Left -vs- Right

[hollodero]

(07-08-2015, 11:02 AM)michaelsean Wrote: Those are just two examples.  I'm curious what Hollodero or someone else would consider a left wing ideal that doesn't have significant support in the Democratic Party.  I'm not saying there isn't, I just don't know what it is.

Yeah, I can't say either.

Left-wing ideals? Keeping things public comes to mind. The state as owner of not only supplies, but also some companies. Basic income and minimum wages. Or let's say workers rights. Unions and industrial councils. Obligations for employers. A social net for everyone. Taxing the rich. Capital taxes, capital gains taxes, measaures up to redistributions. A flatter income pyramid. Bank supervision. Governmental health care, with private insurance companies only as an add-on. Gun control :). Less convictions and jail time. Free access to education. No warmongering :) --- I'll better stop here.

Are those all good things? Probably not. Are people in the US expressing these views? I sure think so, the US is huge and full of people. I'm not so sure if these voices are significant. Your election campaigns sure don't focus on any of these issues. 
Then again, election campaigns are always awful, here and at your place. Speaking of those; let's call this a left-wing ideal: No private spending for campaigns! The state provides the budget for those. A lot of money, and yeah, the tax payers pays for it. That would be an ideal that sure sounds left and which is not even thinkable in the US, I feel. Here it's common sense. What your politicians have to do to raise money is unspeakable. 30 hours and more a week, from what I've heard, an american politician spends on talking to some rich prick begging for money. And if I ask myself - who is it I'd rather like funding my leaders? Us all or those guys? I get all left wing by myself. Money dictates the US, and no major ambition, no politician, no party can go without some patron funding it. Which leads to another "left-wing" ideal: A "state TV" amongst all those privates, bound to certain rules. So many of your citizens are getting their information from biased TV, and in fact the whole media is funded by those same people who fund the campaigns. I mean, OK, your way and all that, but I always wondered why Americans seem to be so cool with that.