Quote:
Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
In terms of traditional politics and acceptable policies (being anathema to most of what we call "capitalism"), he is. Not extreme in rhetoric or luridness of policy prescriptions, like Trump, of course.
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I mean, if you put Bernie in 1976, do you think anyone would really think that universal healthcare, higher minimum wage, free college and trade skepticism were extreme positions? He only looks extreme after that multi-decade lurch to the right, which dragged even the Democratic Party into "conservative" positions.
Reagan/Thatcherism were a huge mistake (prompted by failure to fix prior mistakes and excesses) that spread through the developed world. Rather than use our rising collective wealth to provide for our collective well-being, as we'd done in the post-war world out of fear of actual extremism, we decided we didn't need to (or that it was harmful to do so). Bernie's only "extreme" because all of those actual extremists are completely gone.
