Sam_Brown wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 4:59 pm
Mainly due to the Left trying to change history.
Referring to things in absolute terms like “the left” or “the right” does you a disservice I feel as those terms can mean different things to different people. What do you mean by “the left” exactly?
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Sam, you are quite right, I probably have over-used the Left terminology on that comment - and thank you Green Blue for your positive comments on the following message on the thread.
How I define 'Left' points more to the radical side of the Democrat party such as AOC, Oman and, well, lets be fair, the language of Pelossi and Schumer recently as well as Biden. The idea that Government should be the all consuming power of the land is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independance.
There are plenty of middle ground Dems that are forced to side with the mainstream Dems or face the wrath of 'lack of funding for elections' and been ostracized, facing Primaries in the next elections, if they don't comply. To be fair, the Republicans went through this after the 2008 and 2012 election cycles.
The Tea Party movement was universally rebuked by the media for being unruly, however, with a fair media, the world would have seen a group of Conservative Republicans that chose to return to Constitutional values...consequently, the win for Trump in 2016 was on their backs, along with the multitude of Independent voters, which the Dems openly didn't expect or accept.
In the US, the Left is more commonly used to note Liberal views - and views that choose to not cross the center aisle of politics. A clear view of this is the Supreme Court - the Liberal (or Left) Justices almost never change from their central value of sticking with the liberal agenda. The Republican slanted ( expected Right voters), will often see one jump the fence simply to avoid being seen as totally biased (the recent concerns of Roberts flip-flopping on an abortion vote point to that). The Justices are not meant to be political, but are nowadays seen in that way.
In 2010 I was on the Sean Hannity when he cited GB's NHS as a reason not to accept Obamacare - I went against him as he gave a poor insight to Americans of what we know of the NHS. I believe that States have that responsibility and not the Federal Government fo the record, and I backed a Democrat version that worked in WA State but was subsequently not brought up in the Senate.
I believe there is scope to work in the grey area of the middle ground of politics which is where common sense seems to lay. However, I will side with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights every time.
Systemic Racism is not a major issue in the USA today. Many of the big cities are led by mayors of color. There are large numbers of ethic Congressmen and the US saw a Black President, which many would have deemed impossible 50 years ago. The Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s were a good thing but BLM today does not reflect the message of Martin Luther King.
I allowed, and encouraged, my daughter, Dasha, to join a Union when she started at Safeway last year. She and my wife expressed major surprise, but I noted that the motives of the Union had to be serving the membership and not political - so I am not averse to getting into the grey.
Hope this defines my view of the Left,