General Discussion

CheapShotArtist

(333 posts) Sat Oct 6, 2012, 12:18 PM Oct 2012

Question...

Can somebody on here elaborate on how exactly the Democratic party has moved to the right in recent decades? Periodically as I lurk in some of these threads, I find people saying that both Democrats and Republicans have moved to the right, and that Obama is somehow to the right of both Reagan and Nixon.

I'm not sure if I agree with that because on one hand, he is the 1st president to voice support for marriage equality and he repealed DADT, he favors a more progressive tax system, he enacted the largest reform of student aid in 40 years, he bailed out the auto industry, and he enacted the Fair Pay Act. On the other hand, Reagan adopted trickle-down economics and opposed programs like welfare, while Nixon was the first Republican president to utilize the Southern Strategy.

3 replies

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Question... (Original Post) CheapShotArtist Oct 2012 OP

Another factor is having to deal with the extremists of the right treestar Oct 2012 #1

no offense, but its possible you just outed yourself quinnox Oct 2012 #2

Back in the day BellaKos Oct 2012 #3

treestar

(82,383 posts)

1. Another factor is having to deal with the extremists of the right

Reply to CheapShotArtist (Original post)

Sat Oct 6, 2012, 12:20 PM

Oct 2012

In Nixon's time, there weren't nearly as many of such crazed fanatics. Reagan got them started, IMO. Rush got them confident enough to say their absurd things in public.

quinnox

(20,600 posts)

2. no offense, but its possible you just outed yourself

Reply to CheapShotArtist (Original post)

Sat Oct 6, 2012, 12:20 PM

Oct 2012

Why do I get the feeling you think Obama is so left he is approaching communism.

BellaKos

(318 posts)

3. Back in the day

Reply to CheapShotArtist (Original post)

Sat Oct 6, 2012, 12:22 PM

Oct 2012

It was fashionable to put programs in place that actually did some good for the people.

Ralph Nadar put it this way. He said that when he first went to Congress to talk about car safety (seatbelts, etc.), there were people in Congress who actually were concerned whether or not people died on the road. Now, not so much.

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