That's definitely left wing in the United States.

There's a big difference between "actually left wing" and "leftwards of 50% of a particular population".

The US has very little actual big-L Left (ahem) left in it.

left and right are directions, not locations

The leftmost member of the Reichstag in 1942 was probably not fairly described as “left wing”.

Left and right aren’t directions, they are regions

Can you name an example?

Sure; the UK's Tories, or Germany's CDU, or Australia's Liberal (lol) Party.

Hell, the right-wing ran on giving more money to the National Health Service as one of their Brexit arguments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vote_Leave_bus (Including Farage, at times! https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/politics/brexit-eu-r...)

But that ended up being a lie. It almost feels like a pattern...

Seems irrelevant to a discussion comparing US parties.

We're talking about a need for a party that no longer exists in the US. Why would we not look to similar examples out there in actual practice?

this thread comes from a provocative quip that the democrats are conservative, with no mention whatsoever of any context other than america

Here’s some American context: a ~3 minute video. Bush and Reagan, during the primaries, trying to win over Republicans, answering a question about immigration.

https://youtu.be/YsmgPp_nlok

That’s what American conservatism used to look like. Modern Dems talk a lot like that.

Or even look at George @ Bush's calls for comprehensive immigration reform, and his repeated emphasis on treating all immigrants, legal or not, with dignity and courtesy: https://www.bushcenter.org/topics/immigration

this isn't europe

True. In the US everyone is to the right.

Successive UK conservative prime ministers increased minimum wage 97% from May 2010 to May 2024

Normal earnings increased just 55% in that time and tracking inflation would have meant increasing 49.5%