Somebody had to do it, so the most popular progressive outside of maybe Bernie makes sense.



It's fine to call into question her record as AG, and argue that it hurts her progressive credentials, but realistically it's just an unfair purity test. Both sides do it... any violation of the orthodoxy suddenly renders someone RINO, establishment, etc, but what matters is what policy these people believe in and pursue. She believes in progressive policy and would pursue it as president(as far as politically possible).

I would phrase it differently: she would pursue progressive policy as far as is possible without cutting into the profits of corporate America. I do not believe that she would seize the opportunity if there was a political opening for progressive tax or economic policy. On the contrary, she would probably do everything in her power to pull the rug out from under it.

Fair enough I guess.

Still thinks she leans more in closely with center left status quo policy than actual left wing politics.

Current state of the democratic party is kind of hard to gauge anyways. The old guard still has power but it's a wonder if at any point the Yang type left wing or Bernie/AOC left wing type will gather more influence. And I sadly think the Yang type progressive are in the minority.

This forum is filled with some smart, politically informed users. But there's a blind spot when it comes to reasonable analysis of Democrats. There's basically two viewpoints, either they are radical SJW socialists, or they're in the pockets of big business. Practically nobody here takes a position between those two views.

Any Democrat would raise taxes or pass progressive economic policy if they got the chance. Pretending everybody to the right of Bernie is a corporate shill is a weird position coming from someone who supports Donald Trump. The guy could've listened to the advice of Bannon(an actual populist) and raised taxes on high-income earners... he chose to cut their taxes instead.

That's the nature of the contemporary Democratic party. They are a weird mix of many very young (the squad) and a few old (Bernie, Warren) politicians who are far to the left by American standards, coupled with a lot of old to middle aged pro-mainstream and pro-status quo politicians (Biden, Hillary, Harris, Obama, Pelosi, Schumer). Similarly, their electoral coalition is a weird combination of downscale minorities and upscale whites whose economic interests dont really align if you think about it. The Democratic party does indeed subscribe to some contradictory and two-faced policy positions, which is just a reflection of the deep divide among its base (and since Bernie's 2016 run also increasingly between its elected officials).

If the Biden-Clinton-Pelosi camp of the Democratic party got a chance to raise taxes, they would find a way to design them such that the white lower middle class has to carry the bulk of the burden, like they did with Obamacare. Or it would end like the Dodd-Frank act which was so overcomplex that it actually helped the large banks put away smaller banks who couldnt afford to keep up with all the red tape anymore.




Regarding Trump: going along with the "oldschool RNC style" tax cuts was one of the biggest policy mistakes of his presidency. He was completely unprepared and in over his head during his chaotic first year in office, and visibly torn between his populist instincts and his effort to get he mainstream of the party on board. He had just pulled off a hostile takeover of the Republican party, and still had to consolidate his intraparty power by forming alliances and working with the establishment/mainstream of the party. And he also had too many swamp creatures in his orbit during that time that he shouldnt have listened to...

Oh yeah, let's not forget that Bannon-style populist tax hikes on high-income earners were not even close to having a majority in Congress. Neither the Republicans in the Senate nor the ones in the House would have gone along with such a tax hike, and the Democrats were still shellshook by their loss, hated his guts and had no intention whatsoever to bail him out with their votes.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 19 2020 08:04am

Imagine supporting Bernie Sanders

kek

Conservatives: "We need to give more funding to the cops!"

Liberals: "NO! We need to give more funding to gay lesbian transgender black cops!"

They're both ultimately conservatives defending the status quo. Black cop, white cop, trans cop, cis cop, ACAB. Identity politics, whether they be white Christian conservative or white secular liberal, are a veneer. A thin coat over a rock solid core of fascism.

I think if anything Kamalas progressive record in the senate and tough on crime record as AG shows her to be pragmatic enough to conform to her role. As Bidens VP we can expect her to be thoroughly centrist and to quash progressive insurgent movements that would upset the establishment dems. Shes clearly not a true beleiver or ideologue