LogFAQs > #982700172

LightningStrikes posted...

Im from the UK originally but I live in Ireland and have British&Irish citizenship. Sorry to stick my nose in lol, but the US election affects us all and there are a lot of commonalities (and I know there are a lot of Canadians discussing in here as well!). Especially more recently with the rise of the internet. People globally are probably more politically similar than they have ever been. Yet I feel as an observer who talks to a lot of Americans and has seen a lot of polling data, the political class is lagging behind the people on a lot of progressive issues. Overwhelming majorities support public healthcare provision and gun control yet the Democrats dont. Surely they can move left without losing the centre.

Polling data suggests voters want progressive policies, yes. Hell, look at Florida. You have ballot initiatives regarding abortion and marijuana that are polling left. Yet when it comes to electing politicians, Florida is leaning overwhelmingly in favor of far right-wing ghouls who will do everything in their power to defang those ballot initiatives and in fact push for the opposite of those ballot initiatives on a national level. The message THAT sends is that yeah, voters might care about CERTAIN left-wing issues...but they care MORE about right-wing issues, and will thus throw those left-wing issues under the bus to get a right-wing politician.