I keep being told it’s because of the Republicans that we can’t have nice things. So what gives in California? We should be overflowing with progressive policies.
Remember that the Democratic party is NOT leftist and is NOT progressive… it is liberal, aka generally right-of-center. The few leftists we do manage to elect generally don’t wield much power, and are undermined and sabotaged at every turn by members of “their own party” as well as Republicans. The state also has a lot of very wealthy conservative extremists, and since money is power, they wield a lot without needing pesky things like votes or democracy.
it is liberal, aka generally right-of-center
A lot of people don’t seem to know this in the US. If you look at most Liberal Parties, they are centre or centre right. Though some are centre left as well. That’s not a full list in that link.
Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party is the major right wing conservative party of Japan.
Do note that the US’ centre starts farther to the right than many other developed countries.
Republicans and Democrats have been moving steadily to the right for the last 40 years. So now, Democrats are where the Republicans were in the 1980s: boring, middle of the road corporatists, friends of banks, insurance and pharmaceutical companies. And the right has moved all the way into an insane asylum. We haven’t had a real progressive president since Jimmy Carter and that was 50 years ago.
It’s because it’s a neoliberal supermajority, not a progressive one.
Governor Newsom is much more representative of the California Democratic Party than progressives like District Attorney George Gascon. Even though the policy positions of Gascon are much more popular than those of Newsom and his fellow establishment Democrat neoliberals.
It’s the same in New York where Chuck Schumer is much more representative of the Dem politicians, especially the party leadership, even though AOC is much more representative of the policy priorities of the people in general.
As for why the mismatch, the main reasons are
- Party leadership control of primaries
- economical elites control of party leadership
- a hell of a lot of pro-establishment gaslighting by both the party leadership and the billionaire-owned media outlets that they’re allied with
California is near the top in these things, except housing which you can squarely blame on NIMBYs. It’s expanding healthcare for migrants, the minimum wage in most cities now is twice the federal minimum wage. It’s also doing well in terms of renewable energy even though energy rates are sky high. Alternative and public transportation and other public services are also getting better, albeit slowly. Can’t have everything, but CA is doing better than most.
They are trying. AB 2200 aims at laying the groundwork for universal healthcare. Minimum wage just went up to $16 for everyone and $20 for fast food workers. There are experiments going on in several cities with guaranteed income. But everything comes with a cost, and the state is having budget problems. There have been job losses associated with the wage increases. Employers have begun to get very picky about who they hire for even minimum wage jobs. Hours have been cut.
Even Democrats realize one state can’t offer free stuff without attracting every freeloader in the country. Someone has to pay for the benefits, and if they tax those folks too heavily, they’ll find another place to live. There’s a real limit to how many social programs can be offered before they break the piggy bank.
Your conclusion makes no sense. California can’t afford the policies because states don’t print their money, the federal government does. And California doesn’t get much help from the federal government. So it’s constrained by what it can tax locally.
Those policies would work perfectly and cause no budgetary issues if the federal government paid for them by printing money.
The massive printing of money from 2008 to COVID really not make people realise that? We CAN pay for everything. The government just has to print for the money, and use it for that instead of bailing out the capitalists over and over.
The solution of not having enough money is to print more money? I couldn’t figure if you’re serious but apparently you are…
Ah yeah, that’s how Zimbabwe did it, too! 💡
Zimbabwe is not sovereign monetarily. The US is the most monetarily sovereign country in the world. They can literally print trillions and it doesn’t do anything to inflation. It has happened multiple times already!! Like why would people deny reality?
Because its not a solution, it just makes the problem worse. It’ll just create even more money under 100 people can gobble up.
The money exists! It needs to be liberated from wasteful uses such as arms, billionaires or shareholders. We can also print more money, sure, but without first fixing the underlying spending/allocation/hoarding issue, we’d only be feeding the dragon.
He says that, as a state, California can’t afford to do this. Your response is this makes no sense, this would all work if implemented at the federal level.
So even assuming your points are valid, this isn’t an option for California.
Because they’re bill mahr and Nancy pelosi style democrats. Not bernie sanders and AOC democrats
Democrats aren’t actually trying to help people. They’re just the nicer version of capitalism, which still crushes the poor.
Right. They say a bunch of shit to hopefully get their base out, sometimes it works. But they play dead when it comes time to deliver the big stuff (like paid family leave). Still, 2nd term Biden in a coma from old age would be better than Trump 2nd Term.
They’re called NIMBYs, “Not In my BackYard”. Everyone wants all the social programs, affordable housing, etc, until it affects their property value/tax, or perceived safety. They want all the issues to be solved…somewhere else that doesn’t affect them.
There was actually a decent video on this topic a couple of years ago: Liberal Hypocrisy is Fueling American Inequality
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Liberal Hypocrisy is Fueling American Inequality
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Relatedly, on a national level, making our homes into investment vehicles was a huge mistake, and 1978 California Proposition 13 made it worse.
This is such a bait post from a conservative Republican. Just disguised as a “question”
I’m gay, far left, and live in Los Angeles. Try again.
The USA has a two faced one party system. Two sides of the same coin or “good cop/bad cop” if you will.
Both parties serve the rich, support imperialism and so on. In terms of economics they have the exact same function of serving the 10% over the 90%.
In terms of domestic affairs the good/bad cop dynamic really kicks in. The reps are ultraconservative, while the dems try to mud the waters with their slight progressiveness, in the end only coopting those things as not to endanger capitalism.
The best you will get from the dems is a
“I’ll try to not make things worse - for now. Vote for me or my buddy elephant over there will beat you up”.
(the not making things worse refers to their social policy, not their economic ones. Those will still get progressively worse for the working majority, even if it might be a bit more indirect. All the dems really are is a silken glove over the iron fist of capital).And tbh, for everyone outside of the US it doesn’t make a difference whether the bombs the policeman of the world drops wherever they please & the bags of money they send to genociders/reactionaries/fascists/terrorists have prideflag & BLM stickers on them, or not…
