the National Front in France, Party for Freedom in the Netherlands and the English Defence League in Britain. Most of these parties only have a handful of seats in parliament (though there are exceptions, like the Party for Freedom and Sweden Democrats, which have a large number of seats), but when you take the far-right parties and the centre-right parties (and likewise for the far-left and centre-left), and then add in everything in between, you'll see that Western Europe isn't all that different from America or Eastern Europe after all. And this is to say nothing for highly nationalistic developed countries in Asia, like Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

So how exactly are Democrats "right-wing," when they have almost the exact same rhetoric, policies and overall dream as their European counterparts? All you need to do is look at how buddy-buddy American liberals and European social democrats are on this forum. In many ways, US Democrats are far more extreme than their European counterparts; take for instance gun control. Most people in Europe, regardless of political ideology, would never support the extremist laws that many Democrats have proposed, and in a few cases, even implemented. Take for instance the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, or the several attempts to ban handguns at various levels of government in the US; yet both handguns and semi-automatic rifles are legal in virtually every single European country, except for the United Kingdom.

Could someone please explain to me how exactly "Democrats are right-wing," when the evidence simply doesn't support that claim?

just because their are people that are EVEN MORE right wing doesnt mean the democrats arent right wing because they are. let me make it simple

Democrats - Kind of middling leans a lot to the right wing.
Republicans - very Right wing
These european parties you reference - Extremely fucking right wing

Your post is like taking a 5 foot long sandwich and saying this sandwich isnt long because over here i have a 10 foot long sandwich, thus the 5 foot sandwich is actually short....no it isnt.....its just less long. Its still long

[Radio]

To give you an idea of the political differences: here in Australia our conservative party was in power for a long time, and the Prime Minister was widely considered conservative to the point of being downright anachronistic (seriously the man was a dinosaur, he was obsessed with Don Bradman and Samson's Donkey...). He instituted strict gun control nationwide. And when I say gun control, I don't mean the pissweak American idea of "gun control", I mean if you had a gun you had to hand it in to be destroyed (mandatory buyback) and legislation made it nearly impossible for anyone to have a legitimate gun license. And I mean ANY kind of gun, if it fires bullets it's a gun kind of thing. He also instituted an entirely new tax, a GST that was needless to say widely unpopular.

This is why this segment on the daily show was so fun:

[Cthulhu 2020]

There's a reason why we call it the American left. It's left of American center policy, but it's still far right of true center.

[Mormolyce]

I don't know if one is more authoritarian than the other. Obviously they both are but I would agree that there's probably less of a progressive presence in the U.S. which is good. The far right has been losing ground for awhile but I hop it doesn't get replaced by progressivism either.

In America the right is no longer conservative, it's openly regressive. Embracing progressive social policy and conservative economic policy would be the best thing that ever happened to them.

Fortunately as in most Western countries once the political parties get in power they behave almost exactly the same regardless of their ostensible political philosophies. So their lip service to social regressives accomplishes little (eg, George W. Bush's terms).

[Grummgug]

The point is that radical left wing politics oppresses nations and prevents them from being powerful and great. It is in America's best interests to flood the world with radical left wing thinking, because that will prevent a rival from rising up and challenging them. If a true right wing government took hold in the UK, for example, they would fix most of their economic problems and begin to rise as a true world power. America does not want that. They would have a challenger.

Its about mollifying a global populace to subjugate them.

You can see how effective it is, as at this point Europeans seem to crave a radical left wing government and even consider it centrist. America has successfully turned Europe from fighting eternal wars into a group of very passive people. They've been subjugated. They may complain mildly about what America does but they pretty much go along with the problem nicely.

It amazes how screwed up it all gets, as the subjugated Europeans for the most part still haven't noticed they've been subjugated, and in fact crave more of it and act like they are superior for being subjugated.


[Infracted]

[mvaliz]

The point is that radical left wing politics oppresses nations and prevents them from being powerful and great. It is in America's best interests to flood the world with radical left wing thinking, because that will prevent a rival from rising up and challenging them. If a true right wing government took hold in the UK, for example, they would fix most of their economic problems and begin to rise as a true world power. America does not want that. They would have a challenger.

Its about mollifying a global populace to subjugate them.

You can see how effective it is, as at this point Europeans seem to crave a radical left wing government and even consider it centrist. America has successfully turned Europe from fighting eternal wars into a group of very passive people. They've been subjugated. They may complain mildly about what America does but they pretty much go along with the problem nicely.

It amazes how screwed up it all gets, as the subjugated Europeans for the most part still haven't noticed they've been subjugated, and in fact crave more of it and act like they are superior for being subjugated.

Conspiracy theories are not allowed on this forum.

PS> I don't need to say how loony this all sounds too.

[Templar 331]

Snip

So, the UK isn't a "true world power" and the U.S. is what caused Europe to go from constant wars to passive by sending out radical left wingers to subjugate the world. And just when I thought I heard everything.

[Deleted]

I don't consider myself liberal. I just can't stand people who act like one side is the devil and the other side is perfect. There are things I like about each side and things I HATE about each side. It just so happens that republicans out weigh democrats in terms of things I hate.

What I need is a good third party that drops the hate/fear/war mongering and theocratic ideas of the republicans and stops the welfare state and spineless attitude of democrats...

Uh.. I'm not sure how that has anything to do with anything we were debating about before. I don't like either "side". I'm pretty consistent when it comes to that.