Dwain Northey (Gen X)

The scales have forever in our body politic been between We the People and Money and Corporate Greed and any time a party is on the side of the people they are considered Left.

Lincoln recognized the rights of a million enslaved people above the corporate plantations of the south… that leftist ideal of humanity caused the Civil War.

Even though we in name got rid of slavery we didn’t impose many restrictions of corporate greed. Theodore Roosevelt turned his gaze on the rights of workers above that of the Steel Mills, Railroads, and Oil Companies and supported unions. Another leftist ideal hurting corporate profits.

FDR brought in Social Security so that seniors could retire with dignity. Even Eisenhower supported unions and he was a Republican.

Since Reagan the role of government has been viewed as trying to harm the people which is 100% opposite of the truth . The bias has been spewed for so long the public believes that corporations and the ultra wealthy need to have more breaks because they are the only ones that can save us.

The scales have been tipped so far to the right that even ideas that would have been considered in the center, 50 or 60 years ago are considered ultra leftist. So when Republicans want Democrats to move more to the center that Center is no longer in the middle. If you took a ruler and saw the center was at 6 inches the Democrats were 6 to 12 inches and the Republicans were 0 to 6 inches. That scale has been moved now the Republicans are 0 to 9 inches on the conservative side and the Democrats only have 2 inches of wiggle room so if we try to get toward the center, the center is actually very much still in the conservative realm. 

Bernie Sanders is considered to be ultra left-wing in today’s body politic but in reality Bernie is right of the ideas that Eisenhower had in 56 so it’s hard to justify moving to the center when the center doesn’t even balance the scale anymore.