General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How the extreme left gave us Nixon, Bush and now Trump [View all]no_hypocrisy
(46,086 posts)Kennedy, Johnson, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, et al were not as "left" as FDR with his creation of the federal system of security. Sure, they were more liberal on civil rights and women's rights, but overall, the FDR is the gold standard.
Eisenhower today would be called a DINO as he would be unwelcome in the republican party. He wouldn't survive a primary.
To the original premise of this post, I don't agree that the "extreme left" (which can range from anarchists to liberal) gave us Nixon, Reagan, Bush(es), and Trump. It's something altogether different. I see it as the "Killing the golden goose" syndrome: appealing to the inherent greed of enough voters. Getting golden eggs on a regular basis was not enough. There's been the assumption that killing the goose that laid the golden eggs would make everyone infinitely richer. How many geese have we gone through without realizing there is no gold inside the geese?