Talking About Political Parties in the U.S.: Have the Democrats always been left wing?
On Quora, Ian Ruth asks: Have the Democrats always been left wing? When I was in high school, and even well into my college years, my instructors (whether they were “teachers” or “professors”) drummed one concept into my consciousness: In any discussion, whether it’s about history, politics, literature, movies, or religion, never fall into the habit of making gross generalizations. For instance, not all Germans were Nazis, not all Russians are Communists, not every blonde is dumb, and not every foreign film is inaccessible or otherwise unwatchable. It seems that at least since the 1960s, the go-to gross generalization used by people who self-identify as either Republicans or “conservatives” is this: The Democratic Party is left-wing, embraces Socialism, and rejects American patriotic values. Nonsense. First, no political party consists of a monolithic mass of unthinking drones, sort of like the Borg Collective minus the cool shit like cube-shaped st...
