Quote Originally Posted by trampie09 View Post
Unless of course Jon the Yankee understanding of what is left and what is right is different to our own understanding this side of the pond.
And comparing her to Bernie out on the left was comments I read analysing some of the rankings, not my own take.
It used to be the case that popular ideas of left and right were different in the USA from Europe (and most other places). When I was a youngster I understood the Democrats to be the equivalent of One-Nation Tories and the Republicans to be the same as Tories from Thatcher to modern day UKIP. They both relied on big donors. They both bent to the pressure of lobbyists. They were both supporters of American big business and did what they could to guarantee profits (often through massive exploitation of workers - including children - and poorer countries' natural resources, lobsided trade deals, manipulation through the IMF and World Bank and creation of new markets for arms manufacturers). Both backed tyrants if the tyrants backed the USA.

The difference was that the Democrats had more structural connections to organised labour and progressive movements (even if the leadership of the AFL-CIO was often crooked most of the affiliated locals were not).

I think American politics has polarised more in recent decades and more differences have opened up between the main parties. There hasn't been anyone like Bernie Saunders in the Democrat tent for a few generations, and the emergence of social media and more single issue campaigns has changed the map and the access to ideas and information. I don't think the consensus has broken down between the R and D camps in Washington - but out in the country it looks as if it has.