In 30 years, We've moved from being moderate Democrats to -

[kpete]

This is about where mr pete & I fall on the political spectrum these days -

[Peacetrain]

1. Ah Yep Same place where Mr Peacetrain and I are at!!

The thing that stymies both of us.. is when we refuse to take 80 or 90% of a win.. or value the perfect over the good.. or worse yet be so blind to the need to have it in one package that we cannot come to the concept of take all you can get and ram the rest through on reconciliation..

[Towlie]

2. Or as Rachel puts it...

Wikipedia: Rachel Maddow

Asked about her political views by the Valley Advocate, Maddow replied, "I'm undoubtedly a liberal, which means that I'm in almost total agreement with the Eisenhower-era Republican Party platform."

[FakeNoose]

15. Rachel grew up in a proud-Republican family and so did I

I get where she's coming from.

I never have and never will vote for a Repuke, but I know my Grandpa was a lifelong Republican back when it was something to be proud of. In those days Republicans could hold their heads up and look people in the eye and tell them that, but not any more. Not ever again!

Being a moderate liberal/progressive is something I'm proud of, and I'll never lose that.

[Hortensis]

38. Unfortunately, many Republicans were far from agreeing with their platform

under that moderate and proudly progressive conservative candidate. This was the other RW extreme, same people as now, with most as now somewhere between.



Our democracy would be saved and great things accomplished if a Republican majority chose an Eisenhower type as a leader. Not going to happen.

[cstanleytech]

52. Yup. I think that what the cause for the largest shift for the Republican party from back then to

what they are now is their courting of the Southern Democrats decades ago to strengthen their party in the south.
Then the Eisenhower type Republicans gradually left the party and became Democrats so now you have a Republican party that is largely composed of right wing extremists that behave like you would expect someone in the Taliban to behave like.

[Amishman]

3. I'm going to disagree there, we've moved left quite a bit

Especially on social issues. But we've done this because public opinion has moved.

Drug decriminalization, LBGT marriage and equality, racial theory and the the role of police, immigration; these are all areas where our core stances would have been extreme 30 years ago. Overall societal 'middle' in these areas has progressed significantly

[Towlie]

8. You're not "disagreeing", kpete didn't say anything about you, it was about kpete and "mr pete".

 
←

You've become more liberal over the years and so have I, but kpete is implying that even for those on the left who haven't changed positions, the difference has widened.

[treestar]

23. True.

A lot of people think recognizing any progress is wrong. What I’ve seen in my lifetime is amazing and cause for hope.

[soldierant]

57. I've moved a little,

but really, none of it was because I changed an understanding of right and wrong. What moved me was education and a better grasp of facts. A lot of change of position, in fact, may come from that.

Paraphrasing C. S. Lewis, it's not a moral advance that we no longer hang witches. It's because we have learned that witches, in the sense for which they were being hanged, do not exist. If we still believed that there were some people who made explicit pacts with the devil for power which they used to hurt others, we might well still agree that the death penalty was appropriate.

[sop]

4. Meanwhile Republicans who still view themselves as "moderate" have become a party of radical

facsists, racists, white nationalists, nativist isolationists, science deniers, anti-free traders, vote suppressing, police state nazis who will believe any preposterous lie they read on social media.

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

10. I was going to say the same thing

But it’s us that get labeled of moving left as if they haven’t moved far right

[Ferrets are Cool]

5. If it were not so early in the morning, I could come up with a better post but,

in 30 years, the right has only become more evil, racist, misogynistic and mean.

[MyOwnPeace]

22. Not bad.......

for an 'early-morning' thought!

[Ferrets are Cool]

46. Thank you

you made me smile.

[The Mouth]

28. Ronald Reagan

Would be too far left for the fascist fuckwits of today's GQP

[RVN VET71]

31. I think I would agree if you added one word: "openly"

The right, certainly since Carter lost to Reagan, has been racist, misogynistic, and evil. But prior to Gingrich and Rove they played it down. Gingrich and Rove enabled them to take pride in their narrowness and meanness, to brag about it openly or at least to dog-whistle so loud it can be heard clearly among its current, depraved mass of voters.

Even with Reagan, the right hid its racism behind a screen of welfare fraud: "See, we’re not racist, we just don’t like these people defrauding the government, these 'Welfare Queens' and also we don’t like these black men who just want to rape white women, like Willie Horton. But many of them, the blacks, are good people.”

Now-a-days it’s just, flat out and open:”We don’t want them black people voting. We don’t want their travails in this country to be made known to our white children. We don’t want them being valedictorian and salutatorian of their graduating class if there are capable white children to take their place -- and, of course, there will ALWAYS be capable white children to take the place of those black so-called honor students.”

The right has always been what it is today, but today its stink is more pungent and sickening. (Are you listening Roy Blunt?)

[Ferrets are Cool]

47. You are correct.

[PatrickforB]

6. Yep. Though I admit I might a bit further to the left. At least when it comes

to healthcare.

[yellowdogintexas]

36. I read Senator Kennedy's book about our healthcare system

back in 1970 and became a flaming liberal on the subject.
Then I worked as a claims analyst for Medicare and realized we should all have access to it. This would have been around 1976
On that subject I just get more and more adamant.

[calimary]

54. I'm farther left when it comes to the environment and the climate crisis.

[Sherman A1]

7. I am more liberal

Each and every day

[Lonestarblue]

9. Amen! My positions have changed very little.

Probably the one area where I have changed is on LGBTQ rights—not that I was against them, but 30-40 years ago I don’t think I had a position at all. I started becoming much more aware after moving to a large Northeast city from the Midwest where most people were still in the closet and there was little public awareness. The AIDS epidemic and working with some wonderful people in the LGBTQ community helped me form the opinions (ultra liberal!) I still have today. Ronald Reagan’s presidency also drove me further left.

[yellowdogintexas]

35. LGBTQ rights were unheard of 50 years ago when

I was a budding ultra liberal. The general attitude at the time was "live and let live" and do not judge.
Definitely the AIDS epidemic changed everything.

[moreland01]

11. Right?!?

And there are people even farther to the left of me and I feel like I'm as left as they come.

Our City Council is now 6 to 1 progressive. The progressives are dividing themselves into camps (growth vs no growth, immigrant defense fund vs none, stuff like that).

It just feels weird and self-destructive to now be dividing in to tribes within the tribes.

[The Mouth]

29. "god" help you if you have some left, some centrist, and some conservative positions

Everybody loses their shit at you.

[BoomaofBandM]

12. The right thinks I am left and the left thinks I am centrist. Its tiring.

[Bucky]

13. My positions haven't changed, but the remedies for the mess we're in...

Well, the further down the road we go toward climate instability, economic bifurcation, political corruption and distress, and betrayal of the American dream, the bigger the challenges become to move our country in the right direction.

I'm still there same old classic Keynesian social liberal that my parents were when they raised me. Some things have gotten better, but a lot's gotten worse. Fixing problems left to fester will require bigger efforts. I don't think my values have changed; the world has.

[Chainfire]

14. Our big problem is that we "hate freedom."

[ChubbyStar]

60. Every time I hear that comment/opinion

I start howling with laughter shaking my head thinking, who the fuck came up with that codswallop?

[betsuni]

16. Because there's no opposition party, only a radical far-right post-policy conspiracy theory

racist fruitcake one.

[Chainfire]

17. Heat wave and drought will be blamed on Biden; wait for it.

[RVN VET71]

33. Wait for it? It is Biden's fault, clearly.

All he had to do was task NASA to change the course of the moon, like Mr. Gohmert has requested. The weather would revert to the good old days and, with it the, droughts would just disappear.

Biden needs to drink a little more Diet Coke and listen to fewer intelligence briefings. He needs to spend a lot less time reading and more time getting to know his twitter feed a little better -- and finding a $130,000 whore wouldn’t hurt, either, is what I’m thinking. Then he’ll be a real president, is what I’m saying.

[Retired Engineer Bob]

62. It is, after all, the Christian thing to do

God bless our hate

[Sympthsical]

18. Unions say hey

You remember the unions. They were the people who . . . ah, nevermind. I'm sure it'll all be fine.

[Ron Green]

19. I've come to understand that the "left-right" way of talking about politics

is not useful and is indeed quite harmful; something driven by the media’s need for a never ending conflict.

[BlueWavePsych]

20. Kick

[mgardener]

21. Me too!

[Shrike47]

24. Oh yes. Although I have become more liberal on some social issues.

We used to be the middle. Now hate radio labels any Democrat as a wild-eyed zealot, anarchist hater who wants to destroy America.

[certainot]

66. a post basically describing what hate radio did and you are the first and only one

to single radio out after 65 replies

30 years is about when it got going good, after reagan killed the fairness doctrine in 1987, a decade before anyone heard of fox and two decades before social media and the russians started using it/liimbaugh to set the stage for the previous guy. 30 years ago limbaugh already was on 500 stations and since his callers couldn't get through to kiss his ring they would call all the other hosts on those and 1000 other statioins to make sure all blowhards were on the same page. the dittohead effect.

now the lying sack of crap is dead and rotting and trumpism rots with it but it lingers without a leader and the dittoheads have no head, the limbaugh wannabes try to outdo each other, and media and political analysts continue to study fish without the water

[paleotn]

25. We didn't move. They did. It's a matter of perspective.

[Hortensis]

26. Don't forget your simultanous years as a Republican-type corporatist also,

and also without changing one position. Quite a trick, but then we are really remarkable people.

[betsuni]

32. We are wealthy conservative elites trolling DU by supporting

Democrats because Democrats are corrupt wealthy Republican-lite corporatist elites who will stop at nothing to prevent progressive ideas! Either that or we're incredibly stupid with Stockholm syndrome.

It's always something!

[LakeArenal]

27. In 1968 I was liberal and attending demonstrations

In 2018 I went to GOTV, worked on a blue wave and hated trump. I think I’m the same.

We moved to a country where there are few demonstrations. One about raising property taxes. I did not protest as we own no property here. But the protestors won and they did not get the taxes raised.

I yell at the tv as much as ever.

[NewHendoLib]

30. I started far left, and keep moving further left.

[yellowdogintexas]

34. I have always been a flaming liberal

The older I get, the higher the flames

One of these days I am going to implode

[BobTheSubgenius]

37. That's exactly it!

The Reps have dragged the political spectrum so far to the right that some of their heroes wouldn't be such today. Without knowing anything more about them than was known just after the primary season, I feel strongly that both Nixon and Reagan would be primaried as "too liberal." Probably the Bushes, too.

[LiberalFighter]

39. I think what was considered moderate back 30 years ago.

Is much more liberal than it was back then.

[Mosby]

40. I think some liberals have strayed from Democrat party values but don't know it.

Democrats used to support "nation building", not anymore. Now non-interventionism is the prevailing foreign policy approach.

Democrats (eg Howard Dean, President Carter) used to support tariffs as a way to encourage developing countries to do better by their people and the environment, not anymore. Now Democrats are free trade globalists.

Democrats used to support free speech. Now some want to criminalize speech, and jail people under hate speech laws.

Democrats used to support liberal pluralism, now it's slowly being supplanted by identity politics.

[Caliman73]

43. Likely because "some party values" are not worth supporting.

Democrats used to support "nation building", not anymore. Now non-interventionism is the prevailing foreign policy approach.

With the problems in Vietnam, Central and South America, Iraq, and Afghanistan, with the military budget being so ridiculously large, and understanding that "Nation Building" is just a code word for imposition of our own ideas instead of actually helping nations to develop on their own. Some liberals do not want to be engaged in perpetual war.

Democrats (eg Howard Dean, President Carter) used to support tariffs as a way to encourage developing countries to do better by their people and the environment, not anymore. Now Democrats are free trade globalists.

Tariffs are okay in the short term, when trying to negotiate trade agreements and such, however the better solution is to have an industrial policy and sound trade agreements. Globalism is inevitable but that doesn't mean that you race to the bottom. Tariffs are not effective long term strategies for changing behavior, they have been meant primarily to protect domestic industries. Regulated free trade where people are not being exploited is the better strategy.

Democrats used to support free speech. Now some want to criminalize speech, and jail people under hate speech laws.

Simply not true. No one has ever supported absolute free speech. Objectionable views have been tolerated (I.E. Nazis marching in Skokie) however both conservatives and liberals have had their limits. Hate speech which terrorizes already vulnerable populations is not acceptable in a civilized nation. Also, the United States does not have "hate speech laws" so that is a moot point. There is a MAJOR difference between supporting social and financial consequences, or de-platforming people and making laws to criminalize speech.

Democrats used to support liberal pluralism, now it's slowly being supplanted by identity politics.

Democrats continue to support pluralism. Differing opinions and power centers in political systems IS pluralism. Talking about "identity politics" is buying into right wing framing. There have ALWAYS been identity politics, however the identity that was most represented in politics (and still is) is White Men. When you are the dominant majority and your particular view point has always been "the norm", then any other view point that demands respect, would likely seem like oppression. You see that with Christians whining about religious oppression too. Non-White people and women have been treated like 2nd class citizens in the United States for almost all of its history. LGBTQ people have been marginalized legally and socially. These groups coming out into the open and demanding full and equal respect is not Identity Politics. If the laws, systems, and society treated these groups equally, there would be no need to identify them and make those demands.

[Mosby]

44. You made my point, thx.

I'm working, will reply later, maybe. Big day in the nba.

[Caliman73]

41. Here is, I think, a pretty good explainer.

Politics has been pulled way to the right.

[speaknow]

42. You just hit the nail on the head that's the

problem. Many even longer than 30 years just
sat back and watched what was happening and
just sat and sat and sat. Pelosi said it " The
Enemy is within" The in goes pretty deep.

[BadgerMom]

45. Same.

[Kablooie]

48. And Republican have moved from...

Being conservatives who support conservative values to flaming radicals who want to tear down our democracy and install an authoritarian government.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

49. Don't forget about our clandestine pizza parlors and our hurling soup cans at Rethugs.

Did I forget anything else that's new in our behavior?


KY.........

[keldridge]

50. I started out as a liberal in the 60s

These days (I'm 72) I'm a flaming radical.

[Evolve Dammit]

56. Same. Seems to be accelerating for me! I want substantive change. Welcome to DU

[kpete]

64. Welcome Keldridge!

flaming radical mr pete turns 72 next month
he was a Republican in 1970 when I met him

[mvd]

51. I am definitely more liberal now than when I was younger

I pretty much accepted what President Clinton was about. I was more liberal but didn’t think about it much. I even didn’t mind the death penalty in some cases. But now I align a lot with Bernie and AOC.

[Cinnamonspice]

53. It's still a big tent.

I would love to watch a match between Pelosi, AOC, and Manchin.


Not to mention a lot of moderate Republicans and independents voted Democrat this previous election. With the Republicans acting insane/All QAnon like, people are running from them.

So even if the far left wants to take over, they can't. They have to scoot over.

[Evolve Dammit]

55. This is so spot on. Nixon, Reagan or Bush wouldn't make it out of a primary.

[Ford_Prefect]

58. Yet all 3 of them step by step led the GOP inexorably to where they are now.

[Evolve Dammit]

61. indeed. They plan well, spend well, and are patient behind the scenes. Dark money, dark people.

[tecelote]

59. Perfect.

[electric_blue68]

63. I've always been liberal to progressive. So by some accounts...

I should by now be marching around with the hammer and sickle flag! 😂 🙄🙄

The Right has just gotten more rightward.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

65. Of course, the typical Republican knows as much about actual socialism

As he or she knows about quantum chromodynamics.