Pelosi: "We're capitalists, and that's just the way it is."

[Maxwell]

accurate description of the democratic party

like what you want them to lie?

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

The US already has a major capitalist party, does it not? Limousine liberal trash need to leave the Democrats.

[heatcharger]

The US already has a major capitalist party, does it not? Limousine liberal trash need to leave the Democrats.

Anyways, all she was doing was acknowledging reality. And like RINO Tom said, Pelosi is far from a neoliberal on economics. That guy's question was pretty nonsensical.

[DrScholl]

I think there is a lot of hate for Pelosi no matter what she says. She's called too far left, but is also called not far enough to the left. Which is it? Because it can't be both.

The economy here is a mixed one, because capitalism isn't totally unregulated (although it seems as if it is sometimes). The difference between the parties is regulated vs. unregulated capitalism. Like it or not, the country is capitalist and most people on both sides of the spectrum support that.

[DavidB.]

The US already has a major capitalist party, does it not? Limousine liberal trash need to leave the Democrats.

Clearly if you're not a commie you're "limousine liberal trash" You've truly gone off the deep end, haven't you?

[angus]

Whether you agree with her or not, this is why a lot of people see the current Democratic Party as "Republican lite."

I think that idea long pre-dates Pelosi's leadership position.  All during the 90s Clinton dragged his party rightward with Welfare-to-Work, abandonment of unions, and a re-evaluation of Johnson's agenda.  I didn't complain at the time, and in fact I voted for Clinton in 1992 and in 1996 because I supported the "third way" agenda, but I can understand why the Democrats of my parents' generation were frustrated with that.  Frustrated or not, they understood that my generation was very different from them and if they wanted to win our votes (the people who were in their 20s in '92 and '96), they needed to move to the center, or to the right.  Old school progressives have been using the term "Republican lite" since at least 1995.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Communists belong in the green party with their fellow nutcases, sociopaths, and armchair revolutionaries. Never thought I'd say "good for Pelosi", but here we are. Now she just needs to back up her words with action and make sure Sanders and his ilk are marginalized. The path to victory for the Democrats lies with winning back the center, and Trump is handing them a golden opportunity.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Communists belong in the green party with their fellow nutcases, sociopaths, and armchair revolutionaries. Never thought I'd say "good for Pelosi", but here we are. Now she just needs to back up her words with action and make sure Sanders and his ilk are marginalized. The path to victory for the Democrats lies with winning back the center, and Trump is handing them a golden opportunity.

The Democratic base is intent on that not happening.

[Chief Justice Keef]

Communists belong in the green party with their fellow nutcases, sociopaths, and armchair revolutionaries. Never thought I'd say "good for Pelosi", but here we are. Now she just needs to back up her words with action and make sure Sanders and his ilk are marginalized. The path to victory for the Democrats lies with winning back the center, and Trump is handing them a golden opportunity.

You mean the strategy Democrats used this election?

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Communists belong in the green party with their fellow nutcases, sociopaths, and armchair revolutionaries. Never thought I'd say "good for Pelosi", but here we are. Now she just needs to back up her words with action and make sure Sanders and his ilk are marginalized. The path to victory for the Democrats lies with winning back the center, and Trump is handing them a golden opportunity.

You mean the strategy Democrats used this election?

If that had been their strategy they wouldn't have allowed Lena Dunham anywhere near the Clinton campaign.

[Chief Justice Keef]

Communists belong in the green party with their fellow nutcases, sociopaths, and armchair revolutionaries. Never thought I'd say "good for Pelosi", but here we are. Now she just needs to back up her words with action and make sure Sanders and his ilk are marginalized. The path to victory for the Democrats lies with winning back the center, and Trump is handing them a golden opportunity.

You mean the strategy Democrats used this election?

If that had been their strategy they wouldn't have allowed Lena Dunham anywhere near the Clinton campaign.

The Clinton campaign spent most of their time trying to attract moderate Republicans. As Chuck Schumer said himself, "For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin."

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Communists belong in the green party with their fellow nutcases, sociopaths, and armchair revolutionaries. Never thought I'd say "good for Pelosi", but here we are. Now she just needs to back up her words with action and make sure Sanders and his ilk are marginalized. The path to victory for the Democrats lies with winning back the center, and Trump is handing them a golden opportunity.

You mean the strategy Democrats used this election?

The Dems' strategy this election was identity politics and celebrities. While they were busy with that, Trump stole their centrist working-class union base right out from under them.

[Chief Justice Keef]

Communists belong in the green party with their fellow nutcases, sociopaths, and armchair revolutionaries. Never thought I'd say "good for Pelosi", but here we are. Now she just needs to back up her words with action and make sure Sanders and his ilk are marginalized. The path to victory for the Democrats lies with winning back the center, and Trump is handing them a golden opportunity.

You mean the strategy Democrats used this election?

The Dems' strategy this election was identity politics and celebrities. While they were busy with that, Trump stole their centrist working-class union base right out from under them.

Working class/union voters aren't centrist, lol.

[Santander]

It's not the ideology you fools. Run a celebrity. This is America.

[BuckeyeNut]

Um, she's right. The Democratic Party is not Marxist-Leninist. She's also completely right about Adam Smith who did not propose some social Darwinist Ayn Rand/Paul Ryan style system and openly called for things like universal health care and labor unions.

But she doesn't even make a gesture towards democratic socialism. And the fact she uses Adam Smith, who was a laissez-faire economist that are every Republican's wet dream, to justify her defense of neoliberalism is a slap in the face to any leftist in the Democratic Party.

She needs to retire, or else I want a primary challenge.

LOL. You realize her seat is effectively feudal, right?

Freudian slip, much? lol

[Cashew]

The US already has a major capitalist party, does it not? Limousine liberal trash need to leave the Democrats.

Clearly if you're not a commie you're "limousine liberal trash" You've truly gone off the deep end, haven't you?

ShadowOfTheWave's posting quality has improved tremendously since he became a comrade, imo.

Considering he's perhaps the worst poster on the forum, I'm not sure if you want to brag about that.

He was right about Trump winning though, that's more than most on Atlas (myself included) can say.

[Deblano]

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

Then again, this was the same party that decided that Hillary Clinton/Tim Kaine would be a good ticket. I will curse those two until my very last breath for being somehow the candidates that freaking DONALD TRUMP could beat.

[publicunofficial]

People who were expecting Pelosi to renounce capitalism are getting a bit too ahead of themselves. I think the future of the Democratic party is a Social Democratic one, and I'm excited for that, but we're not there yet.

[136or142]

I love the responses to this just as a reflection of who we are as a political system. The left is distressed if she's telling the truth, the right is distressed that she isn't telling the truth in the first place.

I think it's also accurate to point out here that liberals like me think 'what Pelosi said is completely accurate' while further left Bernie Sanders type progressives are unhappy with what she said.

I was a Bernie Sanders supporter during the primaries, and I absolutely agreed with Pelosi here and believe she's doing a pretty good job of being house minority leader so far.

That kid's line of questioning was stupid and frankly cringeworthy. It's not that young people "don't believe in capitalism," we just don't blindly fawn over it. We believe Capitalism is flawed and that it is the job of the government to correct those flaws.

The "kid" isn't even asking Pelosi if Democrats would convert to full-on socialism. He's asking for "contrast with right-wing politics", but Pelosi just dismisses that right out of the gate as some radical assumption.

What's infuriating about this is the outright refusal by most centrists like Pelosi to actually go left on economics. I saw this throughout the primary, how liberals would constantly talk about Hillary as "a progressive who gets things done", casting opposition to any of the social democratic reformism that Bernie was proposing as some radical idea. Even if we had opportunities like promoting the redistribution of wealth within a capitalist framework, that's disregarded as "too left-wing".

I think it was in fairly liberal Oregon where the initiative this election cycle for 'single payer' health care went down 72-28%

No it was Colorado.  I wish we had that in Oregon!

Thanks. So, if it was in Oregon it would have gone down maybe 2-1.

[136or142]

Whether you agree with her or not, this is why a lot of people see the current Democratic Party as "Republican lite."

I don't disagree entirely with that, but I don't think it's because the Democratic Party is by and large a liberal party and not a social democratic party, I think it's because many Democrats seem to want to be such a big tent party to include people like Senator Joe Manchin who is a Democrat in name only.

In the discussion on whether we would be happy if Joe Manchin lost in 2018 I pointed out that when you try to be a big enough tent to appeal to everybody, a lot of people are going to believe you don't actually stand for anything.

[Intell]

Communists belong in the green party with their fellow nutcases, sociopaths, and armchair revolutionaries. Never thought I'd say "good for Pelosi", but here we are. Now she just needs to back up her words with action and make sure Sanders and his ilk are marginalized. The path to victory for the Democrats lies with winning back the center, and Trump is handing them a golden opportunity.

You mean the strategy Democrats used this election?

The Dems' strategy this election was identity politics and celebrities. While they were busy with that, Trump stole their centrist working-class union base right out from under them.

Winning back disaffected working-class voters won't be accomplished by a return to Clintonism, as you're presumably suggesting when you recommend moving to "the center"; it'll be accomplished by providing a radical alternative to the current anti-worker regime. Mass nationalization, guaranteed minimum income, etc. are the policies the Democrats need to advocate in order to win this portion of the population back.

This in itself is a horrible idea, and would probably destroy the welfare state if it's implemented.

[Intell]

Communists belong in the green party with their fellow nutcases, sociopaths, and armchair revolutionaries. Never thought I'd say "good for Pelosi", but here we are. Now she just needs to back up her words with action and make sure Sanders and his ilk are marginalized. The path to victory for the Democrats lies with winning back the center, and Trump is handing them a golden opportunity.

You mean the strategy Democrats used this election?

The Dems' strategy this election was identity politics and celebrities. While they were busy with that, Trump stole their centrist working-class union base right out from under them.

Winning back disaffected working-class voters won't be accomplished by a return to Clintonism, as you're presumably suggesting when you recommend moving to "the center"; it'll be accomplished by providing a radical alternative to the current anti-worker regime. Mass nationalization, guaranteed minimum income, etc. are the policies the Democrats need to advocate in order to win this portion of the population back.

This in itself is a horrible idea, and would probably destroy the welfare state if it's implemented.

Uh yes, that is literally the point. It was a Republican plan to replace welfare in the 1970s.

Which is greatly supported from a socialist.

[angus]

It's not the ideology you fools. Run a celebrity. This is America.

haha. That may be true.  Ronald Reagan, Jesse Ventura, Al Franken, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sunny Bono, Fred Thomspson, and Donald Trump all successfully for a major office without prior political experience.  I think Jerry Springer was mayor somewhere as well.  I guess we like actors, TV show hosts, wrestlers, and singers running for office.

[Devout Centrist]

Whether you agree with her or not, this is why a lot of people see the current Democratic Party as "Republican lite."

Yeah, Labour was Tory lite until they made Corbyn their leader. That'll show them!

[Lumine]

I always laugh when someone in the American right blasts the Democrats as being far-left socialists or something. Many in the US really don't seem to realize how far to the right the country is in terms of political discourse, particularly compared to countries with actually strong socialist or even communist parties (most of the Western world, Latin America, so on, so on).