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[PTTG??]

That's the joy of a two-party system. They're never going to compromise because it means compromising with the only competition. The fact that each party is also polarizing further and further from each other means compromise is getting less likely than never, too.

Prove that the liberals are getting more extreme.

Not... extreme... Polarized.

But... if you want proof... what about the riots and strikes because Trump won the election?

1: Riots and strikes are very, very different things.
2: By all means, provide evidence of an actual riot caused by liberals in response to Trump's election.

The right has been drifting further right for decades, while the Democrats have remained at the same place of moderate neo-liberalism for that same time. This is the whole reason I'm disillusioned with them, in fact. We need an actual liberal party, not a fiscally conservative middle ground party. Democrats are afraid of single-payer healthcare for god's sake!

The failure of the Democrats to be anything but the party of compromise is the whole reason they lost the election. They ran Hillary when any other animate object could have defeated Trump. So you see why I'm annoyed when people say the Democrats are too "polarized." There is one party driving this split, and they are also writing the narrative that both sides are just as bad.

Only one side denies climate science. Only one side electroshocks gay teenagers. Only one side opposes universal health care. We cannot lose sight of this. The Democrats are in need of reform -- deep reform -- but the Republican party is fundamentally perverse.

[scriver]

...Did you just argue against the party situation being polarised by explaining how polarised you think it is?

[EnigmaticHat]

Polarized means both sides are extreme.  The US political system isn't polarized because the democrats are more of a left leaning moderate party (at least, the older democrats that currently control the party).

You see two people having an argument.  One of them is shouting obscenities, the other is calmly explaining their point of view.  Is that a "heated argument?"  Would you call it a "shouting match" or a "fight?"  No, because that would imply both sides are yelling.

[Lord Shonus]

Polarization exists whenever two sides are locked on opposite sides of an issue. A debate between "Eat no babies" and "Eat all babies" is a polarized debate.

[Sergarr]

Apparently Trump has gone back on his promise to build Keystone XL pipeline with American steel only. There is also Russian steel there now. Traitor!

[Max™]

Polarization exists whenever two sides are locked on opposite sides of an issue. A debate between "Eat no babies" and "Eat all babies" is a polarized debate.

Can we agree on "eat some babies, but only the tastiest ones" then?

Also, the democrats are in a weird position where they're by default affiliated with liberals where there's a sane "extreme" end: socialist loving hippies like Bernie; and what I'll charitably call a less-sane "extreme" end: social justice weirdoes managing to apply toxic overtones to what would otherwise be good ideas.

The party itself is only liberal in comparison to the republicans though, but if they're going to be pulled further left I'd much rather it be towards Bernie than the pink hair dye crowd. Sadly we've got several generations raised on "socialism=communism=evil" so for some reason Bernie seems like more of an albatross than "we need to legislate feelings" would be, and I'd hate to see us lose the Bernie crowd to one of the third parties while keeping the others.

Man, fuck 2016. Yeah, there have been worse years before, but goddamn... fuck 2016.

[Frumple]

... casual reminder for the Nth time that clinton and sanders had near identical policy positions. Even much of where they differed had more to do with feasibility than intent, really...

Dems have been pretty steadily trying to push left on most issues for at least the whole of my lifetime. It just hasn't really been as hard or as bugfuck as GOP efforts to cliff dive off to the right, and you've got folks like sanders trying to drumbeat for the same damn shit the major party is while calling it something different to try to take credit and undermine attempts to actually get crap done. If it seems like they've been holding still, it's probably mostly because it turns out liberal policies are largely the ones that are actually friggin' sane and non-suicidal in response to changing global and national issues, ha.

[Starver]

Can we agree on "eat some babies, but only the tastiest ones" then?

That will surely result in breeding the next generation of babies only from the less tasty stock. Some more sustainable and improvable system of husbandry is called for.  Cull the least tasty-looking ones (protein and minerals mixed back into the feed for the rest?), middling-ground for the mass market, reserve the upper end of the range for the premium market, whilst keeping enough prizeworthy specimens around for the breeding. With a sideline in 'sports', for the smaller breeder looking to discover and breed true any interesting (but not too co-congenital) mutations that arise.

That's just the basics, folks...

[Lord Shonus]

... casual reminder for the Nth time that clinton and sanders had near identical policy positions. Even much of where they differed had more to do with feasibility than intent, really...

And yet so many people were absolutely convinced that Sanders only cared about white men, and would do nothing for minorities. Media narratives are incredibly powerful.

[hector13]

... casual reminder for the Nth time that clinton and sanders had near identical policy positions. Even much of where they differed had more to do with feasibility than intent, really...

And yet so many people were absolutely convinced that Sanders only cared about white men, and would do nothing for minorities. Media narratives are incredibly powerful.

Yet the Muslim-hating, xenophobic con-man won the election.

[TempAcc]

Ye, while I'm not fond of bernie, the whole thing about him somehow only caring about white guys seems to have been spinned mostly BLM and then blown out of proportion by his opponents, and then he tried to deal with it in the worst manner possible, but at that point he was already thrown under the bus by the democrats so lel

[martinuzz]

Apparently Trump has gone back on his promise to build Keystone XL pipeline with American steel only. There is also Russian steel there now. Traitor!

Dutch ING bank withdrew it's involvement in the project a few days ago. The Dakota project has a total outstanding loan of 2.5 billion dollars with 17 banks. They had an outstanding loan with ING for 120 million dollars. The ING sold the loan to an 'unnamed party that encourages a respectful dialogue with the Sioux and other involved parties'. They're the second Dutch bank that withdraws from the project in response to public pressure. ABN AMRO already withdrew from it a few months ago.

[Frumple]

And yet so many people were absolutely convinced that Sanders only cared about white men, and would do nothing for minorities. Media narratives are incredibly powerful.

All sorts of people were absolutely convinced about all sorts of shit, some of which sanders outright contributed to. Media's been all kinds of fucked up during the last few years. Narrative is indeed incredibly powerful, which is one of the reasons it's so often appropriate to note yet a-goddamn-gain the dems have in fact been trying to move leftward for the last while.

[sluissa]

Russian steel that's been there for years and existed before Trump made his admittedly dumb and ill advised promise. I won't defend the pipeline but this is a silly angle to take to attack it. And doesn't say anything about trump other than he acknowledges businesses do business things like use materials they have on hand instead of going out and buying a whole new set because this one has cooties.

[Iceblaster]

... casual reminder for the Nth time that clinton and sanders had near identical policy positions. Even much of where they differed had more to do with feasibility than intent, really...

And yet so many people were absolutely convinced that Sanders only cared about white men, and would do nothing for minorities. Media narratives are incredibly powerful.

Yet the Muslim-hating, xenophobic con-man won the election.

Well that's because of the other. We can't let the other hurt us. The other lurks behind every corner, waiting for us to let our guard down. Then the other will strike. We will not stand to face them if we don't do this!