Are we Democrats becoming the true small c conservatives ?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Are we Democrats becoming the true small c conservatives ?


Democrats want to maintain NATO. Trump wants to undermine it.
Democrats believe in strong alliances. Trump wants to undermine the G-7
Democrats believe in free and fair trade. Trump is willy nilly placing tariffs, even on our friends.
Democrats oppose China becoming a hegemon/bully in Asia. Trump is empowering China.
Democrats support South Korea. Trump is throwing it under the bus.
Democrats support an independent judiciary. Trump thinks the judiciary is there to serve him.
Democrats support law enforcement. Trump is trying to undermine the DOJ and FBI
Democrats oppose Russia meddling in other nation's affairs. Trump applauds that meddling, especially when they meddle here.


We are the defenders of the republic. Trump wants to undermine and obliterate it.

[DetlefK]

1. By international standards, Democrats are "c"onservatives and GOP is right-wing fringe.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. We're still the party of FDR, Truman, and John Kennedy.

Free market capitalism girded by regulations and a robust safety net at home and in favor of cooperation abroad. Trump is a cockeyed authoritarian radical.

[DetlefK]

5. There was never a true left-wing in US mainstream.

None of the democratic Presidents was actually "left". They were all "c"onservatives when compared to other countries.

[unblock]

3. this was largely accomplished by bill clinton's "triangulation"

anyone genuinely committed to eisenhower/rockefeller republicanism would now be very comfortably a democrat.

both sides of the political spectrum now fit inside the democratic party. the republican party only has room for what used to be known as the lunatic fringe.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. There used to be a rough consensus favoring the things I cited.

[world wide wally]

6. So, Democrats are powerless in all these matters, but we control taking kids away from

their parents at the border?

Funny how that works.

[Cartaphelius]

7. Becoming?

Where have you been?

The Dem's, as a party, have been on a break-neck drive to the right since the Clinton Era, at least.

I could be argued that the Dem's complicity stretches back to Lincoln's decision to free the slaves only to make all of the 99%, black, white and all the colors in between.

[ismnotwasm]

11. Wait wut?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

12. There is a huge chasm between small c conservatism and Trumpism or modern Conservatism.

Democrats want to conserve most American institutions. That makes them small c conservatives.

[peggysue2]

8. We don't need to become . . .

small c conservatives to support small and large Democratic, American values. We may not always live up to American ideals but we all know what they are. And what they are not.

Trumpism is anti-American and anti-democratic. Any leader who admires the murderous Kim Jong Un, Putin et al are not patriotic Americans. They're sellouts, plotting against the country and their countrymen. This morning's statement about the Trumpster wanting his people to sit up and take notice the way North Koreans pay attention to little Kim should put all Americans on notice--the Trumpster is not serving the interests of the United States or the American people. He's fantasizing about a wannabe dictatorship. And sorry but there's no way of walking that back as a joke. To quote a phrase:

Lock Him Up! In a straight jacket if necessary.

[KG]

9. I lulz'd

[ismnotwasm]

10. No

The big tent party is still a big tent. I think perceptions of Democrats are skewed when practical politics come into play. Because some shit is either not good optics or is not going to work.

For a non-Democratic party instance, my beloved Seattle just went through imposing a head tax on businesses of a certain size help the homeless crises. This was mostly directed towards Amazon, but there were a number of smaller local businesses that were completely against the idea—some of whom are very active in community assistance. So while the head tax sounded great in theory, Seattle has a history of mismanagement when it comes to funds of all sorts. It was a heated argument. The tax was rescinded.

Bring that liberal idea to the national stage, and it wouldn’t even get taken seriously.

Democrats believe In human rights, women’s rights, healthcare for all, fair taxation, fair trade. We want citizens united rescinded, although since it was a Supreme Court ruling, our chances are worse than ever. We believe in immigration rights and a fair immigration policy. Etc

While I take your meaning, small c conservatives may be attracted to the Democratic Party, because they have nowhere else to go, I don’t we are becoming them

[BumRushDaShow]

13. "We want citizens united rescinded... our chances are worse than ever."

We can update McCain-Feingold to remove any "offending" language that the SCOTUS seemed to find to overturn it and reinstate campaign finance reform. But this would require regaining control of Congress and the Presidency. Difficult but not impossible. But it would have to be near or at the top of a chock-full agenda and literally rammed through. Otherwise there has been so much damage done just in the past almost 2 years, that it's easy for that to get pushed down the priority list behind fixing healthcare, reinstating revenues from the upper brackets, fixing immigration rules, and re-establishing our now-fraying alliances.

[ismnotwasm]

14. Yeah

The nuts and bolts of picking up this mess will be up to Democrats, because Republicans seem hamstrung by the constituency they courted, and have far too many tea party members in office. Tea party congress people are..strange at best. So while I think Democrats will stabilize and hold cohesion, I have no idea what’s going to happen to Republicans.

It’s ironic that, Instead of ‘pulling Democrats to the left” the opposite may happen because of this clusterfuck because of what has been broken. We will see.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Very true!

In fact, it seems most of the ones leaving Congress among the GOP (44 in the House alone so far), are not teabaggers. And the ones that seem to be getting primary nods as replacements are even crazier than the teabaggers. Meaning Democrats wishing to pick off some of those seats have to move towards the center.