I’m by no means anti-capitalist, but I’m confident business can be reigned in to prevent it from shipping jobs overseas (thanks to Republican policies), or from gouging the public, or from screwing employees, fraud, unethical policies, discrimination, etc…. but still entitling them to their profits. It can be both ways, but one side is resistant to playing by the rules and is instead focused on their bottom line. Frankly, when 1% of the world’s population controls approximately 50% of its wealth, I don’t see my views as being all that unreasonable.

Anyway, I’m not referring to specific policies, I’m referring to their policies in general on an ideological scale. To understand just where they stand in comparison to actual radical leftism, you must understand varying political philosophies (Right now Republicans seem to be operating under Hobbes’ proposal of going along to get along). Compare the positions of the two major parties to that of other democracies in the world, and you’re bound to notice a few things.

By and far, the Democratic Party is squarely right-wing centrist in nature. They’re pro-business and have a significantly more tolerant social agenda than the Republicans do, but still at times try to exercise a type of moral authority (think certain ZT policies). On most issues, Dems and Reps are separated on details, but rarely on the main ideas.

Of course, the only thing we hear about is hot-button issues. The right wing, however, has moved significantly further to the right over the past thirty years, and the Democratic party has followed right behind it. What they did was change the dialogue to make the mainstream seem fringe, but not distance themselves from the fringe side of their policies, thus making them mainstream. Clever of them, wouldn’t you say?

Do some research on it and you’ll see for yourself that trying to make the case that the so-called left is on the fringe is not only ignorant, but begs for a pot-and-kettle response. Do keep in mind that calling something, such as universal health care, “radical,” does not make it so. Compared to other modern democracies, we’ve some catching up to do.

postsimian, what Democrat policies are you referring to? And no country has a free market, we just have significantly less government control than most other countries. And capitalism was one of the driving forces behind the revolutionary movement. I’d be interested on how one would propose we could separate the “free” market from the individuality of the typical American, or the “American Dream”.

(1) Physical Demands Rating: N/A

(2) Physical Profile: 222221

(3) Color discrimination of red/green*

(4) Minimum score in aptitude area: N/A

CLOSED TO WOMEN

The major duties, physical demands, physical profile, and skill levels were obtained from Army Pamphlet 611-21.
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Well, we know you can tell the difference between red and blue.