I often times wonder if I am in the same country, reading the same History books, reading the same newspapers, watching the same television news programs, using the same social media platforms and in the same time frame as everyone else.
Rising from the tradgedy that is America, we see today few willing to find solutions but many quite willing to find blame.
Much of the blame for the current state of America – leveled by acadaemics, Historians, journalists, politicians and pundits, is aimed at The Left.
The focus of the blame is wrong. It is so wrong on so many levels that I often times wonder if I am in the same country, reading the same History books, reading the same newspapers, watching the same television news programs, using the same social media platforms and in the same time frame as everyone else.
The only conclusion I can come to is that there exists within the collection of blamers a not so minor problem: lack of a basic understanding about what and who is ‘The Left’.
It is, in other words, a problem of terms and definition.
So, to help the blamers, I offer a framework.
What do we mean by The Left? Within the theoretical boundaries of the political parties where does The Left fit? Where would you place any individual lefty or any group of leftists?
Historically, the Left is most often defined in terms of radicalism. Of course right radicalism existed in the past and does exist today – understatement is obvious. But radicalism has been used traditionally by academics, politicians, media, and others, to define The Left. So lets go with that.
And therein lies the difficulty.
For example, in ‘radicalism’ there is found agrarian and urban radicalism, reformist and revolutionary radicalism, left-wing and right-wing radicalism, Marxist or non-Marxist, Old Marxist and neo-Marxist, Old Left and New Left, Socialist, Communist, syndicalist, anarchist, and anarcho-syndicalism, and, working-class and labor radicalism.
Liberalism, Left Liberalism, Radical Liberalism and Moderate Liberalism, and, the Liberal Left also are bunched on the Left. As is the Lyrical Left.
We cannot, of course, neglect Progressives; such as New York Progressives, MidWest Progressives, Pre-Progressivism Progressives, Reform Progressives, Urban Progressives, Movement Progressives and Populist Progressives, and, Traditionalist and Modernist Progressives. NOTE: Rarely, if ever, is the Progressive Party of Theodore Roosevelt an entry.
The Left is further fractionalized by Right-Wing Socialists and Communists, and Left-Wing Socialists and Communists. And, the Democratic Right and the Democratic Left.
It would appear, then, within this historical categorization of the Left political spectrum, which, today, is blurred even more by the easy and mistaken inter-changeability of the terms left, liberal, progressive, the task of the blamers is to determine exactly into which theoretical construct to place someone when you call them, with disdain, The Left.
To the difficulty of defining and identifying The Left is added the laborious task of doing so within a dynamic paradigm.
In other words, the line of demarcation we use in this country to determine what’s Left and Right is a living, breathing thing. It moves. It swings. It jumps from here to there. It does not stay in one place. It is not static.
For some years now – and accelerating in the past decade and a half, that line has moved right, far to the right, resulting in narrowing boundaries within which people are labeled and placed.
Setting rules, therefore, is very challenging. Almost impossible. What is Right today may be Left tomorrow. What is considered righteous today might be considered evil tomorrow. Those with a Right bias might soon be attacked for having a Left bias.
It is all moving so fast one never knows where one will land on that list with the catchy 36-point or larger headline, Demon Leftists.
FIRST PUBLISHED 2018.10.22
To my point:
When election results on 6 November 2024 showed Donald Trump had won the Presidency, for me it was like getting punched in the face, repeatedly. I mean – repeatedly!
