songofsisyphus

Well, yeah, you don't get to be radical left and also get to run for the Democrats (though I'm not familiar with his record so can't say for sure, judging solely by his election pitch and nothing else, Ed Markey seems like he *could* be that). I imagine the DNC has ways of crushing very left candidates. Possible to be a radlib, I guess, and I'd have to do more searching in the party on that, but radical liberalism and radical leftism are two pretty distinct things in my mind. EDIT: Plus, among leftists, even after we consider all of the stuff from the democratic party, there's also the idea that being in a government at the head of the state itself tends to serve to change the way that representatives engage in political activity and goal-setting. Certain styles of leftist see that as ultimately subversive to the cause of leftism if everyone relies only on an electoral political force without any kind of direct democracy. EDIT 2: Hm, yeah, upon watching the video again, I'm not really all that sure where to put him. Probably still on the left end of SocDem, because he's gesturing back to new deal and social contract stuff. He's probably in a similar ballpark to AOC and Sanders, looking at this. But the overt support of union organising and action is one that is bound to resonate with a lot of leftists, too. The vid I was referring to is here if anyone's interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86-3yuzn5UU

I'd probably have to look into everyone's specific records, but I imagine it would probably be AOC or someone from the 'squad'. Still, aren't they all largely SocDems who occasionally flirt with the language of DemSoc? When I said 'electorally', what I meant was that how she appears electorally is probably less left-wing than she actually is in private and in her own mind.