A Look at The Influential Group of The Democratic Party in America and Its Impact on The Official Stand of Politicians

The Democratic party is one of two major political parties within the US system and the left refers to the political stance of more liberal and socialist views. The left in recent years has been seen as many of being the dominant faction of the party and the views from the left has made it the main factor of the party. The first faction of the party which is very much to the left are the socialists who hold on to a political stance and are not much keen at all on changing that stance. For example, they believe in trying to overthrow the capitalist system whereas others might argue of challenging it or repealing key parts within it. Not many individuals have been seen as adopting this political stance and being open about it, but more recently a prominent figure in the likes of Nancy Pelosi has been as taking the socialist stand. She is currently the House of Representatives minority leader and her policies were mainly argued along the lines of more focus on the economy rather than social issues , for example, she was one of the first on voicing her say on withdrawing all US troops from Iraq something which was supported by Harry Reid as well. She has kept this political stance coming from her district background of ‘San Francisco’ which represents a lot of LGBT members and means her socialist stance has to be very much in favour of the people and not in favour of any radical reform.

Next, along the political spectrum, we can see more people down the line in the eyes of progressives and one key figure supporting this political view is Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. During his early days, Sanders was seen as a more socialist figure rather than progressive, this was because of his support for pro-gun rights as he knew that he stated contained many hunters and opposing this view could cause a political outrage from citizens within his state. However, in recent years Sanders has become a progressive, as he has been seen as wanting to change the capitalist system on how it’s currently running, but also Sanders has been known as a key figure of anti-establishment and a more radical populist. He was seeking to support very much anything the people wanted, his key policies during the 2016 election included taxing the rich even more in order to fund more for university students and support their education.

Furthermore, as we have now seen with the socialist and progressives, they have had a dominant impact on US politics in recent years and now there are liberals who are those people in favour of capitalism and don’t oppose anything against it. A key figure taking a more liberal stance for the past few years has been seen in Former President Barack Obama. During his years as President he had to undergo many comprises as the Democrats only had a majority in Congress from 2008-2010. The Healthcare Act 2010 (Obamacare) was a major policy that President Obama implemented during his term as President but since then this been heavily opposed by many Republicans as only 5% of Republicans supported this across both houses of Congress in 2010. This liberal stance that he had taken was mainly during his 1st election in 2008 however, when in 2010 during the mid-term elections the Democrats lost the majority in Congress, Obama shifted towards a more moderate politician and centrist views. The stance he had taken on certain issues changed from time to time and saw him being more on the ‘center left’ with his domestic policies such as same-sex marriage in 2012. Obama did make some key reform for the country but was facing difficulty to a certain extent because the ‘conservatives’ still existed within the party up until 2010. His major actions and policies included bailing out major multinational firms such as Chevrolet and General Motors in 2008 during the global economic crisis and this showed his involvement as progressive and in favour of these companies who had now become ‘state owned’ - something which hadn’t happened before. His decision to pull out of Iraq, the Iran Deal and the airstrikes in Libya showed him as being a ‘non interventionist’ and was supported by many across the country. However, at certain times he has been criticised for not intervening enough, for example, with Syria he once said to President Assad that if he used ‘gas chemicals’ on his citizens then Obama wouldn’t hesitate to attack against Syria but this didn’t happen and therefore Obama was often blamed about this lack of intervention and means this situation wouldn’t have gotten worse.

In conclusion, ‘The Left’ is the dominant faction of the Democratic Party and means that the political stance does have a major affect on the political stance that current politicians are taking. The loss of conservatives within the party and how they have lost control shows the control the left has especially with candidates such as Obama and Bernie Sanders.