The Dem Party has been marching leftwards for almost the past fifty years. In 1972 Senator George McGovern, a WWII fighter pilot-hero, was crushed by Nixon in the prez election espousing many of the things Bernie Sanders is championing now.
Few people wanted what McGovern was selling, and this was near the end of the Vietnam War. I was a young Dem at the time and eligible to vote. I didn't like Nixon, but the Dem party platform was way too left for me as I watched leftist nutjob after leftist nutjob walk up to the podium at the Dem convention to give their spiels about how we needed more socialism.
Now many Americans think socialism is just fine and would like to see more of it.
It's not that the Republican Party has gone far right as much as the Dem Party has tilted off the left side of the political universe. Finding a moderate Dem today is like trying to find a needle in a haystack the size of Mr. Everest.
