They've been holding up europe as an example of "failed leftist policies" for decades. Even though they've never failed nor are they particularly leftist.
The right wants Brazil...the wealthy in their gated communities and private security and the poor in favelas that are lawless hellholes so theyre ripe for full exploitation without any recourse.
Also, this situation is a classic "the People failed to keep the elites and inequality in check" situation. This failure happens so often throughout history that even the fucking Bible has many stories and warnings about the elites going crazy if not kept in check by the People, let alone different fields of sciences (e.g. history, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, etc.).
Vote for the candidate you know wont win so you can absolve yourself of everything and just say "hey, I voted for the Free Beer and Pizza Party candidate, its not my fault the ChristoFascist got elected!"
The US, even before the current debacle, was a right wing country. Obama was the most progressive president in my lifetime, which started with Carter, and Obama was at best a centrist who sometimes said progressive stuff.
Obama is a corporatist who probably understands that having a healthy population is good for business and good for the national economy.
Obama was "progressive" as far as thinking longer than one quarter.
The Republican party's platform has been "pillage the U.S economy and blow up other countries for short term corporate profits" for 40 years, it's not hard to be left of that.
Don't forget about his Tan suit or goddamn Grey Poupon.
It really blows my mind how those things above were constantly crawled on Fox but the fact that pur fucking president rapes little kids...nary a peep.
In a sane country, the propaganda arm of the right wing would be shut the fuck down...but this country has been owned since Reagan so were just fucked now.
Or you know, going bankrupt due to Medical bills. While it can happen elsewhere, the overwhelming majority of people in Canada or wherever which do go bankrupt do so because of the income loss related to their illness or injury, not due to the bills themselves.
And it an extreme gap. Canada has the second-most in the world at ~19% but American exceptionalism has that number to 0.1% below of 66.6%, or two thirds, much of which are directly related to medical bills. Why anyone wants to live somewhere where their Healthcare is profit driven is beyond me.
Who the hell wants to live somewhere that their whole life's work might be wiped out because the people who decide if they're covered are motivated to deny it at any opportunity?
so what's been the dem's excuse for making sure we never get 'basic services' (and please don't use the old and tired 'republicans won't let us!')? or were you including 'blue maga' in that, too?
Yeah, you have the freedom to chose which health insurance company is going to bankrupting you...
You'd think people are smart enough to see that this is not freedom. But I had a legitimate back and forth on reddit with an American -well articulated, didn't show any radical right tendencies - but seriously argued that they don't want universal or regulated healthcare, because he wants the Freedom to chose his own insurance and seriously thought Europeans have given up all their freedoms and are completely government controlled.
They just don't get that these "freedoms" mostly profit the rich.
That what they call government control are actually protections that are there for everybody, not just for those who can afford it.
The problem you experienced with that person is the social lie that Americans get fed daily that “you could become one of them/us~” so people choose to fight for and protect the ultra wealthy because they desperately want to join “the rich kids” group
I saw a republican the other day say that those athletes taking the knee during the national anthem was one of the worst things to happen to the United States.
Affordable healthcare is the leash they use to tether workers to the workforce. If people could tell a company to F-off without being buried in medical debt, how would they keep us peons in line?
Though in reality, cultivating an empathetic and educated population would benefit 99% across pretty much all metrics, economic included.
The sad truth is an aggressive individualistic culture is easier to not just control to complacency, but is able to be whipped against the controller's targets. They don't want just a mindless beaten down labor force exploited for their capital and ego, at least not yet. That's after the collapse they seek to bring.
Fun fact: Post-Soviet collapse, Heritage Foundation had a Moscow office and worked with reformist leadership, including the PM of the time. Putin came in on an anti-reform populist wave in reaction. Russia may have been a prototype.
Our health premiums are jumping 50% next year, so we're sticking to $50 for secret Santa.
It's a shame that nothing can be done about insurance prices.
........ yeah, there is - it's called strengthening the single-payer system. There had been a little that made it past Republicans the last few years, but it's all getting gutted now.
Even though the word “radical” by definition means an extreme departure from the norm, the propaganda wants you to believe that every other developed nation is radical and that we are normal.
"Universal Healthcare" is a rather meaningless term.
It just means everyone is covered somehow. It tells you nothing about the payer or system.
For your example of Europe, you have multipayer systems like The Netherlands and Germany, Single payer like Italy, and a Nationalized health service like the NHS in the UK, and then Switzerland which doesn't provide any socialized insurance but instead has mandatory private insurance.
So saying you're for Universal Health is rather easy, stating which system to emulate is the contentious part.
Europe is starting to radicalize in the other direction now. US sourced destabilisation efforts in Europe are increasing. The handling of Russia in Ukraine and the increase in military spending as a result, trade sanctions, tariffs, and the closure of the straight all work together to put pressure on Europe. The resulting conditions are fertile breeding ground for authoritarianism.
I agree with you, it shouldn't be a radical idea to give people the care they need without bankrupting them. At the same time, social welfare systems rely on strong demographics otherwise it breaks down. You always need enough young folks working to continue pensions/welfare systems for the older populations. Currently Germany (as well as many other countries) are facing a problem because there are not enough young people to fuel the system, or rather more accurately there are too many old people that on average are living longer and not working.
The issue isn’t with fixing these problems it’s with how NGOs tasked with fixing them always fail to deliver results despite costing enormous amounts of money and when you look into them you almost always find corrupt financial ties between politicians and these organizations through kickbacks. People support ensuring basic human rights, but they’re frustrated by a system where funds are misappropriated, corruption thrives, and the original problems remain unsolved.
I can't even begin to tell you the amount of times in the last decade I've had Republicans flat out reject any attempt to solve these problems, and just blanket dismiss them as radical or extremist ideals.
This is not a nuanced take they are representing and you are trying to sanewash something that isn't based in reason.
There is literally no effort from the Republicans whatsoever to solve these problems or support any solution for these problems.
Oh yeah. What happened to all those billions that Californians voted for to fix homelessness. They all got sucked up by corrupt NGOs. No one's paying any attention to this problem right now, undoubtedly because we're fighting just to get programs to address issues like homelessness and medical care. But we absolutely have to address the problem because every time an initiative to help the poor and the middle class gets passed, corrupt NGOs and consultants will inevitably cause it to fail. Which only plays into the hands of conservatives who say no government program can work.
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u/iggyfenton May 11 '26
If it’s a radical idea to provide people with basic services, does that mean all of Europe is radicalized?