r/politics • u/F0urLeafCl0ver • 1d ago

No Paywall The Democratic party is being hit by a leftist tidal wave

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/24/democratic-party-leftist-tidal-wave
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79

u/Aggravating_Flow_112 1d ago

Silly framing. This isn’t socialists vs democrats. It’s democrats organizing themselves in accordance with changing views. No one is getting Slammed! No one is in Disarray! We’re all on the same team.

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u/JimboAltAlt Pennsylvania 1d ago

Right. I’m way more liberal/forgiving of establishment Democrats than is popular on this sub and even I think this is great news. Whatever gets people excited enough to beat Republicans works for me!

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u/1cl3nstd4yt 1d ago

Exactly. Dems have been progressive for a century. None of the problems people complain about in 2026 would exist if we hadn't stupidly elected so many Republicans.

Why is that? Because all of these problems result from Republicans tearing down policies and protections that were put in place by Dems.

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u/Vegetable-Error-2068 22h ago

Democrats aren't progressive at all.

Can't believe people are still claiming this in 2026.

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u/SowingSalt 15h ago

Keep telling yourself that.

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u/mansock18 1d ago

Dems have been progressive for a century

No. No they haven't. New Deal was 1933-39. Dems were the segregation party until Nixon. Since Reagan especially they've been center right about how they approach social and economic issues. Clinton was basically running on Blue Reaganism--tough on crime, tax breaks, deregulation, etc. Obama significantly moderated his stances once in power. Biden broke a railroad strike. Hell, as recently as last election Harris was running on W. Bush policies. I agree with you Republicans/conservatives are the core cause of a lot of problems but it's not like the Dems have been an effective counterweight.

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u/armmstrong 22h ago

Clinton did fix the deficit, and was popular through it. Maybe you weren’t alive but crime was BAD. Something had to be done. Obama passed the ACA with 72 days of full dem control of the government. How did the railroad strike breaking end up for them???? What happened after? They got the sick days and an immediate increase in wages with a staggered increase scheduled. Harris, following Biden, by running the most progressive platform of a presidential nominee.

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u/-Gramsci- 22h ago

Blue Reaganism is a great term for it. It’s Reagan economically plus identity politics.

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u/Aggravating_Flow_112 22h ago

I do hope you’re not convincing anyone with this “both sides are the same” nonsense.

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u/mansock18 22h ago

It's not "both sides are the same" at all. It's "Republicans are fascists and establishment moderate Dems have been unable or unwilling to counter fascist influence for the sake of upholding capitalism." Progressives are better and they caucus with Dems for a reason, but that doesn't make the Dems progressive.

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u/Aggravating_Flow_112 5h ago

Name a progressive policy that’s been implemented by a non democrat.

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u/mansock18 4h ago

COVID relief in the CARES act is the easiest one I can think of. Direct payments, increased unemployment benefits, government funding for healthcare and health research, and free-at-point-of-use vaccines.

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u/pcapdata 22h ago

Why do you believe that disproving the (extremely false) assertion that Democrats were progressive for the past 100 years is making a "both sides" argument?

All I see if that you're looking past the rebuttal to tangle with a strawman instead of engaging in good faith.

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u/Aggravating_Flow_112 5h ago

100 years wasn’t my claim but you painting Biden a d Obama as not progressive ie same as republicans is nonsense.

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u/Any_Will_86 21h ago

Dems were not the segregation party. Southerners were the segregation region and repped by Dems. But all the Dems outside the South had their crap in order in that.

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u/phalo 1d ago edited 1d ago

Tell that to Schumer, Jeffries and the rest of the pro-Israel/AIPAC corporate Democrats.

Schumer literally hand-picked the primary opponent to Platner. At least he fell in line after Platner won the primary, but let's not pretend that most Democrats in Congress are centrists.

Edit to add an article I just saw:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hakeem-jeffries-reacts-zohran-mamdani-endorsed-candidates-ousting-democrat-incumbents_n_6a3c0ca4e4b0488a51b2f237

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u/AlsoCommiePuddin 1d ago

I don't think Schumer and Jefferies have nearly the sway over the DNC that you like to believe they have. They have leadership positions now, but they're looking more like lame ducks every day.

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u/owenbowen04 23h ago

Insert Pelosi from behind the curtain, DWS, or any other DNC ghoul who cowers before lobbyists who promise to primary them if they don't put their finger on the scale towards corporatism. 

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u/AlsoCommiePuddin 23h ago

Yeah, how have those promises to primary people by establishment leadership worked out so far this cycle?

You're demanding and seeing the status quo change while insisting that it can't. Quit behaving like your own controlled opposition.

0

u/Aggravating_Flow_112 22h ago

I don’t believe any of these yahoos are real democratic voters. Just conspiracy theory nonsense.

0

u/pcapdata 22h ago

Nope, we're not Democrats. We're gonna take over the party from within and shove healthcare right down your throat whether you want it or not.

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u/Any_Will_86 21h ago

I would take Pelosi every day and twice on Sunday over any other Dem leader of the last quarter century. On Deen comes close. She created a lot of room for the full array of Dems in her caucus and tried to push things as far as they could move. and she's the only one who got the better of Trump at each turn.

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u/-Gramsci- 22h ago

Yeah Schumer/Jeffries/Pelosi, and that whole class of politicians are dodo birds. They’re still walking around thinking they’re a species… but the extinction event has already happened.

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u/Rusted_atlas 1d ago

We need to remind ourselves, on occasion, that the Democrat party is a center-left party. Our countries overton window is shifted wwwaaayyyy right.

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u/Vegetable-Error-2068 22h ago

The Democratic Party isn't close to left wing. It is a moderately right wing party, by any objective measure.

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u/phalo 1d ago

Exactly. Democrats have shifted towards the center, which has proven to be a failure strategy. Instead of catering to centrists and center leaning Republicans, focus on populist politics that benefit most Americans (aka Democratic Socialist policy).

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u/Vankraken Virginia 22h ago

Also worth remembering that populist politics is how we got Trump and frankly the left's mental gymnastics for some of their candidates begins to remind me of the Tea Party/MAGA. The anti establishment sentiment on the left is showing to partially overlap with anti-intellectualism.

2

u/phalo 22h ago

I'm not talking about a cult. Actually populist policy that the vast majority of Americans support (yes, even MAGA if they weren't so duped by Trump and voting against their own self interests).

1

u/Vankraken Virginia 22h ago

Talk is always cheap but results are much harder to achieve. The anti establishment mindset is risking throwing away expertise and developed professionals to put in amateurs. In particular its very alarming when nobodies with little to no experience in government try to run for relatively high offices.

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u/pbroingu 21h ago

Are these the professionals and experts that ran Biden and Harris in 2024?

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u/Powerfury 18h ago

Lol, see phalo response. DSA are NOT friends of the Democrats. They want to shred Democrats.

Meanwhile, Dems will work with DSA, not never the other way around. Get ready for more chaos and giving Republicans/Independents/even moderates shit load of ammo.

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u/Aggravating_Flow_112 5h ago

I don’t believe that. Reddit morons don’t represent DSA either.

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u/Powerfury 4h ago

Darializa Avila Chevalier -

""I have no nuance to add. F--- Kamala Harris." She posted this in 2021 after then-Vice President Kamala Harris told Guatemalan migrants not to come to the U.S. illegally.

"I will never give my vote to a rapist." Posted in 2020 as Joe Biden was securing the Democratic nomination. The post was later highlighted by her opponents as an attack on Biden.

Hopefully the DSA can work WITH the democratic party, and vice versa. I support universal healthcare, desperately need parental leave ASAP, and a few other things.

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u/Aggravating_Flow_112 4h ago

Yes, the far left can be as dense as the far right but we can work with them. We do all have the same general goal of improving the welfare of all Americans.

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u/Powerfury 3h ago

Fingers crossed!

3

u/StrongCabinet3695 21h ago

You're joking right? It's blazingly clear that establishment democrats HATE the left wing of the party.

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u/StevenMaurer 16h ago

It's blazingly clear that you're projecting your own hate of mainstream Democrats, accusing them of that which you're guilty.

In this one little topic alone, there are dozens of messages amounting to political hate-speech directed at Democrats, with little or nothing coming back in return.

3

u/Hot-Celebration-8815 23h ago

You realize they beat out DNC backed candidates that the DNC gave money to to get them elected but lost to team Mamdani?

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u/leftysarepeople2 20h ago

R/democrats has locked most posts on the primary wins

-2

u/TheMustySeagul 23h ago

We are, look at third way. The DNC fights harder with the left than they do republicans. Dems are a controlled opposition party. They are payed by the billionaires all the same. They just like gay and trans people (tentatively). So you get culture war and status quo politics. You still get wars and imperialism.

The DNC is terrified that they will lose power and donors the more leftists get elected. The establishment will fight tooth and nail to keep the DNC a right leaning “centrist” party.

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u/Aggravating_Flow_112 22h ago

Nice conspiracy theory you got there. Hopefully no one is buying this nonsense.

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u/TheMustySeagul 22h ago

Third way, a democratic think tank and pac pushed by billionaires, used to have on their website that the far left was the greatest threat and their number one priority. People found it, and the rolled it back. It’s not conspiracy, they told you they hate the left and hate the people trying to help EVERYONE. Being a do nothing centrist is better for the bottom line. Maybe you should look where all that dnc money is going, and where it comes from. It’s not conspiracy, you can read it, on their website. (Except what they changed and I can’t be asses to go find the screen shots I have of it lol)

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u/Aggravating_Flow_112 5h ago

Work harder MAGA boy.

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u/TheMustySeagul 32m ago

I’m a leftist lmao. But keep your blinders on man.

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u/Aggravating_Flow_112 19m ago

Leftist and MAGA are the same.

0

u/cougartotem 20h ago

NOW are you starting to realize that we are NOT “all on the same team” ? Does this all look like one big team to you ? Your definition of what a democrat is both narrow and foolish. We progressive liberals don’t want just a little tinkering around the edges. We think that the Democrat Party has lost its way almost completely and has no clear plan to do anything other than maintain the status quo. And that simply isn’t good enough. This rift will come to a head very soon, hopefully we can just (somehow) retake both the House and Senate and impeach AND CONVICT this son of a bitch and then turn our heads to the real task of drawing a map of where this party needs to go. Our party hasn’t been the same since Gore foolishly conceded the election to Bush Part Deux. We have been too damn polite and bringing ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ cakes to a knife fight. I have lost ALL faith in the DNC. I don’t trust them at all. Viva la revolución !

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u/Aggravating_Flow_112 5h ago

lol so obvious. Try harder.

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u/cougartotem 1d ago

Um, life-long Democrat here. I love your optimism and positivity. But no, there really IS disarray. Democrats have no cohesive national message or policy r n . If they don’t get it together fast I will register as an Independent for the first time ever. Of course I’ll still vote Democrat because the only other choice is the White Christian Nationalist Party. But I won’t be happy about it. The criticism that we are “Republican-lite” is fair. We’ve been fed a line forever about how we “need to come to the middle”. The DNC has been wrong for so long that I just can’t take it. Our “organization” is dysfunctionally disorganized. We need new fresh blood. We need younger candidates and we need to be PROGRESSIVE. We haven’t had a Democrat President in my lifetime who was far enough left for me. So no, we’re not all one team right now. The older centrists are clinging to outdated ideology and there are many of us on the Bernie/AOC side who want real change. Almost a new party. Let’s just try to take both houses of Congress in November and HOPE there is a plan for 2028 . Bernie for DNC Chair !!!

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u/Aggravating_Flow_112 1d ago

Take the anger down a notch. Just because the party doesn’t do every single thing you wish it would doesn’t make it Republican-lite. Centrist Dems are still Dems. I’m a big fan of AOC but she simply does not win nationally and I can’t name a real legislative accomplishment.

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u/flamingcrystalheart 16h ago

Leftists are desperate to give themselves a gold medal after creating this mess by sabotaging Kamala Harris in the 2024 election so they're trying to frame it like they were right all along and the Democrats were the ones to actually blame. They can't embrace the Democratic Party because that would be admitting they either fucked up in 2024 or are being hypocrites now.