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[–]Archie 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

No. Reddit admins and teenagers on the internet are a different entity from "the left" as a whole. Dare to call Sanders, or even Biden (who is at the very least center-left), an authoritarian. There's a major disconnect between what you see on reddit and the real world.

This is why so many people on reddit weren't able to understand how biden could win the primaries when they knew nobody who supported him, btw.

[–]OrneryStruggle 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

How is Biden center-left? In what universe?

By my country's standards he's farther right than our right wing party.

[–]Archie 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

I'm French, so you understand where I'm coming from.

Biden wants to double up minimum wage and increase the income tax for top brackets. This alone puts him on the left of center.

You're going to talk about healthcare and college: he's aiming to drastically increase public spending in those two, even if it's not going to cover everything. It notably includes free college for households with less than $120k/year of income. If our current fully free of access systems weren't already in place, believe me that our right wing wouldn't do anything close to that.

[–]OrneryStruggle 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Biden might be to the left of Republican party (barely - his voting history is pretty much in line with current Republican values) but there is really nothing 'left wing' about free education for poor kids with good grades as it is the norm in numerous countries which have right wing governments and are considered generally right wing. The US is the only country in the entire world with anywhere close to that extent of wildly unaffordable college tuition.

Moreover he might pay lip service to some of the popular 'left' causes right now, because he's in a primary, but his voting record says otherwise. Again, taxes for the top brackets are already about the lowest in history by tens of percent, with many Republican governments of the past implementing much higher tax brackets. Tax loopholes now make upper bracket taxes basically unpayable and as he's said nothing about closing those loopholes I'm assuming the rich won't get taxed less under him anyway.

[–]Archie 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

there is really nothing 'left wing' about free education for poor kids with good grades

There is no grades requirement in "free college for households with $120k/year"

Yes the US system is a right wing dystopia - bringing it more in line with leftist systems overseas is inherently a leftist move. One that none of our french politicians not on the left wing would make.

[–]OrneryStruggle 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

The grades/admission requirements for colleges has always existed and would continue to exist if it were free or much cheaper. That's how it works in the rest of the world. No one said they will create more college places, people just won't compete for them financially.

Isn't university in France actually free for everyone?

[–]Archie 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

It is free (almost, about 20€ for a bachelor's year and 400€ for a master's degree). There is no grade requirement to enter too. Everyone who has our end of high school diploma (the Baccalauréat) can go.

However, this system exists for historical reasons. If it didn't already and wasn't extremely popular, only the most leftist politicians would attempt to create something similar.

[–]OrneryStruggle 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Hmm. Where I live there are very strict grade requirements for university programs, university is very affordable (not completely free but a tiny fraction of the cost of US universities), and this is not considered leftist. The country I come from, which has had right wing governments consistently for a long time and is considered very far right of Western countries generally, also has "free" university.