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.
this post was submitted on 11 May 2024
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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.
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
Democrats aren't actually trying to help people. They're just the nicer version of capitalism, which still crushes the poor.
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.
Because they're bill mahr and Nancy pelosi style democrats. Not bernie sanders and AOC democrats
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.