Chomsky: The Majority of Today's Elected Democrats Are Moderate Republicans

[Purveyor]

According to Chomsky, America is a two-party state, "but there's only one faction."

By Alexandra Rosenmann / AlterNet
May 13, 2016

The majority of Democrats have shifted to the right so far that the two-party system is almost unrecognizable, according to Noam Chomsky.

"There used to be a quip that the United States was a one-party state with a business party that had two factions: the Democrats and Republicans—and that used to be pretty accurate, but it’s not anymore. The U.S. is still a two-party state, but there’s only one faction, and it’s not Democrats, it’s moderate Republicans. Today’s Democrats have shifted to the right," Chomsky told RT America's Anissa Naouai.

And apparently, so have the Republicans.

According to Chomsky, "[Political scientist] Norman Ornstein simply describes the Republican Party today as a 'radical insurgency that doesn’t care about fact, doesn’t care about argument, doesn’t want to participate in politics, and is simply off the spectrum.'"

Is it any wonder, given Chomsky’s statements two years ago, that Donald Trump is the Republican nominee? But if there's any doubt in how much the Republican Party has changed, just listen to the 1996 Republican nominee Bob Dole advocate for the food stamp program. Can you imagine our current Republican nominee saying anything similar today today?

more...

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/chomsky-todays-democrats-are-moderate-republicans?akid=14263.260530.RWVJ-B&rd=1&src=newsletter1056516&t=14

[Gregorian]

1. It's nice to hear this from Noam.

I felt like I had committed a sin when I spoke the same sentiment here, early on in the primary.

I'm lucky enough to have grown up in a neighborhood with neighbors like the guy who got after me for wearing a second hand Bob Dole sweatshirt. I was painting after all.

[coffeeAM]

2. This is all common knowledge and why the corporate dems are so afraid of the Sanders movement.

[bjo59]

3. Moderate? What's moderate about them? That they support identity rights issues?

They're corporatists and I don't call corporatism "moderate." Both physically and financially destroying countries abroad and causing the US to be reviled the world over is not moderate. Causing the largest refugee crisis since WWII is not moderate. Using the US population's taxes to fill for-profit corporations' coffers to overflowing while infrastructure crumbles across the land is not moderate. Throwing the country under the bus for the sake of Wall Street and the global financial elites is not moderate. I call it treasonous.

[silvershadow]

4. It is out in the open now. This primary laid it bare. nt

[alarimer]

5. I guess Chomsky is under the bus, now?

Along with anyone else who dared to express this.

It's true, philosophically at least, for many. I blame Bill Clinton and the DLC. Winning was more important than anything else. So they sold out.