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this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
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Showerthoughts
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Nah, one center-right (formerly centrist) and one far-right (formerly center-right). See discussion here and here.
In gist:
The Democrats have become the party of international free-trade capitalism with appropriate regulation, and with international policies that represent loyalty to the nation's traditional alliances.
The Republicans have become the local representative of the international far-right: the Putin-Trump-Erdogan-Orban-Netanyahu-etc. axis, focused on granting strongman leaders the ability to loot their states, purge opposition even among the elite (see DeSantis-Disney), betray the nation's traditional alliances (e.g. NATO) in favor of the far-right axis itself, and excite their "base" through hate & oppression of various minorities (e.g. immigrants, LGBTQ+).
The Democrats are the party of "keep the system working, but when you get a chance, try to make it work better for everyone."
The Republicans are the party of "tear the system down, and replace it with loyalty to our authority figures; keep the masses stupid and busy trampling on queers & foreigners."
Yeah, I literally just said today's Democrats are a center-right party, and today's Republicans a far-right party. Back when the Republicans were neoliberal, they were center-right. But they're not anymore; they're aligned with Putin and the international neofascist tendency.
Oh! I was using "center-X" vs "far-X" as a distinction. The same distinction could be expressed maybe as "X" vs "radical-X" — the Democrats are "rightist" and the Republicans are "radical rightist" — much in the same way that we might say that social-democrats are "leftist" and revolutionary communists are "radical leftist".
A good non-radical leader can be one who is a good manager of the current system, who gently reforms it toward social goals. However, radicals would never accept such a milquetoast weakling; they want someone who will come in, smash everything, "drain the swamp", and implement the dictatorship of ... um ... someone.
Clearly, we're starting from different assumptions!