Is the Republican party the most right-wing major party in the world?

[freefair]

You Must have missed the part where our Manufacturing Sector is larger than France's.
Even the current government admit Manufacturing ought to be larger, but the way to grow it is to encourage enterprise. The last time the government interfered with things like car making we ended up with British Leyland.

[politicus]

No, of course not.

'
It would be hepful if those of you that say "no" could try to make a list of Latin American and Eastern European parties that you think are to the right of the GOP. Otherwise this debate will be pretty unqualified.
The British Tories are to the right of the GOP on some issues, and to the left on some. So the two parties basically have  the same position on average IMO.

[© tweed]

Of rather more importance is quite how right-wing the Democratic Party is these days. Much more so than most people realise.

do you draw a meaningful distinction here between the Democrats and the European bourgeois-left, including of course the New Labour that you're a part of?

[All Along The Watchtower]

Depends on your definition of "right-wing." America, though, has two major right-wing parties-a staunchly ideological one (the Republicans) and a more inclusive, pragmatic, technocratic one (the Democrats).

The lack of a left-wing or even center-left major party in America is quite sad. I suppose the whole political spectrum being united against the Soviets for so long (not to mention the relatively recent decimation of the private sector unions) has contributed to that.

[hopper]

The Republicans claim to be fiscally conservative but always turn out to be fiscally incontinent and leave the books severely unbalanced when they lose , whereas the Tories  eliminate budget deficits and leave the economy in great shape with low inflation.

I've learned the Republicans are really not that different from the Dems fiscally in Washington DC politics. As soon as the GOP sees a tax cut expire(i.e. the Bush Tax Cuts) they are like lets re-new them but we won't pay for it. The Dems on the other hand lets pass stimulus and extend un-employment benefits without paying for it.

The GOP are more fiscally conservative than the Dems in state politics though. Look at California and Illinois and how bad their fiscal houses are. NY is getting out of that thanks to Coumo though.

[hopper]

All depends on semantics; our understanding of what a left wing and a right wing party changes. I would say the Tories are to the ‘right’ of the GOP on some economic issues, in the same way the Lib Dems are to the right of the Tories also on issues of trade and the economy but have never (rightfully) been considered 'right wing'. I would consider Obama to be a conservative president in economic policy in relation to his predecessor.

On social issues, the GOP is to the right, and tending right of nearly all major western political parties. It’s worth noting however that the increasing social progressiveness of right of centre parties in Europe is recent and reflects changing social attitudes. The GOP however has tried to buck the trend (or at least not move on from a position they held that is now out of date) The only parties that tend to try and counter social change in Europe are parties we would consider to be far-right.

I agree with you the GOP has made a hard turn right on a social issue like abortion. They are pretty right wing when it comes to immigration reform too in comparison to the where the electorate is as a whole on that issue. I understand the GOP doesn't want to give a pathway to citizenship to people that overstayed their visas or came across the border illegally but when you have 11 million of those people its kind of hard to deport all 11 million of them. Mitt Romney even says they(all 11 million) will self-deport I think when E-verify is installed in all work places. My question is the people who are now adults who came here illegally with their parents when they were kids and went to public school here and may not even speak spanish. What do you do with those people? I mean I don't want even want them deported because they probably don't know even their former country. It would be like a culture shock for them to go back to Mexico or Costa Rica at this point in their lives. The US is their home.

[k-onmmunist]

You Must have missed the part where our Manufacturing Sector is larger than France's.
Even the current government admit Manufacturing ought to be larger, but the way to grow it is to encourage enterprise. The last time the government interfered with things like car making we ended up with British Leyland.

Alright alright, here's where you have a point. However, British Leyland was an example of how NOT to nationalize an industry. You took about 20 different car companies and merged them with little rhyme or reason into one big enterprise. It was simply too big and there were far too many models of car - from the 30s to the 60s, if you owned a British car it was a stamp of quality - you knew things which were made in Britain were reliable, trustworthy, efficient vehicles. Then in the 70s, things took a major plunge and the cars we made were, for lack of a better word, crap.

The best solution to the problem of British Leyland would have been to sack a crapload of models, split it into maybe 15 companies and then sell it to the workers (which gets rid of yr. union problems to a large extent - why would the workers go on strike if they own the company?). Combine that with a regime of tariffs and you would still have a strong domestic automobile industry today. Unfortunately, the Thatcherite solution was simply to sell it off and hope for the best...

[© tweed]

Of rather more importance is quite how right-wing the Democratic Party is these days. Much more so than most people realise.

do you draw a meaningful distinction here between the Democrats and the European bourgeois-left, including of course the New Labour that you're a part of?

I would like an answer here -- the question was not posed as rhetorical.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I would like an answer here -- the question was not posed as rhetorical.

Never noticed that you posed it.

So, how to answer the question? The temptation is to pick at the ludicrous language you've chosen to use, but that would be a little silly. The answer, of course, is... er... of course. Even in theory, the Democratic Party doesn't properly support the existence of a welfare state these days.

[© tweed]

that's largely a function of where the goalposts were set up to begin with.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

that's largely a function of where the goalposts were set up to begin with.

Even if that were entirely true, who did that? The Man?

[Хahar 🤔]

I think it was Lewis who suggested that the Democrats should be colored yellow, since they are a liberal party.

[© tweed]

that's largely a function of where the goalposts were set up to begin with.

Even if that were entirely true, who did that? The Man?

don't think I need to run you through the history nor the theoretical interpretations of how the welfare state developed.

though you could, if you wanted to, lean on Xahar's interjection here -- however I'd argue that the distinction between labor and 'left'-liberal party is becoming increasingly muddled; again, I don't expect I need to run you through how Labour targeted and picked off plenty of middle-class voters in '97 and onwards, nor how the contributions of the trade unions as a proportion of its total contribution chest have declined precipitously (still probably higher in this respect than for the USA, in both $ and use of organization, but I think there is a tendency here to exaggerate the distinction.  US labor still throws away nine figures a cycle and donates tens of thousands of man hours to the (D)s, despite the screams and hollers of those who know better)