Hillary Clinton's Voting Record

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9. Stalin and Communism

I'd say Stalin's economic philosophy is too extreme. A society that combines capitalism and socialism is ideal in my view - one that rewards hard work, allows for private enterprise but allows for excellent class mobility, a much smaller gap between rich and poor and much stronger social safety net than exists in the United States. Europe on balance is closer to that ideal.

I definitely agree with the gist of the measures in your link. Bernie Sanders is hardly some extreme leftist, and quite reasonable. Nor is Clinton. I wish the center of the U.S. Congress was about where he is, at most only slightly to the right. Clinton on balance is more conservative for my preferences but not dramatically so, and her voting record hardly implies any significant right-wing philosophy on most issues, although there's a very good case to be made foreign policy-wise. Anyone looks leftist compared to Bush/Cheney on that front.

Obama never had filibuster-proof votes to implement a much more progressive agenda that he envisioned (a handful of conservative Dem Senators held that up...remember Ben Nelson?) , but I would note that his most progressive achievements came during his first 2 years as opposed to the last 4, with the exception of rolling back the Bush tax cuts on the top 1-2% and some executive action on issues like the environment. If he had the votes, and as indicated by both his actions (ObamaCare financing comes from taxes on the wealthy and corporation too) and speeches, he'd raise the marginal rates further, but that's out of the question now thanks to the cumulative effect of both midterms.

Another way of looking at it, whether it's Warren, Sanders, or Nader, if any was President, their ratings would be pushed sharply to the right on your chart - how far based on what the legislative makeup of Congress was. They could stick to their guns and get nothing done or do what is politically possible. Obama would not have the votes for single payer, so he formed legislation that just barely brought all Democrats on board against a fiercely obstructionist Republican minority. All elections matter, whether it's getting another progressive in SCOTUS (note how Citizens United went down along party lines), voting in the primaries for progressives, or choosing the more progressive of 2 candidates (even if you view this as center-right vs extreme right), every one of those votes can help shift the legislative and judicial branches (state or national) to the point where governors or presidents will shift accordingly. Sitting out the vote and letting the nation go to hell makes things worse, and we end up spending so much time digging out from a mess (see the Bush years and aftermath). Imagine if Obama had not inherited a projected $1.5 trillion deficit (CBO, early 2009). I'm digressing a bit.