It's a pretty good generalization, however. I see it over and over again in US political discussions a total, and possibly (probably?) deliberate, blindness to the idea that health card could be socialized, UI and welfare could be better, access to education could be universal and things like job training or maternity leave could exist, etc.
Then you're not connecting with the US "left" (probably not a coincidence). The Nation is both the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the US (founded in 1865) and consistently represents different parts of the US left. Jacobin is another good example.
It is true that if you watch network or cable TV from the US, you will not find the actual left represented, other than perhaps Bernie Sanders. What they will call "the left" is mostly centrist Democrats whose position can be summarized as "things as basically OK but we need to be nicer in a few specific ways".
> Then you're not connecting with the US "left" (probably not a coincidence).
Interesting assumption. I'm far to the left of most Canadians, let alone Americans.
> It is true that if you watch network or cable TV from the US, you will not find the actual left represented, other than perhaps Bernie Sanders.
That was my point, albeit poorly expressed; very few actual leftist thinkers get any kind of mainstream exposure so all "US thinkers" are right of centre unless you specifically go looking for the left leaning ones.
If you had said "US people", I'd have agreed with you (at least to a greater extent". But I took "US thinkers" to be a subset of "US people", differentiated by ... well, thinking :) This is not meant to be patronizing - a lot of people just don't think much about politics, policy, philosophy, ethics, for whatever reason.
However if someone is in that subset that does, the chances are much better that they are aware of left-ish ideas.
It's a pretty good generalization, however. I see it over and over again in US political discussions a total, and possibly (probably?) deliberate, blindness to the idea that health card could be socialized, UI and welfare could be better, access to education could be universal and things like job training or maternity leave could exist, etc.