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What is the most fiscally far left, socially far left political party in the United States?

If there is a Christian Democratic party in the United States, will it gain much popular support?

  • As we all know, the politics of the United States are divided into two opposite ideological stream; the Republican Party, which generally represents economic liberals and social conservatives, and the Democratic Party which generally represents citizens with left-wing tendencies, both socially and economically. Moderates and minorities often need to join these two major parties to make their voices heard, despite differences with some major issues. For instance, Hispanics and African Americans mainly votes for Democratic Party, despite many of them are social conservatives. On the other side, many libertarians which prefer minimal government intervention vote for Republican Party, although much of them are also social liberals. If there are Christian Democratic party, like ones they have in Europe, which follows centrism, will it gain much popular support? The party may be following left-wing lines in issues like immigration, social welfare, foreign policy and affirmative action, but follows more centre-right position in social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.

  • Answer:

    I think what undermines Christian Democracy in America is that Christian Democracy is focused on the community, whereas American politics focus on the individual. American politics are highly liberal, in the classical sense, in that there is a major emphasis on individual freedoms. For example, if the US had proportional representation the Libertarian Party would likely be a successful minor party, while Libertarianism is virtually unheard of outside of the US. Christian Democracy only works in a society where there is a strong sense of duty towards the community. Rather than advocating self-reliance, the community is viewed as a support system. People do what is good for the community because the community protects and supports them. Similarly, family is very important and welfare is structured to support families, not necessarily individuals. For much of Europe, this is the traditional, conservative position. Liberal parties in these societies tend to be small and are favored by those who are wealthy and don't need support from the community. On the reverse, because of the way the US formed, the individual is much more important. Population density was low with many living in the frontier, far from any kind of governmental or community support. Since individuals could not expect such support, they favored policies which allowed them to act independently and in their own self-interests. As such, modern American society is built around supporting the individual. This is partially why universal healthcare has so far failed in the US. It might be better for the community as a whole, but many voters aren't convinced that it would be better for them as individuals. Another factor to consider is that American politics are an outgrowth of British politics and there are currently no major Christian Democratic parties in any Anglophone country. The most obvious reason for this is that Christian Democracy is rooted in Catholicism, but it is interesting that there is no real Protestant equivalent. To explain this would require some look into the differences between religious ideologies, which is not my forte. That said, I don't think it would be impossible to see a shift towards Christian Democratic policies, although under a different name. There is a strong sense of community among various minority populations, such as African-Americans and Hispanics. Their growing role in American politics as well as urbanization could have interesting effects on the future of political parties in the US.

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A "Christian" Democratic Party? This question misunderstands the United States. It's popular in other countries to regard the US as a very religious, Christian nation, but however true that might be for some sectors or regions of the country, and however much religion may play a role at least at the margin of our political discussion, we are very much a secular nation in our political organization, deriving in significant part from the "Establishment Clause" of the First Amendment to our Constitution, which specifies that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," thereby guaranteeing American citizens the right to be free of Federal law condoning in large or small part anything that remotely smacks of an official religion. While political parties are not government entities, that official "separation of church and state" is enough a part of our political culture that it seems to me unthinkable that any American political party would explicitly identify itself with a religion, even Christianity. Moving past nomenclature, if you're asking about a centrist political party, we already have one - the Democratic Party. While the Democrats contain both left and center-right politicians, with the (some would say center and) center-left overwhelmingly predominating, we are pulled rightward in practice by the need to deal with an increasingly right-wing Republican party (overrepresented in Congress by virtue of how our sub-Federal political districts are drawn) such that we are arguably in effect at least a centrist and perhaps a center-right party. If you're asking about the development of a third party, you should know that while not impossible, this is rather unlikely, given that no third party has sustained itself for long throughout our entire national history, quite possibly because our nation is so large and diverse that to depart from a two-party, single-spectrum model might open the floodgates to so many small political coalitions that our politics (and society) would become unpredictably volatile, to everyones' detriment. But let's assume for purposes of argument the possibility of some sort of third party. If you're asking specifically about the development of a centrist or center-right political party influenced strongly by Catholicism, as are Christian Democratic parties in Germany and especially Italy, that is unlikely to occur for reasons not only of the secularism mentioned above but also and perhaps more importantly because Catholics are a minority among Americans, representing less than 25% of our population, and further divided among not just Europeans of various heritages but also Mexicans and other Latin Americans, that is, over-broadly speaking, between "right" and "left" Catholic traditions, as well as often widely separated geographically from one another within the very large United States. And not insignificantly because many among both groups of Catholics are not particularly strict in their observance - the United States is an increasingly socially liberal nation, in which the minority who are socially conservative are also disproportionately economically conservative. The economic liberal-social conservative pairing you describe is, if anything, the minority in both respects in the United States. It is true that Catholics have voted with the winner of the last six Presidential elections (I am deeming Al Gore the winner of the 2000 election for this purpose), and earlier formed a key bloc of the "Reagan Democrats" who crossed party lines to help elect that Republican in the '80s (as they could again with a Catholic Republican like Chris Christie or (convert) Jeb Bush in 2016), suggesting that they are a key swing voting group who could form the heart of a centrist third party, but this may simply reflect that the large group of Catholics simply follows the larger national trend at the margin, and it does not change the fact that Catholics are internally divided along with the rest of the nation.

Anonymous

There are some powerful reasons Christians will never be more than a minority in the Democrat party.  Mostly because of strong conflicts with the other major constituencies of the party. The left has assumed the moral authority that religion once had with respect to charity and helping the poor. And the left has put a government brand on it. Atheism has a vocal constituency on the left.  Their stridency about displays of religious expression are not welcoming to religious people. The lefts introduction on group rights can conflict with individual rights.  Individual rights are a prime tenet of religious belief. Moral Relativism is stronger on the left.  Whereas, religious people believe in absolutes. Capitalism is accepted as a non coercive form of enterprise by religion. Socialism is recognized as one of the worst human right abusers of all time by religion.

Charlie Fortin

Yes in fact there finally is a Christian Democratic party here in the US. While I don’t by any chance endorse all their stances let alone their platform they do have a promising outlook. Have a look for yourselves.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Solidarity_Party -wikihttp://www.solidarity-party.org/ - party website

Cameron Wolk

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