I used to call myself a "conservative" Democrat ...

[dawg]

Now, my opinions are most closely mirrored in Congress by a self-styled "Socialist". And my views really haven't changed all that much. It is the country, and the "conventional wisdom" of the elite that has changed.

What used to pass for moderate is now radically left-wing.

[Sherman A1]

1. Precisely

Which explains so very much about where we have gone.

[Cal33]

25. Right. What's so radical about feeding the hungry and clothing

the naked? Didn't Christ recommend it? But some of his present-day
followers are against it. Maybe they have a different way of
interpreting his recommendations?

[villager]

2. Which is what makes all talk of being a "centrist" ridiculous...

...given how far over on the right the new "center" really is...

[bluestate10]

8. I am a centrist. And I can say that you don't know that group at all.

We have most of the characteristics of liberals, except we exercise choices dictated by our beliefs with practicality and focus. My own issue with liberals is that group is flighty, I can't count on them to cover my back in a political fight, so I rely on other centrists. I will mention, but not discuss conservatives, some are ok, but most make me want to throw up.

[villager]

12. Yes, yes, yes -- no one is sensible, or is aware of political tactics except

you "centrists" (and, uh, where exactly is that center on the current landscape?)

It's that automatic arrogance that comes from the false belief that one is more "practical" than everyone else.

And yet, all these "centrist" decades later, politically, where has it gotten us, aside from collapsing climates, economies, and an erosion of civil liberties?

Speaking of, you know, not having anyone's back.

[bluestate10]

16. Center

Pro-choice
Pro a more moderate Supreme Court
Pro repeal of DADT, or having the courts rule it unconstitutional
Pro aid to the poor, with job training added in
Pro business, in particular those businesses that put american workers first
Pro control of budget deficits and federal debt, but not if that comes on the backs of the most needy in society
Pro human rights, but Pro defending ourselves in an increasingly dangerous world

I could think of others if given time, but the above are what's most prominently on my mind.

[bluestate10]

21. All progress for the last 80 years has been driven by centrists.

you "centrists" (and, uh, where exactly is that center on the current landscape?)

It's that automatic arrogance that comes from the false belief that one is more "practical" than everyone else. - You have a point, I can be a little smug at times, but I do like my political position and know that I put thought into decisions and do not reflexively react.

And yet, all these "centrist" decades later, politically, where has it gotten us, aside from collapsing climates, economies, and an erosion of civil liberties? - All societal progress of the last 80 years has been delivered by centrists, liberals and conservatives simply do not have the critical mass of votes to move legislation and social progress. If centrists do not go for a legislation, it does not happen.

Speaking of, you know, not having anyone's back. - Leftists came close to defeating a very able Governor in my home state of Massachusetts had not moderates and independents stepped up on election day. To this day, I can't figure out what leftists were thinking, they were willing to burn down a nice home, literally, because they did not get a few toys that they wanted. With conservatives, I know where they are coming from and take precautions. I don't put up defenses against leftists coming into a political fight, so a blade heading for my back is both surprising and demoralizing.

[villager]

24. " If centrists do not go for a legislation, it does not happen."

Well, that certainly explains the collapsing climate, economies, and erosion of civil rights!

[bluestate10]

38. Rivers and Bays are cleaner, the air is cleaner, drinking water is cleaner,

food is safer, cars are safer, workers are safer on the job. Like it or not, realization that the climate is being damaged is new, but even with that moderates will lead the way to a solution.

Collapsing economy? Please do not be melodramatic. The average american, even with recent setbacks and inflation, are 20% better off than they were in 1975, with the heavy lifting being done by moderate democratic Presidents over that time period.

Erosion of civil rights? Do you really believe that this country is as bad now as 1950? Or 1980, or even 2000? The internet gives haters a bigger stage, but it also makes them easier to find for law enforcement.

[villager]

39. Yes, there were some good liberal accomplishments in earlier governments, true

But are you saying with a straight face that the earth's environment is better off?

Are you saying, with a straight face, that the economy and the middle class are better off?

Do you really have more privacy than you did 40 years ago?

Really?

With a straight face?

[Smashcut]

50. +1000000

[The Magistrate]

15. Funny How That Works, Sir: We On the Left Know 'Centerists' Cannot Be Trusted In Any Scrap

Show me a Democratic legislator who calls himself or herself a 'centerist', and you are pointing to someone who will vote with the Republicans in a pinch, six times out of seven....

[Sherman A1]

37. I am actually a very conservative Democrat

I want my tax money well spent, but I don't consider giving huge tax breaks to the wealthy doing so.

I don't consider 2 knuckle head wars spending my money well.

I don't consider a bloated defense budget spending my money well.

I don't consider bailing out Wall Street spending my money well.

I do consider Social Security a good program

I do consider helping my fellow man through unemployment insurance and alike good things

I don't care what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own bedrooms.

[Lorien]

51. Exactly. nt

[The Magistrate]

3. Exactly, Sir: Welcome To the Seventh International....

[dkf]

4. What of your views did you consider conservative?

[dawg]

10. this was pre-Clinton ...

I generally favored balanced budgets, small incremental changes rather than radical ones, exapnsive trade policies so long as adequate worker protections were in place, strong defense.

Most of those things I still believe, btw.

[dkf]

22. I think you are still quite a bit more moderate than Bernie Sanders.

I agree that Bernie identified a lot of problems, but I don't think the public wants to do the things needed to solve them. The truth is it would take quite a bit of intervention to change things. The public needs to be educated on where we are and the options available, but we need some sort of attention span first.

[tavalon]

5. Try to imagine what it's like for a far lefty

This country is damn near unrecognizable to me.

[tosh]

7. Me too.

:(

[bobbolink]

6. Its also that you are now exposed to more facts and reality.

Time and time again, we point out that people who consider themselves "conservative" would actually place more on the "progressive" scale if they took that quiz on values and stances.

[socialist_n_TN]

40. That's it, bobbo. Like a LOT of us have said...............

Americans will contort themselves into all sorts of knots to keep from being called a "liberal", much less a "SOCIALIST" (oh, the HORROR), but ask them about individual ISSUES (like the poster above's list) and their POSITIONS are inevitably "liberal" and more than likely SOCIALIST!

That's why you can't go by those polls that ask only for labels.

[AndyTiedye]

9. The Pendulum Moves in Only One Direction

[NuclearDem]

11. I once thought I was a fairly moderate Democrat too...

Right after my conversion from conservatism, I always thought I was fairly moderate as Dems go...until I was repeatedly informed by my former Republican "friends" that I was indeed a socialist.

So...if being for equal rights, an end to war, defense of my fellow blue-collar workers, and what America really stands for makes me a socialist, then I'm a proud socialist.

[NotThisTime]

13. Same here.... how right this Country has gone....

[movonne]

18. I think the word right or repug is another word for a corporatist and

the dem party has become a DLCers which is corporatist and has left the rest of us lefty's out in the cold..

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. i identify as a lefty but will settle for moderate policies and even then

i feel really disappointed at some of the decisions that came out of a dem presidency, w.60 dem votes in the senate and a majority in the hor.

[RKP5637]

17. Yeah, "moderate is now radically left-wing." I was mentioning something

similar today. Today, if you believe in fairness, equal opportunity, a limitation on unbridled corporitization, education, US based manufacturing, labor unions, fair wages, taxing the outrageously wealthy ... you're suddenly branded as a radically LW liberal, a really far LW dirty hippie.

[ibegurpard]

19. and I used to call myself a moderate

[Warren Stupidity]

20. you should try being an actual leftist

watching the 30 year rightward landslide unfold.

[Demoiselle]

23. Well said, Dawg.

I'm with you. I never called myself a "Conservative" Democrat, but I was very fond of the term "Liberal," because to me it meant someone who was open to all kinds of solutions to our problem, whether they were fitted out with labels from the right or the left. . And I think we're talking about the same thing, really.

[Monique1]

28. I changed

from Dem to Independent - tired of the garbage that is being spewed on both sides here.

Just a thought - today's hero is tomorrows loser here. That is the way it goes at DU. No one dare disagree here or you are bombarded with negative comments or emails.

I know that I am on many ignore lists - that's okay - close your mind - no one disagree - Is that DU? Is that the reason I donated not for myself but for another? I guess it is no longer to give an opinion here anymore without being castigated.

Who is the next here at DU to be trumped or tramped.
Just asking

[Solly Mack]

26. It's been that way for years now, as the center moved more and more to the right

what was once just to the right of center is now left of center and everything that was just left of center to begin with has shifted further and further to the left of center. (and so on and so forth) People's beliefs and thinking didn't shift - the center line did...and it shifted right.

We used to lament this fact in the early days of DU....how the center was moving more and more to the right.

[jp11]

27. Interesting topic.

I think the country is more 'left' than it is given credit for but MSM and the propaganda of decades has convinced many, including myself at one time, that they were 'conservative democrats', not liberal/progressive as those words have been painted so negatively for so long. Toss in all the crap we see from political parties because the MSM is a sideshow no wonder many people shy away from dem/repub and cling to 'independent' or shun 'liberal/progressive/conservative' and think a more practical sensible POV is moderate/independent/centrist. I'd expect those that might have considered themselves conservative on the right started calling themselves moderate with the last few years of republicans scrambling to the far-right as they drifted farther and farther from any sane vision or intent to be representatives of people instead of big business shills. With the 'tea party' infecting an already disease ridden republican party I'm sure more 'republicans' will identify as 'independents' even though they'll vote the vast majority of the time with republican candidates.

[walldude]

29. I did a thread on this awhile back...

Liberals have not changed. The country has moved so far to the right that any slight tweak towards the left is considered radical socialism... I have stood in the same place for 30 years. But the damn line keeps moving and now I am considered one of the loony left. And not by the right but by Democrats.

The right thinks I am insane and the left thinks I need drug rehab, it's no wonder I can't find but 2 politicians that I like anymore.

[Monique1]

30. The country is moderate - they want both left and right

it is up to those we elected to listen to both sides which they are not doing. I am not left or right - it depends on the issues and I really don't want to be pushed to believe one side or the other. I want the facts please, and I will decide what I want. It is the facts not someone's opinions.

THE FACTS PLEASE - NO OPINIONS. Everyone has opinions but not everyone has the facts. DU more facts, less opinions but I guess that is asking too much.

[Monique1]

31. and to add

it is my country also - the right does not own it nor the left - I want people working together not tearing each other apart anymore.

There will need to be a compromise on both sides - we may not always like it but come on - let's work together not fight each other.

[Monique1]

32. Guess no one wants to comment? Huh?

I am surprised I have not been torn apart here - waiting ....

[socialist_n_TN]

41. I'll comment on this one. What do you consider "compromise"?

Have you noticed the Republicans compromising on ANYTHING substantial in the last decade or more? Do you consider it "compromise" if one side doesn't move at ALL in it's position and expects the other side to come over to their side? Is THAT "compromise"? Personally, I'd call that capitulation.

[Hydra]

48. The country, the normal people in it at least

Are very Left, according to the new "center."

The politicians have an important job- they have to sell us the stuff we don't want from the people up top. That's why you see no truth- that's not in their or their owners' interests.

[Prophet 451]

33. I used to consider myself a moderate

Now I'm regarded as a radical leftie socialist (I'm British which helps).

[Monique1]

34. I just want the facts

that is why I have stuck to DU but that is disappearing. Opinions are not going to change my view - facts will.

[reformist2]

35. Our politics has moved from talk about fairness/justice to money/profit.

We shouldn't be ashamed to say that we believe fairness and justice are more important than money and profits.

[avaistheone1]

36. Welcome, welcome

to what Thom Hartmann calls the radical middle.

[Martin Eden]

42. Those Goalposts keep moving ...

... and it galls me to no end witnessing Obama tugging them rightward :mad:

[Faryn Balyncd]

43. Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt (excepting foreign policy), even Nixon were all to the left of ....

.....not only the entire GOP, but to the left of corporatist Democrats, and "pragmatic" Democrats like our President.


Have a look at The Progressive Party platform of 1912, on which Theodore Roosevelt ran:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/26_t_roosevelt/psources/ps_trprogress.html


Look particularly at the sections entitle "Business", "Social and Industrial Strength", "Patents", and "Inheritance and Income Taxes".








:kick:


great post. thanks.

[Riftaxe]

44. The philosophies of the Original Liberals

would be reviled by today's leftists...time marches on, and words change meanings.

[DirkGently]

45. Yep. The "radical left" these days are simply people who don't want corporations to kill us all.

[harun]

55. Sad but true.

[nadinbrzezinski]

46. Yes, that is when you pay attention to economics

welcome

[nadinbrzezinski]

47. Yes, that is when you pay attention to economics

welcome

[ThomWV]

49. These days any expression of common decency makes your a raving liberal.

[Odin2005]

52. That is what happens when you keep on voting for the lesser of the 2 evils.

Things keep shifting more and more towards evil.

[spooky3]

53. agree

[harun]

54. Couldn't agree more. Went from Conservative Independant to radical left winger

wanting a revolutionary as far as what outsiders would define me. However my views are pretty much the same throughout those 20 years.

System is neo-liberal fascist now. Un-frickin believable dumb f*ck voters have allowed this to happen. Who would have guessed wedge issue politics could be this successful for the right wing?