• TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Running to the center is why fascism arrived, and Democrats have been espousing it as a strategy since the 80’s, while Democrats as a brand have basically given up on the concept that government can be a force for good in peoples lives.

    • Garbagio@lemmy.zip
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      3 days ago

      If anything, I would say that running in the “center,” abandoning any pretense of hope for a better future for the chance to join a modern aristocracy, is far more of an extremist take than any leftist. If I tell Mamdani the price of bread is too high, he will see it and know it; if I tell Schumer, he won’t understand. What is the mark of extremism but the disengagement with reality?

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Both Republicans and Democrats would run to the center for success. Bush Senior and Bush Junior were also centrist. It wasn’t just a Democrat thing.

        • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I’ve never understood that argument. He used some words that evoked the feeling of progressivism. But at no point did he actually say he was progressive or present a progressive vision. He was always slightly left of center, and very clearly ran as that, while having a campaign that appealed broadly. I honestly think people took “hope”, " change" and first black president and just assumed it.

          I challenge you to find even one piece of Obama campaign lit that actually presented him as a progressive.