Feinstein is easily the worst Democratic Senator. It's absolutely bonkers to me that a state where tech is as important as it is keeps re-electing her. Surely there's someone out there who wants to primary her?
Feinstein wiped the floor with everyone in the primary in 2018. She took 44% of the vote, and the next leading candidate (Kevin de Leon) took 12%. When they ran against each other, de Leon lost by a fairly large margin but turnout kind of sucked.
de Leon wasn't a good candidate by any means, and I voted for the guy. He always struck me as a bit of a smarmy huckster who didn't stand for anything but reelection. But I knew that Feinstein was probably running for her last term and only cared about serving the national party's interests, and not our state. I'll take the guy that wants my next vote over someone that probably won't live long enough to get it.
Obviously there are other externalities to consider (Feinstein is very senior), etc... But I don't know why anyone is so upset that she's the "worst democrat". She'd be the "worst republican" too.
You want consensus-building nonpartisan elections, you get candidates that reflect social consensus and not your particular party's priorities.
What is called "centrist" is nowhere near the center, but is actually straight up authoritarianism. If you look at both the blue team's and red team's grassroots messages, individuals are not happy with how much control the government exerts over us. Each political team markets a half-libertarian message and lures individual voters in by focusing on those gripes. They then channel their supporters' energy into going after the "other team", and "compromise" by enacting the fully authoritarian policies their sponsors paid for.
But calling them (sigh) "authoritarian" isn't helping your case when they come back at you to persecute a (sigh) "revolutionary" or "extremist". Work with people. Centrists aren't idiots. Their constituency is real, and has concerns too.
We already have a word for this - conservative. And I do agree that conservatives have consistent and valid points, even if I do not agree.
I don't know what other word to use besides "authoritarian" as in the two-dimensional political space with red-blue on one axis, and authoritarian-libertarian on the other.
To me "centrist" implies some middle of the road. I do not agree that someone who supports (this bill, the patriot act, elective wars, drone strikes, etc) deserves the label centrist, as they're nowhere near the entire libertarian half of the political spectrum. Allowing this to be called centrism is privileging and cloaking authoritarianism.
> I don't know what other word to use besides "authoritarian"
And for the same reasons, it doesn't help your case to invent new jargon here either. The word you're looking for, describing people generally predisposed to agreement with existing social and government structures, is "centrist". It's what I use, it's what everyone in journalism uses. It's probabaly what you use too when you're talking to people in the real world and not trying to score points with hyperbole on HN by likening centrists to Nazis and Communists.
Basically: you know what I meant.
> That's not what "conservative" means in modern political discourse, at all. And I'm sure you know this
I honestly don't know what "conservative" is supposed to mean in the modern political discourse, besides simply referring to people who support the red team. Therefore, I think it's instructive to fall back to its general abstract meaning. For example, current Trump supporters are in no way actually conservative. Hence seeing ideological conservatives distancing themselves from that populist-reactionary ship of destruction.
> ["centrist" is] probably what you use too when you're talking to people in the real world
I've never heard the word "centrist" in the real world. As I said, it seems like a mainstream media term shifting the Overton window towards authoritarianism (away from libertarianism), following the idea that increased centralized control can be used to solve societal problems. I apologize for using this word that you are reacting strongly to, but I've yet to hear a different straightforward technical term that refers to ever-growing government involvement.
The three political spectrums are:
- Progressive <-> Conservative
- Liberal <-> Fascist (Authoritarian)
- Left-wing <-> Right-wing
Progressive is someone who pushes are for change, major change, and rapid change. Conservative is someone who likes things how they are, wants to make changes slowly and carefully. People can be progressive on some topics (like pushing for civil rights), and conservative on others (like being careful about changing fiscal policy). But lots of people will default to one or the other.
Liberal is to allow, a true liberal would allow things they disagree with. A fascist (authoritarian) forces everyone to be like them, and passes laws to force everyone to do as they believe.
Left-wing and right-wing is less a spectrum and more clustering of ideologies.
Left-wing ideologies generally favor the community as a whole over the individual, and support those with less power or who are less well off. That results in things like pro environment, minority rights, and social welfare. Internationally left-wing could include going to war overseas to protect people from oppression and powerful aggressors.
Right-wing ideologies tend to favor the individual and those in power, more everyone for themselves. This could mean freedom to make individual choices that hurt the environment, pro big business, lack of social services. In the extreme it can be racism against minorities. Internationally it could result in isolationist policies.
I think if people actually understand the terms, and they are well defined, people can thinks about how they as an individual feel. And maybe that can help us break away from the two-party fighting we have now.
I think if people actually analyze there beliefs, they may come to better understand themselves, and people can better understand each other. For example I think some people that call themselves "Progressive Liberals" will find out they they are "Progressive Left-wing Fascist", and some people who call themselves "Conservative" will find that they are "Conservative Left-wing Liberals".
Except de Leon carried the red districts. Not Feinstein.