Let's Be Clear: Only the Right Has Become More Extreme Over the Last 50 Years

[Uncle Joe]

Last edited Wed Feb 16, 2022, 06:16 PM - Edit history (1)

By Robert Reich

(snip)

Twenty-five years later, I was in Bill Clinton’s cabinet, and the left-to-right political spectrum stretched much longer. The biggest change was how much further right the right had moved. Ronald Reagan had opened the political floodgates to corporate and Wall Street money — bankrolling right-wing candidates and messages that decried “big government.”

Bill Clinton sought to lead from the “center,” but by then the “center” had moved so far right that Clinton gutted public assistance, enacted “tough on crime” policies that unjustly burdened the poor and people of color, and deregulated Wall Street. All of which put me further to the left of the center—although my political views had barely changed.

Today, the spectrum from left to right is the longest it’s been in my 50 years in and around politics. The left hasn’t moved much at all. We’re still against the war machine, still pushing for civil and voting rights, still fighting the power of big corporations. But the right has moved far, far rightward.

Donald Trump brought America about as close as we’ve ever come to fascism.He incited an attempted coup against the United States. He and most of the Republican Party continue to deny that he lost the 2020 election.And they’re getting ready to suppress votes and disregard election outcomes they disagree with. So don’t believe the fear-mongering that today’s left is “radical.” What’s really radical is the right’s move toward fascism.


https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/02/16/lets-be-clear-only-right-has-become-more-extreme-over-last-50-years

[ificandream]

1. By Robert Reich

[Uncle Joe]

2. Thank you.