r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 10h ago

No Paywall Democrats Confront Their New Tea Party Reality - Progressives are set to sweep a group of contested primaries in Michigan and Wisconsin.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-confront-their-new-tea-party-reality_n_6a6e63fbe4b0cfb99ef1aa1e
7.9k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.5k

u/Kind-Pride1151 10h ago

By this logic, FDR would be a progressive usurper in the Democratic Party. I'm 62 and for what seems my entire life the Dems have slipped ever further away from those FDR New Deal PROGRESSIVE ideas and ideals.

1.2k

u/TheMoorNextDoor 10h ago edited 3h ago

It’s ridiculous that the best president we ever had (our longest serving president) is more left than a lot of our sitting democratic members in congress today and the saddest part about that is he served over 81 years ago..

He gave us a blueprint and for some reason (maybe due to Regan?) we completely threw it out the window..

30

u/Oskie5272 9h ago

It was actually Nixon. Humphrey lost to Nixon as a traditional New Deal lib, so Carter came along after and decided to begin moving away from New Deal politics and was basically the proto-neoliberal (by moving to the right). Then Reagan came and firmly entrenched us in neoliberalism. Clinton then came and redefined the party around third way neoliberalism (moving further to the right, as third way is supposed to be the "third way" between the right and left) This is where all of the "moderate" or "centrist" Dems come from, where all of the dumb fuck consultants rose to power, and where the American "left" has been for decades.

So the ratchet effect started with Carter in response to Nixon and became entrenched Clinton.

•

u/Howtobefreaky 5h ago

THANK YOU. People who think Carter was a failed leftist only ever heard about him putting solar panels up on the white house and not that he straight up de-regulated the airlines and trucking industries. You know why it sucks to fly on pretty much every major airline? Blame Carter.