What is the Left?
In the comments to my post about the eschatology, or "Ideal Time" of the Western Left, I got into a short discussion with longtime reader and commenter Scott Forbes on the distinction between "the Left" and "liberal" when referring to American politics. Scott said that while I claim there is a distinction between the Left and liberalism, I often use the terms interchangeably.

Problem is that the media often do, too, i.e., "the left side of the aisle" means liberals (and in the Congress, Democrats) while "the right side of the aisle" means conservatives, of which there are precious few actually serving, so the term means the Republicans. Often the media, commentators and other bloggers use "the left" to refer generally to liberals, as opposed to "the right," conservatives.

So I try to make a textual distinction between "the Left" and "the left." In using "the Left," I am trying to refer to a definable set of people further to the left side of the aisle than Democrats generically. I do not mean that the Left is precisely definable, but its member have enough in common that it isn't unjustified to refer to them as a group, the "lumpen Left," if you will.

In his essay, "Why Does the Left Hate Israel?" Richard Baehr defined the Left thus:

The left in this country includes large numbers of academics, journalists, human rights activists, environmental and animal rights activists, entertainers, and some church groups, women’s groups, racial advocacy groups and unions. There are also liberals who are members of these same groups. I distinguish between leftists and liberals by one key test: how they feel about the country in which they live. If you tend to regard America as a primarily flawed, evil, unjust, racist country (or at least when Republicans are running it), and most importantly, believe that the US is the primary threat to world peace internationally, then you are a leftist, and not a liberal. ...

... But liberals, as distinguished from leftists, do not think America is a bad country. Most liberals think America is an improvable country, if only we made the tax system more progressive, spent more money on social services, and worked more through multilateral organizations abroad. Liberals tend to support overseas military missions when our effort supports a human rights concern, and much less so if the military engagement is claimed to be in support of a strategic objective. Liberals, by and large, supported American military involvement in the wars in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Haiti, and now Liberia, while opposing the two wars with Iraq.

Michael Totten is certainly no member of the VRWC (he defines himself as liberal), and he recently documented the anti-Judaism of the Left which they themselves proclaim. (I blogged in February 2003 that the Left and the Right are united by anti-Judaism).

Back in January Michael posted about the difference between liberals and Leftists.

Broadly defined, a liberal is a person who believes in social, political, and economic freedom. In the United States, both major parties are liberal. Most members of both support democracy, civil and human rights, and a market economy. ...

Each party is more liberal than the other in certain ways. ... Both parties champion freedom in different ways, and they do it on principle. Both parties have different liberal priorities, but they’re both generally liberal. ...

A liberal (substitute with Democrat if you want to) believes in reform. And a leftist supports revolution. Liberals (Democrats) are the left-wing of the Establishment. Leftists are radicals who seek to overthrow the Establishment (either through violence or the ballot box) and replace it with something else. ...

Liberals see America as the land of opportunity and freedom. Leftists see America as the bastion of Imperialism, Racism, and Oppression.

Liberals want higher taxes on the rich because it’s fairer to the middle and working classes. Leftists want to soak the rich out of class hatred.

Liberals want universal access to health care while leaving the system as market-driven as possible. Leftists would destroy the health care industry altogether and replace it with a state-run monopoly.

Liberals want to ban clear-cutting. Leftists want to ban the logging industry.

Liberals support globalization and trade and see it as an opportunity for economic growth and also as an opportunity to boost labor and environmental standards in the Third World. Leftists hate trade because they think it’s all about the West raping the rest.

Liberals blame the September 11 attacks on religious and political extremism in the Middle East. Leftists blame the September 11 attacks on America.

Michael admits at the end that people will disagree, but I think his essay is helpful.

The basic matrix by which the Left understands America in the world is neo-Marxist. Lee Harris's scholarly essay, "The Intellectual Origins of America-Bashing," is very helpful in understanding why this is so.

The Left basically believes that America is bad for the world. Actions, military or not, that enhance America's national self interests are therefore anathema. If old "Engine Charlie" Wilson's motto was, "What is good for General Motors is good for America," the Left's motto runs perversely: "What is good for America is bad for the world."

When scratched, Leftists bleed statist blood. Leftism elevates the state apparatus and denigrates the individual. There is no greater offender to this notion than America, where individual rights are elevated and are indeed guaranteed in our founding documents, in fact, we say our rights are ordained by God himself. Hence, the Left's history of attempting to degenerate American sovereignty with inventions such as the International Criminal Court, the Kyoto Treaty, and the notion that the UN Charter somehow trumps the American Constitution.

In their mind, America is imperialist in many forms - economic, cultural, linguistic and especially militarily. If America's gross transgressions are to be prevented, then America's national power, especially military power, must be turned away from promoting America's national interests.

I wish I could define a clear dividing line between American liberalism and Leftism. But they merge rather than delineate, just as conservatism and the Right tend to merge the farther right you get. (But today's conservatism is awfully similar to JFK liberalism, and much of today's liberalism is similar to old-style conservatism.)

James Taranto of OpinionJournal wrote in September 2002 of "The Reactionary Left."

As anyone who's attended an "antiglobalization" protest knows, the only thing uniting the left is its hatreds--of capitalism, America and Israel. You find at these events a menagerie of special interests promoting their own little causes. But the far left today, though it styles itself "progressive," has no coherent vision of how to make the world better--in sharp contrast with today's conservative internationalists, who favor the vigorous use of U.S. diplomatic and military force to expand democracy.

In a nutshell, liberals affirm while the Left despises the idea of America.

by Donald Sensing, 6/10/2004 03:12:41 PM. Permalink |