United States | News & Politics

There are two ways you can think of what I said.

The first is for individual politicians. For example, there is a Democratic House member somewhat near me that is extremely nationslist and anti-China. Their Republican opponent said we need to work with China. The Dem us to the right of the Republican on that foreign policy issue.

More interesting is policies that require coordination, like at the national level. A recent example is Democrats' attempt to outflank Republicans from the right on the border. Republicans prevented the bill from passing, but it was a right wing move and beyond what the GOP has tried to pass in decades. For a successful example of this, look at the rebranding of Democrats as pro-cop. Biden has provided more funding to cops than any other politician since Reagan. The Dems' response to massive protests against racial oppression and racialized policing in particular was to make false promises about reining in the police and then massively increasing their budgets. Another example is foreign policy, where Democrats are now the option for more effective stewards of the American empire. This is why Dick Cheney, the war criminal, is announcing his vote for Harris.

Aside from rightward moves, there is a related point that is important. Virtually every policy that Democrats are "left" of Republicans on is one that they do not fight for and instead use as a campaigning tool. So their "left" stances mean very little. When American Dem voters complain about their politicians not getting things done or being incompetent, they are describing this intentional act of deceit whether they know it or not. For example, Obama's Democrats had a huge majority in Congress and the presidency and didn't force any of their platform through. Obama even announced just 3 months into his first term that codifying Roe v. Wade was not a priority despite the fact that he campaigned on it. Dems are still campaigning on abortion rights at the national level despite doing nothing about it. They didn't even try to build a sustained protest movement. They just sent their politicians to rallies and converted the outrage and enthusiasm into "vote blue", and the liberals heard that and went home.