Originally posted by whodey
You assume that it is the lefts agenda to improve the standard of living and "enrich" the citizens. What leftist country has done this? In fact, looking at Cuba, for example, it would appear that they prefer slaves.

What do you think is the agenda of "those on the left" then?

If you look at criteria like social equality, income equality, equality of oppurtunity and government size you'll find the most "leftist" countries in Northern Europe, with some of the highest living standards in the world.

Cuba is an authoritarian dictatorship, but experience has shown that multi-party democracies with mixed economy models are the most successful in boosting the quality of life of its inhabitants.

And is Nixon to the left or to the right of Obama? By which criteria?

Originally posted by KazetNagorra
By what standards are Obama and the majority of Democrat senators and House members "on the left"? How do you assess that? For example, Obama's policies so far have not even come close to reducing income equality to levels under Nixon or increasing taxation of the rich to levels under Nixon, nor has he shown any signs of attempting such a thing. Then wh ...[text shortened]... of extremist member of the left wing of the Marxist Alliance of socialist communist statists?

By what standards are Obama and the majority of Democrat senators and House members "on the left"? -KazetNagorra

They are left of center of the Right of center American Public. This is common knowledge!

Originally posted by utherpendragon

By what standards are Obama and the majority of Democrat senators and House members "on the left"? -KazetNagorra

They are left of center of the Right of center American Public. This is common knowledge!

What empirical criteria do you use to measure left- and rightness?

Originally posted by utherpendragon

By what standards are Obama and the majority of Democrat senators and House members "on the left"? -KazetNagorra

They are left of center of the Right of center American Public. This is common knowledge!

Polls show that majorities of the American people want the government to spend money to create jobs and tax the rich to close the deficit as well as end the wars overseas. On all those issues (the most important ones), the people are to the Left of the Democratic leadership and far to the Left of the Republicans.

Originally posted by utherpendragon

By what standards are Obama and the majority of Democrat senators and House members "on the left"? -KazetNagorra

They are left of center of the Right of center American Public. This is common knowledge!

By Australian standards America's left still qualifies as a conservative right wing party.

Originally posted by kmax87
By Australian standards America's left still qualifies as a conservative right wing party.

By pretty much any standard in the industrialized world. You probably need to go to South America to find "left" wing parties comparable to the Democrats.