What has caused the Democratic Party to lurch so far left?

[Reaganfan]

Seriously? Today's Democratic Party of hating Wall Street and cheering black people who chant "We want dead cops", and who may actually nominate a socialist...isn't that extreme? Even if I thought with a liberal hat on...why so extreme left?

You have Hillary running against policies her husband supported. This article from several weeks ago made me think about what could have caused this.

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/11/02/has-the-liberal-wing-of-the-democrats-finally-pushed-the-party-too-far/

[Joe Republic]

Check out your party's front runner, then come back and ask this question.

[Reaganfan]

Check out your party's front runner, then come back and ask this question.

Don't spin it back talking about Republicans. I asked about the Democrats.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Obviously in the Naso household there is a severe shortage of mirrors.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

It hasn't, if anything it's lurched to the right (courtesy of the Clinton/Tony Coelho/DLC types).

[Bojack Horseman]

It hasn't, and it's not the liberal wing that's the problem. I'm in the liberal wing and I'm by far not the most left wing person in the party. It's the progressive/whacko fringe wing that is a very vocal minority. The rest of us are over here voting for Hillary.

Now the Republicans on the other hand, they're getting ready to nominate the second coming of George Wallace for the exact same reasons.

[Sir Mohamed]

The Democratic Party is a normal western left-liberal/progressive party with different factions. Some members are more centrist, others are more a kind of a social democrat, similar than these of most European center-left parties (UK Labor Party, PS in France, SPD of Germany etc…). But in general, Dems are still closer to the center than these European parties that I just mentioned.

[Mr. Reactionary]

They lost most of their moderates, and their propaganda machines in college have successfully warped a generation of new Democrat voters into thinking everything current is bad and must be fought ... for "progress".

[RINO Tom]

Check out your party's front runner, then come back and ask this question.

For all his faults, Donald Trump is far from an "extreme" conservative...

As for the OP, the Democrats have undeniably pretty much lost all of their cultural conservatives and social moderates, so in that regard, they absolutely have shifted left, and that's the reason why (Blue Dogs, moderates and such losing in 2010/2014).  Now, what is ironic and kind of funny is that many White Southerners who complain about the Democrats becoming more liberal have only themselves to blame ... their presence in the party is what kept it closer to the cultural/social center from the 1970s/1980s on...

[5280]

Trump is not a conservative.

[Gass3268]

American has moved to the left on many issues.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

America has changed

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

The Republican voter base has arguably shifted much further to the left this cycle.

[Comrade Funk]

The Republican voter base has arguably shifted much further to the left this cycle.

Because their frontrunner is the most racist. So racism>>economics for a lot of Republicans I guess.

[TDAS04]

It hasn't.

[afleitch]

Yeah. It's all about the Dems moving 'left'

[Rockefeller GOP]

Yeah. It's all about the Dems moving 'left'

He didn't say it was.  He asked why they've moved left.  If you want to start a topic about why Republicans have moved right, go right ahead.

[angus]

Seriously?

The credit crunch of 2008.  Stagnant wages.  Growing wealth inequality.  Outsourcing of blue- and white-collar jobs.  Collapsing road and bridge infrastructure.  Inadequate public transportation, or at least the perception of inadequate public transportation. 

I think you could find a number of reasons.  Many of them are not new phenomena, but wars and other calamities may have overshadowed these issues in the past few cycles.  Also, many of the problems have grown worse.  Consider this graphical representation from US census data:



People generally swing left after periods of lost economy, or of economic stagnation, and for the middle classes, that's exactly the reality.

[Orser67]

I would say three reasons:

1)Economic. Basically what Angus said.

2)A lot of the conservative Democratic voters have left the party or died out.

3)Young people and first and second generation immigrants are less affected by the mass disillusionment with government that began in the 1960s, and which still affects the voting behavior of the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers.

[RI]

The rise of social media is part of it, I think, especially on social issues. More generally, the completion of the white conservative Dem purge has played a big part, too.

[Zioneer]

The base has definitely turned to the left, but I don't think Democratic or Democrat-leaning politicians (besides Bernie Sanders, who was already there) have lurched to the left. They're mostly still centrist or center-left. Maybe moving a bit quicker on social issues.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Being a  conservative in America has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with culture and identity. Donald Trump is a conservative, just not the way intellectuals would discuss it on this forum. Conservatism is a feeling these days, not a set of coherent beliefs.

[SWE]

It's not so much "moved left," but "became more homogeneous."

[YaBoyNY]

The knuckle-dragging, neanderthal portion of the party was rightfully purged and done away with.

[Frodo]

The final completion of the southern realignment.