General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: LEFT Presses Clinton To CHOOSE SIDES On Obama Trade Pact [View all]Sancho
(9,070 posts)First, the commentators said that Hillary was to the left of bill on crime, left of everyone on immigration, and adopted Warren's language on bank regulation. On women's rights she is a progressive advocate. Donna Brazile (who was on the radio show) gets it; and she said so. Bernie likes Hillary.
Second, her voting record is rated more liberal than most senators.
In the eyes of most independent voters, most commentaries, and most "ratings", she is solid liberal.
The ONLY people who think of Hillary as "centrist" are the far left, and that's a "relative" view. In my early days of the 50's (cold war, Korea), the MOST liberal politician was very conservative compared to today. In the 60's and 70's, we saw some really progressive thinking, but few winning candidates. We managed to influence the dialog though (women's rights, 18 year old vote, got us out of Vietnam), but also elected some crazy conservatives (Nixon, Reagan) who appeared less conservative than their economic and military policies turned out to be.
My point all along is simple; the vast majority of the world sees Hillary as pretty liberal on the vast majority of issues. The voters that are needed to WIN an election probably vote on issues and personality, not on "liberal to conservative" ratings. By all objective and subjective evidence, Hillary's current standing is pretty progressive.
She may not be as liberal as Bernie, or may be a little more liberal than Obama, but that has no effect on the "political window". In purple states, voters will come out and vote for "women's rights" or "immigration policy" or "less taxes" or "education". They don't vote on ratings by political science professors. I've seen lots of Presidential candidates who were not "rated" progressive, but who actually acted in a very liberal fashion (LBJ, Carter), while I've also seen Presidents everyone assumed would be very progressive who acted less like a liberal than we wished (Clinton, Obama). Predicting how liberal they will act is difficult, but we know one thing: if the Democrats loose the White House, "ratings" of how liberal they are don't matter!