OK but seriously though, how is everyone doing? #fediverse #checkin
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@Gina Worried about the future for america, but otherwise good. You?
@freemo exactly the same, I'm so.. worried about how close this race is.
@Gina Yea agreed. Neither of the candidates should have been able to get a single vote. Any of the others on the ballot should have won by a landslide. The fact that it is close AND two extremely evil people are tie is worrisome to say the least, no matter how it ends.
@freemo it should have been Bernie 😭
@Gina I dunno, I live in holland and the vast majority of people I met think bernie is a radical left. Never really looked at any dutch polls though to really figure out the overall sentiment.
I think bernie would think he is helping the poor, and a lot of people would think so too. But in reality he would make things far far worse than they already are sadly.
The problem is the public sentiment on what helps the poor is usually out of touch with what actually helps. So you wind up with the politicians who talk the most about helping the poor being the ones who do the most harm.
In many ways america is more radicalized to the left than europe will ever be. As someone who also has one foot in america I moved to the netherlands because they were more centrist (read: less radical left) than america.
@freemo you're a libertarian, aren't you?
@Gina Most people consider libertarian to mean or be similar to anarchist. So no, I'm not. Though I have voted for them at times when there was no better option.
@freemo @Gina I'm sorry, but that is just not true. The US has almost no left politicians, perhaps only the subgroup in the Democratic party that call themselves "progressives" is on the left.
Democrats are centre-right neo-conservatives, and Republicans are extreme-right conservatives. Neither is on the left, most of their differences are in identity politics to be honest...
Again, I find that to be more an opinion out of ignorance than out of understanding. Though its hard to say if thats the case with you as we would have to dig pretty deep into the details.
But generally, no, that isnt correct.. Our left leaning politicians tend to be pretty firmly on the left supporting virtually all the things european left tend to support. The only exception is that they tend to talk more tongue in cheek and that can often be very misleading. They wont come right out and say they want to ban all guns, for example, yet most vote in such a way to suggest they do. There is a higher ratio in taxes between highest and lowest in the USA too, making them generally fairly financially left
I dont know where "here" is.. but generally i find most europeaners would agree with you on the surface but more out of ignorance than actual understanding.
Most europeaners dont realize the left in america is far more radicalized than the left in europe, tot he point of violence and abuse, which is as radical as you can get. Even in terms of policy, I am in the top most tax bracket and pay more taxes in the USA than I do in europe, for example (a generally leftist principle).
Not radical at all. I am a strong supporter of reducing military spending by a huge margin (I'd be happy with cutting it 90%).
After living in europe though I have already seen the failure of universal healthcare compared to pre-obama america's more free market style healthcare and would not wish that on my worst enemy.
So while I'd agree I'd change the wording and say we need to spend less taxes on military, and use that money to ensure our medicaid (free insurance given to anyone who is poor) is better funded, use the money on universal education (free education) instead, and use the rest to give everyone a tax cut.
@freemo that's ironic since Bernie would probably do a lot more for the poor than these two guys.
Crazy to think that here in the Netherlands Bernie would be considered moderate leftie, whereas in the US they paint him as a radical commie.