Sorry To Say, But America Does Not Want To Be Left Of Center

[DJ Synikus Makisimus]

37. Umm, who exactly is there who is left of center in U.S. elections?

America's curse is that we have two major parties of the right, one right wing and one far right, and a bunch of inconsequential rightist and centrist "third parties" whose influence is precisely fuckall. The left here, which if you were to average it out by Congressional District can be counted on the toes of one of Majorie Taylor Green's feet with toes left over, is negligible. They don't participate in elections, thinking them pointless. From the evidence presented by the past four years, that might be correct. You usually refer to them by the generic category "anarchist," though that term is probably both imprecise and misleading given the baggage it carries - not to mention some of the idiots (like libertarians) who have usurped the term for various reasons (see "The Anarchists" on HBO/Max for one example).

The reason for the establishment of the two party system (and the New Deal) was to eliminate the perceived "threat" posed by the Socialist Party of America, once an ACTUAL party of the left, which officially disbanded in 1972. They drifted rightward after the death of Eugene V. Debs, then lost all credibility in the 1960s when they wouldn't support the anti-war movement (among other things). Some of the remnants of the SPA allied with Michael Harrington moved further rightward and formed the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and entered the Democratic Party as a faction. As it stands, and as if it mattered, the DSA is BARELY center-left. In the last election, they lost two of their representatives in primaries and disowned two more of their candidates over Israel/Palestine. Notice please that Bernie Sanders ISN'T DSA, though he IS a parliamentary socialist.

Discussions outside the very narrow two-party system aren't really permitted in "mainstream" political discourse, or on the news media. You really have to seek out the left if you want information on it. They probably won't talk to you. They tend to get dismissed as "utopian" or "crazy" anytime they try to engage rightists and centrists, so they mostly don't. It's not that America does not want to be left of center, it's that America has no idea what it means, other than "we hear it's bad." Not that it matters now.