Sativied
Well-Known Member
I don’t think the lack of left party is a cause/reason by itself. The dems have a left wing, a separate party or a far more left version of the dems would not have as much success against the far worse evil, the republicans. But then again, it’s a matter of perspective. Just as we consider US reps and dems be on the right, they can look at us and conclude we have (aside from far-right) no real right wing anymore. Definitely true in my case.
It’s above all a cultural thing. A possibly more accurate statement would be they only have, well perhaps had, conservative parties. Worse, only christian conservative parties. America still sometimes acts like it missed out on the age of enlightenment. They had one themselves but not quite the same. American culture is still characterized by freedom of religion, start your own version of the church in a new settlement or centuries later in a shopping mall. While here, like France, and thus indirectly also thanks to the US, it’s more about freedom from religious influences and protecting the individual believer/nonbeliever. You get to pray and wear your religious symbols but you don’t get to shove your believes down the throat of others. Especially not by new laws and policies. I’m sure we still have aftermath of religious influences to deal with ourselves, but even suggesting policies against equality out of a religious motivation is heavily frowned upon by all sides.
That’s a key difference between your and our european ‘liberal conservatives’ and the conservatives in the US, the former is usually for more social equality, the latter treats it like it’s the end of the world.
The whole discussions about drag queens and lgbt+ is a good, well, horrible, example right now, as bad as the abortion nonsense, all extremely conservative and foreign to me. I’d have to go back to… heck before I was born to get that vibe, or just visit some christian cunt farmer village... Our most recent update of our constitution, just approved earlier this year, article 1 (no discrimination ), adds “sexual orientation“.
Obama was great, but, I read this long piece about his ideas about gay marriage changing over the years (took quite a few years), and like many other examples it reminds me a lot of how people were shedding their conservative christian prejudices inherited from their still jesus-believing parents like we did here 2-3 generations ago. Much of the debate and news and ’action’ amplified in the US right now is what I think and hope the final convulsions of a dying conservative batshit religious right. The worry is a cornered cat makes strange jumps, like voting for a Trump and storming capitols or giving up on reason entirely.
The reason they don’t have a great welfare system, a clear sign of missing left, is partly if not largely racism. It would help black people more than white, which white turn around to suggesting it would be bad for them. I’m convinced we’d have to at least some extend a similar situation in NL if it weren’t for one historical difference: we held and left most of our slaves on distant colonies. Some still part of NL, but until recently didn’t get the same amount of welfare and government (child/unemployment/etc) support. America is where colonists and slaves ended up living together and not just in liberal cities. Their politics can’t be mapped easily to ours so things are always a lot more nuanced than you say with for example your conclusion about a missing left. It’s a rather unique nation but with similar aspects.
FACT SHEET: President Biden’s Budget Advances Equity | The White House
On his first day in office, the President signed a sweeping executive order directing the entire Federal government to advance an ambitious equity and racial justice agenda—not as a one-year project, but as part of a sustained commitment to make the promise of America real for every American...
It’s just 1 out of many examples. Overrepresented black babies getting more money, oh boy. That’s doing what needs to be done despite the conservative right acting more extreme.
Point is, I don’t agree US politics is completely ratcheting to the right, it‘s at worst still moving in both directions, polarizing. On major issues like abortion, healthcare, climate, job security and living standards not just for whites, the dems - the majority of the electorate - moved to the left over the past decade. Biden is turning out to be quite progressive from any perspective, almost morphing into a social democrat. Sure he is old, very very very old, and not just physically but he isn’t done yet. He’s trying to change much of what makes your statement about two right parties, with nuance, and from a certain perspective, a correct one.
