Well-stated! My story is very similar, except for military service. I was 18 in 1983, and there was no draft and no wars, so I signed up for the draft (I believe 1983 was the year that registration became mandatory). Besides, I fancied myself a musician, so I went to work in a factory during the day and played in clubs at night.

I turned 18 and registered in '79. They call me far Left too. I was active duty Army from '82-'86 got that honorable discharge without ever having to dodge bullets.
We should draft all 18yrs kids. Mandatory 2years. So everybody has skin in the game. Not just the poor kids who must choose between McJobs, gangs, or Armed forces. I don't care if you are a PHD candidate, train with a rifle, or overseas Peace Corps. It is only 2years.
That way, when the gov't wants a war EVERYBODY must look at the consequences. We would start funding the State Dept. then don't you think? When was the last time you heard a presidential candidate even SAY the word Peace? Have you heard, usually around Chirstmas, Peace on earth, Goodwill toward Men? They call me far Left. Well funded public high school is socialism for them. Feeding the hungry is socialism for them. Healthcare for people is socialism for them. They claim to love Jesus, the Prince of Peace, who healed the sick and fed the hungry. Ok, just do it. Sen.Mc turtle "the grim reaper" says even Joe Biden will put this country on a path toward socialism. We need a huge landslide, and we can get it if we slide a little to the Left. Back to the center.

In 1971, the Military Selective Service Act (Selective Service Act of 1948) was further amended to make registration compulsory; all men had to register within a period 30 days before and 29 days after their 18th birthday.

to December 31st 1959 were not required to register with selective service. They suspended the program and Pres.Carter restarted.

Republicans use government power to hurt those unlike themselves.

Democrats use government power to help all.

When I was 18, I was a center - moderate. My views haven't changed, but now I, too, am called far left.

I am so happy they did not see the Horror Of Trump. My parents would have hated him with all their heart and soul. My Mom did not like swearing. When she got angry she would yell, Sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Whenever my Father and my Brothers heard that, it was time to take cover.

She would have said that every time she saw Trump on TV. I am so happy she did not have to live through that.

Republicans have marched off the edge of the Far Right ...

... into madness.

Tragically, many with backgrounds and lives similar to yours have been conned into marching with them.

I witnessed it at the work place for over forty years. It was scary. I would ask fellow workers, why are you doing this? It was always about fear. I can't do this or not do that, I'm afraid.

It was intense.

One of the key criticisms of liberalism from the actual "far left" is that liberalism is easy to exploit and move about. People do not seem to understand that the purpose of the Right is not to have a debate or discussion of ideas, but to move the country BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY to the right. They don't care about free speech even as they use the idea of free speech to keep their views being aired on the national scene.

They call people in the center "Far Left" for a few reasons. 1. Because liberals are scared of being seen as "far left" or "socialists" because we have all been indoctrinated to think that socialism is synonymous with Stalin's Soviet Union or Mao's China. There is no real understanding of Socialist Theory. Now personally, I am not sure that Socialism would be sustainable in large populations over long periods of time, but then I think that of any "pure" economic system. Becoming socialists would require a paradigm shift that I am not sure that we are capable of at this time. 2. The right wing knows that capitalism is a system that dehumanizes and inevitably concentrates the wealth and power in very few hands. Their focus is concentrating it in the correct hands, basically White Straight Christian Protestant Men. They do not care HOW they do this and so they prey on the liberal sense of fairness by claiming victim hood. The way Fox News personalities started with "The Liberal Media" which they never really define, but imply that anything outside of Fox is liberal. Now, they have moved beyond that to calling anything not specifically pushing their agenda as "Fake News". The sad thing is that "Fake News" started as a liberal concept pointing out actual news stories that were deliberately misleading or completely fabricated to push a right wing agenda. They take and use concepts like "the Deep State" which begin as liberal or leftist ideas (The Deep State was originally a concept used to define the CIA, FBI, and other law enforcement structures that infiltrated and disrupted leftist and populist movements like the Black Panthers, SNCC, the environmental movement, and others who were pushing against the status quo).

Like I said, the right wingers do it on purpose because they are gambling on the fact that Liberals will react by saying, "I'm not far left" and will thus monitor themselves and reject anything seemingly to the left of center. They do it so that they can call our welfare programs "socialist" and people will start to agree. They do it so that they can say that Social Security, Medicare, and especially Medicaid are "socialist" and "far left" and people will distance themselves from those programs at least politically. They call AOC, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and other candidates "far left" so that anything they propose like the Green New Deal, which is an ambitious plan but with relatively moderate first steps; is considered a fundamentally leftist, communist take over of society. They did that to the ACA and it kind of worked. They called the ACA a "government takeover" and painted it as radical, when it was based off of a conservative model of healthcare finance. It worked, during 2010 and 2012, a lot of Democratic politicians ran away from ACA.

We have to get away from being appalled at being called "far left" or "socialist". If my desire that all Americans have access to high quality health care and that the financial burden is spread throughout society, with those with the most ability to pay sharing a larger share of the expense labels me a "socialist" then that is a title I will accept. Healthcare is a human right not a commodity to be bought and sold. If the government has to mandate that we move away from burning dirty fuels and invests our tax dollars aggressively in alternative, sustainable fuels; if that labels me "far left" then I am far left because apparently only the "far left" cares enough about the sustainability of people on earth to make those changes.

Right wingers know that they do not have the numbers, but they know they have the wealth. They will use anything they can to maintain their power. We should not oblige them by playing their word games.

I'd love to see this conversation carried forward where it can stay at the forefront rather than cycled through the "Greatest and Latest".

awesome line!

Where they stand the center looks like the Far left.

Ever since I began travel work, staying in RV parks, good and bad ones, I've met youth all over the southwestern USA. They are struggling to make ends meet, living in leaky roof trailers and working their asses off for minimum wage.
I'm 60, have had health issues that has limited my retirement options to eating a lot of hot dogs and tortilla wraps.
Especially since Blue Cross kicked me off their plan just when I needed extensive surgery, just before Obamacare.
It cost me my entire life savings to save my life. My oldest brother's wife was diagnosed with cancer back then too, and experienced the same problem. They were fully "upper middle class" citizens. They live in travel trailer now, on minimal funds.
I'm with the youth again. My trailer is now 20 years old, has made me a lot of money that all went to physicians.
But I look at them, consider my youth was similar yet the deck was not so ridiculously stacked that I couldn't work my way through college. That's a pipe dream for these youth now.
And I get bashed right here on DU for mentioning that placing their "lukewarm, establishment" candidate:
Completely deflates my GOTV efforts with these youth. They want real change, they want Bernie.
I'll vote for the Dem, as I always have.
Yet with many of my posts attempting to shift the Democratic mindset leftward, I get bashed right here on D.U.

..

Convincing voters to vote against their own self interest and well being is a real life con job.

And here we are, with a terrible dangerous half bright Con Man in the White House.

From FDR till B Actor Reagan the top marginal tax rate was over 60%, often 80% and more as I recall. The middle class was thriving. Reagan cut the top tax rate drastically and the Defense Budget And millionaires/billionaires benefited. The change was happening and picked up steam when Ronnie also axed the long standing Fairness Doctrine. That begat Fox News and crackpots like Limbaugh on the radio.

All that changed the brains of those who watched religiously.

And now we have that Orange Despot branding any news critical of him as Fake. That horrible man would not have wound up in the White House minus Faux News.

We are pretty far down the rabbit hole. I have some issues with Biden but......any port in his storm, any democrat will be a huge improvement and that Orange Fraud And Tax cheat can get a matching Orange jump suit....hopefully.

And hopefully people like Bullock will decide to run for the Senate, we need to take it back.

If being called a far left, possible socialist, hell even a borderline communist means EVERYONE gets a chance for a decent life and opportunity count me IN.

That's what happened when they followed Ronald Reagan. That was almost 40 years ago and the ultra-right was completely enabled to take their party to hell.

We Democrats cannot judge ourselves and our party by the craziness of the Repukes. All we can do is stick to our principles and votes with our conscience. The GOP will of course never do that because they don't have principles. They're just good little cockroaches who do as they are told. We aren't socialists, we're Americans who still believe in our Constitution and our American ideals of hard work, honesty and fair play. For ALL.

just Americans. We've been sliced and diced, with labels affixed that tell all who to hate.

Rec

FREE, paid for by local and national advertisers, most of which would be easy to scare off if any of the major dem and liberal orgs tried.

moving the center right is what they've been doing successfully for 30 fucking years because the 'left'/dems/progressives/liberals ignored it. the biggest political mistake in history, blaming symptoms of that constant coordinated messaging - like deregulation, money, voter suppression, fox etc....

two things for sure -
1) real democracy is impossible while it is ignored
2) getting trump out would be a hell of a lot easier if politicians of both parties saw the left protesting and boycotting RW radio stations and protesting the 88 universities that support 260+ limbaugh stations

It's the Reagan effect.

Well stated!

We're now divided into two distinct camps - a dangerous dilemma for America.

I remember the days when a fellow-citizen's politics didn't matter and politics was rarely discussed. We talked occasionally about things government was doing but not much politics.

The right-wing has destroyed our society's unified, cohesive social fabric that allowed us to work together and build this nation.

KY.......

Abolish billionaires, get healthcare for everyone, and close most prisons... I could go on.

to the Times or the Post. It’s perfection.

The far left and far right are distinguished from each other, and from moderates, because they hold minority views that are considered extreme by most people (moderate left, centrists, and moderate right people).

And falsely claiming that ANY Democrat is a loony-leftist-godless-marxist-Volvo-driving-latte-sipping-communist-gun-banning-welfare-cheating terrorists, etc., etc.
And
The right wing, far and otherwise, has, for decades, worked without surcease to falsely portray the average liberal Democrat as devoid of the “general goodness & fairness” you mention. They tell us (out loud, now, and to our face) that Democrats and liberals are sub-human, that we’re the *cause* of their unhappiness, and that without Democrats or liberals would be bliss.

For decades, they’ve been saying that liberal/Democratic ideology is THE thing to fear, THE thing that’s keeping you from enjoying life.

unable to self examine thier beliefs.

I'm a Socialist because I interested in fairness and recognize that Capitalism enshrines unfairness and inequality.

Far left may be a minority viewpoint, but it’s not dangerous in nature. The far right is dangerous, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, islamaphobic, and ignorant.

News flash: Liberals are people. Conservatives are people. Both are political. To say that they all have eyes does not create a "false equivalency" and doesn't state traits of the eyes. But the reality is...they DO all have eyes.

Liberals and conservatives DO all have political beliefs and ideologies. I didn't list those beliefs, didn't rank them in order of importance or "goodness," didn't judge them. I merely stated the fact that all political people have political beliefs that fall on the spectrum of far left to far right (or vice versa).

People have gotten so touchy lately that a person can't even state an objective fact without kickback.

You’re right that you didn’t say they were the same. I apologize.

Thank you

how much I enjoyed and appreciated what you had to say. Probably because to a significant extent it was my story as well. Blue collar, eastern MA, ancestors on my Mom's side arrived in 1620 (Plymouth Colony), Dad was a Marine and served in both WWII and Korea, local truck driver (Teamster's Union member), he and my Mom raised nine kids on that one income largely because my Dad worked all the OT he could get -- often worked 60 hours a week) in order to provide for us, but my stay-at-home Mom was the stalwart in the family -- she was the boss no question, etc., etc.

My parents taught me that I was a Democrat ... and why: because the Democrats worked for the working and middle class. There was never any question about that. If the candidate was a Democrat, that person would get our votes. ....

Long story short, I too watched knowingly over the past 40 years and repeatedly had my heart broken by a political center that consistently drifted right starting most obviously with Reagan and fueled by big money interests and Republican rapacious ideology that struck me always as "Me First".

It makes me angry that today I am considered "far left" or "socialist" as a result of the long rightward drift. It makes me angry that some -- even here at DU -- seem to think my views are radical or at best too much to hope for.

But I refuse to give up that hope and will continue to do what little I can to help shift the needle back to the middle.

I have similar thoughts about our country. I wonder who this far left really is?

a tad left of center.

We have lost so much economic ground. Thanks for sharing.