Defining the American Left

Politics is a difficult subject to talk about. Generally speaking, we like to break down the entire spectrum of belief into “the left” and “the right” and pretend that everybody neatly fits into one box or the other. For some of us, that’s the end of the discussion; we go about our daily lives knowing that some of the people we interact with differ from us politically, but we hope that doesn’t hinder our ability to live. For others among us, we recognize that politics and governance affect us every day, and that knowing which box we fit into is part of knowing who we are and how we should spend our energies.

Now, I don’t think we need any more ink spent on defining “the right;” after all, they dominate the discourse, set the tone of every debate, and have Fox News to propagate their propaganda every day of every week.

No, I’d rather take some time today to try and define what makes “the left” a cohesive realm of belief. I’ve spent my life as a bright blue dot in a sea of red (Oklahoma), and with the advent of the internet, my last twenty years have spent learning and growing as a leftist activist, and I think that experience has led me to see the left for what it is: an ecosystem of activists who care passionately about their causes, and fearlessly argue with anyone about what the best way to govern is.

I use the word ecosystem because the left is not united under a single banner. We don’t have gatherings of the left where we share snacks and discuss what makes the left great. What we do have is a series of rallies, protests, letter-writing campaigns and local ballot propositions based on our ideals. Now, there is a lot of crossover: the people who attend a Black Lives Matter rally are likely the same people who sign a petition to house the houseless; the attendees of an LGBTQ+ gathering will likely be active in a local Democratic Primary. We each have causes that rank highly in our personal lives, but will gladly spend time and effort to help our brothers and sisters in other realms of activism.

Here is a brief list of left-leaning causes that we tend to get behind:

• Pro-Union
• Feminism
• BLM
• LGBTQ+
• Anti-Gun
• Anti-Death Penalty
• Rehabilitation over Punishment
• Pro-Abortion
• Ending houselessness
• Universal Healthcare

Each of these issues deserves a full length essay of their own to describe what they do, why they exist, and what their goals are. That would be beyond the scope of this essay. Indeed, that list isn’t even complete. There are many more causes worth fighting for, and hopefully those of you who read this would be willing to add to this list in the comments. What I want to do here is glean what lesson we can from each of these issues and see if we can land on a set of principles that can define the left.

Pro-Union

The key to the power of a union is its ability to bargain collectively; to say “treat all of us well, or we all leave together.” Inherent in this challenge is the recognition that ground-level workers and upper-level management are inherently antagonistic to one another. Corporate sets standards and expectations for the behavior of its workers, and then, more often than not, tries everything in its means to screw over the workers-cut pay, extend hours, deny them needed supplies, deny them healthcare. The union, then, is the antagonistic force that pushes back against the usurpations of Corporate and garners for its workers those things which the workers deserve: fair pay, fair rest, and fair conditions.

The left is Pro-Union because we have empathy for the workers, because we are workers, because even if we’ve made management, we remember what it’s like to be workers, because being a ground-level worker is not a shame to be borne, but simply a job to do so that one may contribute fairly to society.

Feminism

I can already hear the conservative voices rabble rousing. “Why do you even need feminism anymore? They can vote! They can work! The pay gap is a myth!”

I’m going to ignore those voices, because they’re ignoring mine, anyway. What I’d like to do here is celebrate feminism. There have been three waves of feminism in the past, and we now exist within the fourth wave of feminism. Why do we measure feminism in waves? Because, frankly, we’re winning. The major goals of each wave keep getting accomplished. Those detractors are right about a few things: we did get the vote, we did get to work, we did win freedoms for women that they were denied before. And with each wave we get to shift our focus a little bit.

The fact is, the patriarchy still exists, the pay gap is not a myth, and intersectional women still face more discrimination than their white counterparts. There is still work to do.

So why is feminism a leftist view? Because we believe in equality. More than that, we believe in equity. Even more than that, we believe in justice.

I think of it like this: we’re fighting for justice. For the removal of systemic blockades to success and freedom. If we can’t get justice right now, we’ll settle for equity. If we can’t get equity yet, we’ll settle for equality. But you’d better believe that once we get that equality, we’ll keep fighting for equity. And once we get that equity (and we will) we’ll keep fighting for justice. We’re going to be annoying, we’re going to be abrasive, and they’ll fight us every step of the way, but we don’t quit. We’re on wave four of not-quitting, and we will win the day.

Black Lives Matter

I’m sickened by the opposition to BLM. That a statement as simple as “black lives matter” can be met with opposition displays to us that white supremacy is still a disease, a fungus that lives underneath our collective skin and sickens us nationally, even globally.

It’s two years too late to say it, probably, but here’s what I think about when I see people opposed to BLM: you’re imagining that there’s a hidden word in front of the phrase. You’re imagining that when we say “Black Lives Matter,” we’re secretly saying “Only Black Lives Matter,” when really the hidden word is this: “Black Lives Matter, too.” Because you’ve proven to us again and again that you know white lives matter. Every missing white child becomes a national story, whereas BIPOC missing children just… happen. And we’re supposed to just get over it. That’s not the way it ought to be.

So why is BLM a leftist movement? Because it’s based on empathy. It’s a movement which seeks to value black lives more than they have been historically. A movement which seeks to impart more justice into the world. And if not justice, at least equity. If not equity, at least equality. But still, eventually, justice.

LGBTQ+

I love the plus at the end of this initialism. When I was younger, I witnessed the rise of the concept of LGB. I saw Gay-Straight alliance become a school group common across the nation. I got to see the T get added, then the Q. Inclusiveness became the Modus Operandi of the Gender-Aware community. Then there was the plus. The plus means to me more than I can express. It means that Gender and Sex are evolving concepts that we understand differently within ourselves and within our society with each passing year. The plus not only seeks to include all who don’t identify with the first five letters, but also admits to the philosophically amorphous nature of knowledge itself. We don’t know what new terms might emerge as we reach a better, more nuanced understanding of the nature of Gender and Sex.

So why is LGBTQ+ a leftist ideology? Because we value inclusiveness. We fundamentally understand that our strength lies not in our sameness but in our diversity. Each of us experiences this thing called life differently, and our differing perspectives make us better, not worse, stronger, not weaker. The right can reject us all they want, because we don’t need them. We’ve got each other.

Anti-Gun

Now, this is a tough one to wrestle with, because not everyone on the left is anti-gun. In fact, one of our most successful (and most successfully demonized) groups, the Black Panthers, began as a 2nd amendment rights group for black Californians. But what lies at the root of anti-gun sentiment? Simply put, it’s that too many people are killed by guns every day.

Life is precious. It’s the one gift we’re all given, and it’s up to us to decide how to use it. But all too often that gift is ripped away from us by the barrel of a gun. And I think it’s a perfectly natural inclination to say that guns-a tool designed specifically and solely to kill and wound-should be gotten rid of.

Personally, I do not believe in getting rid of all guns. I’m not sure there’s even a large calling for that. What we do call for is gun regulation. Cars are just as deadly as guns (though they have an intended function outside their deadliness) and we regulate them like nobody’s business. So why not regulate guns?

Gun regulation is a leftist issue because we believe that public safety is an integral part of the work government does. Life is precious, and protecting it should be seen as our utmost responsibility.

Anti-Death Penalty

Of all the leftist views I hold, this one gets met with opposition more quickly and more vehemently than any other. The conversation usually goes something like this:

“I don’t believe in the death penalty.”

“So if somebody killed your family, you wouldn’t want to see them dead?”

It’s the strangest thing, but I’ve had this argument at least five times in my life, and actually face-to-face, not online, either. So, to break it down, I’d like to give you my three reasons for opposing the death penalty.

1. The state can punish people only based on what the state provides or protects. It protects your livelihood, so it can fine you money. It provides for your freedom, so it can temporarily remove that freedom by putting you in prison. It didn’t give you life, so it can’t take that life away
2. It is morally wrong for one human to kill another human. End of argument. No matter who passes the judgement, a human is the one who has to pull the switch, or inject the poison, or fire the gun. That is wrong.
3. Even if we ignore arguments one and two, and agree that killing a murderer is acceptable, we must then agree that the justice system is flawless and only convicts those who definitely committed the crime. We know this isn’t true, because of the Innocence Project. This means we have definitely, without a doubt, killed an innocent person on death row, and will likely do so again. We cannot allow that to happen in our name.

Rehabilitation over Punishment

In case you aren’t familiar with this phrase, it’s one of the tenets of Criminal Justice Reform, a larger suite of issues and policy suggestions that include the aforementioned abolition of the death penalty.

This philosophy recognizes that those who commit crimes are not inherently evil. Those who commit crimes are not beyond redemption. Those who commit crimes, in short, commit crimes for a reason, and if we focus our time and effort on remedying those reasons, then we reduce crime at its source.

To quote Serj Tankian, “World research and successful drug policy shows that treatment should be increased, and law enforcement decreased while abolishing mandatory minimum sentences.”

Prisoners are people, too. They deserve the opportunity to learn and grow and change. To simply punish without a chance at redemption is cruel and inhumane.

Criminal Justice Reform is leftist because we believe that people, for the most part, are inherently capable of good. We believe that if you give somebody the tools and the opportunity to live a good life, they will choose to do so.

Pro-Abortion

This is the big one. The single-issue voter’s death knell. This subject requires sensitivity and nuance. Better writers than I have spoken eloquently and at length about this subject, so I’ll keep my piece here short.

The major point of disagreement here is something we rarely speak of publicly, and we should talk about it more, because it’s actually a fertile philosophical field to grow in. When does life begin? Those of us who believe in abortion agree that a fertilized egg does not count as a living human. The first trimester is a period of rapid cellular growth and contains many critical points whereat the cells might self-abort, causing a miscarriage. When, religiously speaking, might the soul enter the baby’s body?

The fact is, these are not easily answerable questions, and should by no means be dictated to us by the government. If a person with a pregnancy is not sure if they want to see that pregnancy to term, they should be able to consult their doctor, their spiritual leader, their friends and family and reach a decision on their own without government interference.

Abortion is a leftist belief because, despite the various attestations and protestations of the right, we actually believe in individual liberty. (Side note: it occurs to me that those on the right mistake a sense of social obligation to others and impinging on their individual liberty. This is silly.)

Ending Houselessness

A successful society should be measured, not by the amount of money held by its richest citizens, but by lack of suffering in its general population. On an individual level, I see the best goal a person could have as this: to increase the total amount of happiness and decrease the total amount of suffering around them. And a society is the collective action of groups of people acting together, so then I see the greatest goal of a society as being this: increasing the amount of collective happiness and decreasing the amount of collective suffering.

To that end, we have a responsibility to one another. Anyone who lives inside our borders should have the bare necessities of life: shelter, food, clothing, and safety. How we achieve that goal is a matter of discussion and debate best suited for a legislature, but we should at least all agree that it should be a common goal.

Ending Houselessness is a leftist ideal because, again, we operate through empathy. We govern from a place of doing collective good, and helping those in need. As Garth Brooks said, “We don’t reach for handouts, we reach for those who are down.”

Universal Healthcare

Giving everybody in the U.S. free healthcare (not access to healthcare, but actual health care) will solve so many problems, you guys. It’ll open up the job market so that people can work in different jobs that were denied them earlier. It will increase individual freedom. It will take a huge chunk out of houselessness. It will boost the economy. It’s just… a good idea all around.

It’s a leftist idea because, and this might be controversial, but the right is mean, y’all. The right wants poor people to suffer, because they hate poor people. Universal Healthcare should be a no-brainer, but since the right doesn’t want to help anybody in this country, it falls to us to do the work.

In Conclusion

So what makes the left “the left?” It’s a belief in individual liberty through collective action. A belief in governing from a place of empathy. A belief in personal obligation to those around us. A belief in equality, equity, and justice.

It takes nearly 3,000 words to define our movement because we’re not a one-sentence slogan. We’re a conglomeration of so many shared values and beliefs, so many ideas for how to fix ourselves and our states and our country. We know how to think globally and act locally, but we recognize the complexity of humanity in everything we do.

Simply put, we are not simple.