I think the confusion in this case is also a symptom of the problem. On the one hand you have the voters and on the other hand you have the politicians. By the standards of DNC voters, Biden is far right. His platform was basically undo Trump then don’t change anything after that. That’s not progressive and it’s not what DNC voters really wanted, but it was the best option they were given.
On the other hand you have DNC politicians. By their standards Biden might be center of the pack, but only because most of them are clumped up over on the far right. There are very few actual moderate Democrats these days. There are a handful of extremists out on the far left like Bernie, a few moderates in the middle, in then the vast majority over on the far right that a couple decades ago would have been considered Republicans.
Democrat voters haven’t really changed, but the politicians have shifted right as Republicans have moved ever further right. That’s why Democrat voters are unhappy with Biden, they’re looking for a moderate candidate, not as extreme as Bernie, but looking to make actual reforms. That’s why they loved Obama, he talked a big game on the campaign trail, and once in office was really good at spinning most of his compromises as wins (just look at Obamacare, literally a Republican healthcare plan that was somehow spun as the socialized healthcare Democrats had been pushing for).
You’re missing the point, it’s a relative scale. You’re talking about far right relative to all the parties. I’m talking about relative to just the Democrats or just the Republicans. Think about the current political parties in the US as a pair of just barely overlapping bell curves. The left bell curve is the Democrats and the right bell curve is the Republicans. With each of those there’s a central and a far right and far left. Trump is far right for the Republicans, and so far off the chart for Democrats to not even be visible. Biden is far right for Democrats which puts him on the far left for Republicans. Bernie is far left for Democrats, which much line Trump puts him so far off the chart for Republicans that he’s not even visible.
FPTP makes the most viable candidates for either party the ones that sit at either end of those bell curves. You either need to be as far away from the other party as possible or so close that you practically qualify for the other party. Landing in the middle of either extreme results in a loss during either the primaries or the general election.
I think the confusion in this case is also a symptom of the problem. On the one hand you have the voters and on the other hand you have the politicians. By the standards of DNC voters, Biden is far right. His platform was basically undo Trump then don’t change anything after that. That’s not progressive and it’s not what DNC voters really wanted, but it was the best option they were given.
On the other hand you have DNC politicians. By their standards Biden might be center of the pack, but only because most of them are clumped up over on the far right. There are very few actual moderate Democrats these days. There are a handful of extremists out on the far left like Bernie, a few moderates in the middle, in then the vast majority over on the far right that a couple decades ago would have been considered Republicans.
Democrat voters haven’t really changed, but the politicians have shifted right as Republicans have moved ever further right. That’s why Democrat voters are unhappy with Biden, they’re looking for a moderate candidate, not as extreme as Bernie, but looking to make actual reforms. That’s why they loved Obama, he talked a big game on the campaign trail, and once in office was really good at spinning most of his compromises as wins (just look at Obamacare, literally a Republican healthcare plan that was somehow spun as the socialized healthcare Democrats had been pushing for).
Words have meaning. Far right is literally fascists and Nazis. Are you saying that Biden is a fascist?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far-right_politics
You’re missing the point, it’s a relative scale. You’re talking about far right relative to all the parties. I’m talking about relative to just the Democrats or just the Republicans. Think about the current political parties in the US as a pair of just barely overlapping bell curves. The left bell curve is the Democrats and the right bell curve is the Republicans. With each of those there’s a central and a far right and far left. Trump is far right for the Republicans, and so far off the chart for Democrats to not even be visible. Biden is far right for Democrats which puts him on the far left for Republicans. Bernie is far left for Democrats, which much line Trump puts him so far off the chart for Republicans that he’s not even visible.
FPTP makes the most viable candidates for either party the ones that sit at either end of those bell curves. You either need to be as far away from the other party as possible or so close that you practically qualify for the other party. Landing in the middle of either extreme results in a loss during either the primaries or the general election.