Secret law is not law. It is a fundamental breach of the social contract .

[magellan]

60. Anyone to the left of Attila the Hun is a liberal to a Teabagger

(I think I read that here first and I've been using it on the pondscum for years.)

But never mind the Repubs; there are millions of centrist Dems who believe they're liberals (or progressives, depending on usage) and call themselves that. Unfortunately there are so few true liberals left in national politics we have virtually zero control over messaging, and no contemporary liberal president to hold up as an example. Just 32-year-old stories of Carter the rw wurlitzer has distorted out of all perspective.

I have to give props to Obama for at least acknowledging the rightward shift on the national political scene since then:

"The truth of the matter is that my policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies that I had back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican."

He's only wrong about his policies being mainstream. It's clear from polls on various issues, especially economics, that Americans want a more liberal approach from him. Raise taxes on top earners, regulate and prosecute the financial industry, stop the austerity crap like fiddling with SS and cutting food stamps, support for the public option in healthcare, oppose free trade deals, etc.

It's true the Repubs prevent him from getting the best of these things, but it's also true that he (along with the bulk of the Democratic Party) favors neoliberal policies that benefit corporations. So moderate Repub? Yes. Mainstream? Not so much.