Was the advancement of gay rights a leftward shift in Democratic policy or just an outcome of there being no constitutional basis for denying them? (To roll back the tape of this thread.) I'm not going to act like they did absolutely nothing on the national stage, but ultimately that seems like a triumph of jurisprudence over prudent politicking. *puts on Gaborn Was Right shirt*
After the 80s and 90s it seems like the last 8 years were a move left, but aside from the ACA I'm not confident a lot of other leftward moves will be as long lasting as the evisceration of welfare under Clinton, for example. If the recently deprivatized federal student loan program is profitable (which seeing as how it's debt secured against a person seems likely) there will always be people licking their chops to get a piece of it. Drug prosecution will almost certainly swing back to idiotic once Liam, Hayden, and Bella are old enough to smoke pot and a generation of navel gazing self-interested Redditors realizes that making the state do their parenting for them is preferable to doing the parenting themselves. Et cetera.
