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Comment by colinmhayes | Hacker News Reader

> even in this polarized culture politicians could compromise

Not when refusing to compromise is your parties main platform.

>"Not when refusing to compromise is your parties main platform."

This seems like a scathing indictment, but the point of a political party is to advance an ideological agenda. "Compromise" on bureaucratic issues is essential and acceptable, but you rarely hear about that. There are all sorts of issues that Republicans and Democrats refuse to compromise on - isn't that why people have divided themselves along these lines in the first place?

> refusing to compromise

Unfortunately the left has won in this regard. The left moves so hard and fast to the left that even the right can no longer "refuse to compromise." If they don't, they are bigots at worst and uncultured, out of touch imbeciles at best.

As somebody not from the US, the mainstream "left" seems very right wing. When compared to the rest of the world, there is no left wing political party in the United States.

Wow, please give some examples.

The US "left wing" party does not (collectively) support:

* nationalized health insurance

* higher upper marginal rate income taxes

* expanded public transportation

* higher corporate taxes

* unions/employee members of corporate boards

* longer parental leave

* more vacation time

These and many other policies are common across other democratic nations' left-ish parties, and are actual policy in many of those nations.

I take it you haven't read the Party Platform, have you?

Not sure that it really matters. As the #1 and #2 priorities of the Democratic Party right are allowing for the unrestricted killing of the unborn and supporting the alphabet-soup of sexual/gender spectrum.

But your #1 and #2 don't appear in most countries non-extremist left parties. Sure many other western democracies allow abortion in some form, but never unrestricted. E.g. in Germany you can abort in the first three month of the pregnancy if you have been to counseling. That makes it impossible to make a decision in a moment that you would regret later. Later abortions are legal only in life threatening situations.

And the support of logically inconsistent and outright vile policies to favor the later letters of the alphabet soup are an American export.

> unrestricted killing of the unborn

Not an accurate description of any democrat AFAIK.

> supporting the alphabet-soup of sexual/gender spectrum

Probably not priority #1 or #2, and if they were, not even an actually bad thing...

Every time... WE KNOW AND NOBODY CARES.

We're talking about the US.

Well, this is an international forum, so I think it's a good idea to remember that many people reading are not from the same country and may have different interpretations of some terms. Also, maybe looking outside and gathering new data once in a while may put the problems you percieve your country to have in broader context, and help you find new solutions that actually work.

> Unfortunately the left has won in this regard.

Republicans have moved further to the right than Democrats have to the left:

* https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/10/the-polariz...

I'm not disputing this, but I think there should be a clarification:

By definition, someone who is conservative doesn't need to "move". Conservatism is about _conserving_ and subsequently not changing or moving.

If the conservatives are becoming "more conservative" they are (or at least should be) _not moving_.

> By definition, someone who is conservative doesn't need to "move". Conservatism is about _conserving_ and subsequently not changing or moving.

Your dictionary definition and the practical real world are two different things. Especially when it comes to implementing policy (and the methods used to gain power).

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