> The idea that “the left” doesn’t exist in the US is nonsense. We just had a democratic nomination cycle where every candidate except the eventual winner (but who at that time seemed down and our) promised to support this:
https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hres109/BILLS-116hres109i.... Doesn’t that seem quite left?
Seem quite left by the optics of the US, but:
Tracker:
This bill has the status Introduced
Status of Legislation:
Introduced Agreed to in House
When it passes we can talk about leftist ideas being put in practice in the US, until then it's all talk and no show and we are tired of watching America's talk show... Agrandising a bill yet to be even introduced for voting is a show, I prefer political systems to be pragmatical.
> You’re correct that Sweden, etc., are market economies with welfare states tacked on. Sweden is cutting corporate taxes and investment taxes, partially privatizing its social security, etc. That was the model on the American left from Clinton through Obama.
This wasn't an effect localised in Sweden, the whole Third Way [0] on social democracies trying to embrace some neoliberal policies (be it for some kind of compromise or for true belief that this was the way forward). It happened across whole Europe, from the UK with Blair, to France and the US, its effects are still ongoing.
In my opinion this was a failed experiment which the repercussions are still showing up. We can't have "ifs" in history but we can analyse the effects of these policies and the picture doesn't look pretty, both economically when viewed with the eyes of social democrats of the 70s (which I don't say would fare well in a contemporary society, those policies had its time and place and need updates) as politically when you see how much power the centre-left social democrats across Europe have lost. They tried to embrace where the pendulum swung and ultimately lost that race and also lost their own base.
Political candidates on the left don't talk about markets anymore because neoliberal policies took over a lot on the previous 3 decades, from welfare to education, to healthcare. I only talk about these policies' negatives but I don't necessarily hold the opinion that it didn't have positive impacts in society, just believe its time is due. It's too ideological to be practical in the face of empirical evidence.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way