2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: We need a sane moderate conservative party. Seriously. [View all]Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)According to this poll from last year, 55% of the electorate supports single-payer health care (Medicare for all). It's not a fringe position, it's a centrist position. Support for a public option is even higher.
A fair summary would be: A center-left party would support single payer. A sane center-right party would support retaining private, for-profit insurance companies as a major component of the system, but ameliorating the worst aspects of the free market with government intervention (Medicaid, insurance subsidies under the ACA, etc.) A right-wing nutjob party would want the government to withdraw completely so that it could cut taxes on the rich.
By that rubric, the Democratic Party is currently a center-right party and the Republicans are RWNJs.
If the Democrats moved to the left, they could hope to mobilize some of the people who would respond to that stance (some now not voting, some voting on the Gods-gays-and-guns issues because they don't perceive the Democratic Party as really fighting for the 99%). The party would thereby lose some of its more conservative members, who would become Republicans and work to restore the GOP to some semblance of sanity.
A similar case could be made on other issues, such as progressive taxation and the climate change crisis.