Explaining the Two Factions of the U.S. Political Left

When I explain my political perspective to people, there are usually three steps:

1. Explain that the U.S. political center is unconditional support for the Democratic Party (countering the commonly held belief that “left” only means supporting the Democratic Party)
2. Explain my definition of leftism that means being to the left of the Democratic Party on economic issues, foreign policy and political strategy
3. Explain that the community of self-described leftists is split into two opposing factions with huge policy and strategic disagreements

Congratulations for making it to step three! Here I’ll fully flesh out the leftist factions point I touched on briefly in my article about defining leftism.

Defining the Two Halves and Their Dynamic: It All Comes Down to Democratic Party Loyalty

In terms of labeling, the issue is difficult to straightforwardly explain because neither half of the left has an official name. Both of them believe they are the real left while the other is the “fake left.” Both accuse each other of actually being on the right.

Fortunately there are objective facts we can look to for differentiation. One side of the left unconditionally votes for Democrats, at least nationally. The other side of the left, the one I’m on, does not have this voting habit. We strategically withhold our votes from the two-party system. We vote for the Green Party, we vote for left independent candidates, or we don’t vote at all. In general elections, we do not vote for Democrats or Republicans.

There are many differences we’ll get into, but fealty to the Democratic Party has been the core division point for decades. The two factions of the left perpetually debate the impact of Vote Blue No Matter Who-related ideas such as whether the Democratic Party is the lesser of two evils, whether a third party can ever win and whether more Democratic Party victories reduce harm in the long term.

As you might have guessed by now, my side opposes all of the Vote Blue No Matter Who ideas. We believe the duopoly does far more damage than Republicans alone. We believe Democrat centrists create the conditions for people like Trump. We believe third parties aren’t winning because of the propaganda that sustains the two-party system, not because it’s impossible for them to eventually grow and win. Unlike the other half of the left, we are not afraid of Trump winning again. Our primary focus is on the innocent people who suffer every four years, regardless of which party is in power.

Unofficial Labels (I.e. Name Calling)

Because the two sides don’t have official names, they identify each other primarily by insults and pejorative labels. The Democratic Party loyalist half have called my half “The Dirtbag Left,” “The Dum Dum Left” and “the far left,” among many other names. Online I’ve seen people from my faction call our rivals “The Boutique Left” and “The Lockdown Left.”

In another article I discussed whether my faction should embrace “the far left” label. Logically speaking, the name is accurate. We are further to the left because our positions demand more aggressive change.

As for our rival faction, the only fair non-pejorative name I can think of is “the progressive left.” “Progressive” has become a sort of synonym for those who believe the Democratic Party can be improved from the inside, through purportedly populist forces such as the Justice Democrats. I’ve never heard anyone on my side of the left describe themselves as “progressive.” My understanding is that progressives believe the Democratic Party can be pushed left, even while progressives refuse to withhold their votes from people like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

A Quick Breakdown of Policy Agreements and Disagreements

Both factions support:

• Single-payer universal healthcare that is not tied to employment
• Eliminating private health insurance systems and companies
• Ranked choice voting
• Making it easier for third parties and independent candidates to get on ballots
• Getting rid of the electoral college and switching to a popular vote for everything
• More democratic primaries for all parties
• General anti-corruption legislation (getting corporate money, PACs and big donor money out of politics)
• Raising taxes on large corporations, billionaires and millionaires
• Middle-class tax cuts
• Cutting military spending and deep state budgets
• Creating a federal jobs guarantee
• Strengthening and expanding social security
• Dramatically raising the minimum wage
• Abortion rights
• LGBTQ rights
• Palestinian self-determination
• Ceasing arms and tax money to Israel
• Increased accountability for police officers
• Gun reform such as stricter background checks
• Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy
• Addressing climate change and pollution
• Free public college
• Student loan forgiveness
• Eliminating intentionally cruel immigration policies such as family separation
• Legalizing marijuana at a federal level

As for the disagreements, here are some far left positions that have differed from the progressives:

• No lockdowns
• No COVID shot mandates
• No military involvement in wars, including Ukraine
• No censorship — other than extreme cases such as revenge porn, child pornography and death threats
• The far left seems to focus much more on mutual aid

Here are the progressive positions as I understand them:

• Pandemic lockdowns were OK in the beginning because they might have saved lives, and we didn’t understand the virus
• COVID shot mandates are OK, or at least were OK during the height of the pandemic
• Sending weapons to Ukraine is necessary and isn’t quite the same as going to war
• Beyond the aforementioned extreme cases, some censorship is OK

It’s funny to juxtapose how long the list of agreements is versus how viciously we fight. As I explained, however, the vitriol over the Democratic Party support disagreement tends to trump positive feelings from policy alignment.

Major Media Figures and Politicians Who Embody Each Faction

If you want to more fully understand each faction, follow any of the folks listed below. Pay close attention to their actions, especially their votes.

Those more familiar with the space might notice I didn’t include some pretty reputable people such as Kyle Kulinski, Krystal Ball, Ryan Grim and Jordan Chariton. I chose to omit them because I’m not sure exactly where they stand at this moment. I feel like they’re on the dividing line between the two factions. Others, like Glenn Greenwald and Kim Iversen, have far left positions on many issues, but they don’t identify as being on the left. Cornel West — whose books we have reviewed — has taken key far left positions recently, but he has been in conflict with several figures on the far left. I’m not sure he would identify with that coalition.

Only the progressive left has any famous national-level elected politicians. There could be far left elected officials on the local and state levels, but I’m not familiar with any of them.

To avoid redundancy, I reserved the outlets sections for media outlets with larger teams and operations, as well as cases where the outlet is more well-known than its hosts. I paired well-known small team outlets with their respective hosts in the figures sections. For example, I don’t think it would’ve made sense to list Katie Halper in the figures section and The Katie Halper Show in the outlets section.

Notable Far Left Media Figures, Activists and Political Candidates (in alphabetical order by first name)

• Aaron Maté, author of “Cold War, Hot War: How Russiagate Created Chaos from Washington to Ukraine”
• Abby Martin, a journalist who wrote the forward to “Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange”
• Anya Parampil, author of “Corporate Coup: Venezuela and the End of US Empire”
• Briahna Joy Gray, Host of “Bad Faith”
• Chris Hedges, author of “Death of the Liberal Class” and “Empire of Illusion”
• Claudia De la Cruz, Party for Socialism and Liberation U.S. presidential candidate
• Edward Snowden
• Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for president
• Katie Halper, Co-Host of “Useful Idiots”
• Kshama Sawant, Founder of Workers Strike Back
• Max Blumenthal, author of “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel” and “The Management of Savagery: How America’s National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump”
• Rome, Founder of Tour for the Poor
• Sabrina Salvati, Host of “Sabby Sabs”

Notable Far Left Media Outlets

• Due Dissidence
• Revolutionary Blackout Network
• The Grayzone
• The Rauch Review? — I listed my publication here with a question mark because it’s possible people will eventually view us as a far left publication. We’ll see.
• Write Brain TV

Notable Progressive Media Figures, Activists and Elected Politicians

• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Congresswoman
• Bernie Sanders, Vermont Senator
• Cenk Uygur, author of “Justice is Coming: How Progressives Are Going to Take Over the Country and America is Going to Love It”
• David Doel, Host of “The Rational National”
• Emma Vigeland, Co-Host of “The Majority Report”
• Hasan Piker, Twitch streamer
• Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Congresswoman
• John Iadorola, Host of “The Damage Report”
• Marianne Williamson, Author and former Democratic Party primary candidate
• Medhi Hassan, Founder of Zeteo
• Mike Figueredo, Host of “The Humanist Report”
• Nathan J. Robinson, author of “Why You Should be a Socialist”
• Rashida Tlaib, Michigan Congresswoman
• Sam Seder, Host of “The Majority Report”
• Thomas Frank, author of “Listen, Liberal” (read our review)

Notable Progressive Media Outlets

• Current Affairs
• Jacobin
• The Intercept
• The Vanguard
• The Young Turks

A Brief Summary of Leftist Divisions in Modern History

Because there isn’t a consensus on official labels and what those labels mean, it’s difficult to conduct polling and figure out roughly how many people align with each faction. My theory is that the progressive left is significantly bigger than the far left. Our faction, however, is growing faster. Maybe we’ll catch up some day.

I’m no historian, and I don’t want to bore you by going back unnecessarily far in time. To keep the narrative manageable, I’ll cover the major flashpoints from my perspective and in my lifetime: 1991 to the present.

Ralph Nader, the Green Party and the Bush-Obama Years

Since its founding in 1984, the Green Party has been to the left of the Democratic Party on most environmental, foreign and economic policies. After Ralph Nader ran for president as a Green Party candidate in 2000, many Green Party voters switched to the Democratic Party. Understandably, the Bush years were traumatic for them. They felt like they had to support the Democratic Party to prevent future Bush-like presidencies.

A small but vocal minority of leftists foresaw the false promise of the Obama presidency. Cornel West was one of Obama’s fiercest critics.

Bernie’s Primary Runs and Russiagate

During Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Democratic Primary run, the left expanded immensely. From 2015 to 2020, both factions were supporting Bernie in the Democratic Primary for president. This five-year period is also where most of today’s dividing lines were formed.

As she is today, in 2016 Jill Stein was the far left choice for president. Most Bernie supporters fell in line; they voted for Hillary. I was one of these folks, and I deeply regret that vote. If I had heard of Jill Stein, I would’ve voted for her. I’m looking forward to writing her in on my New York ballot this November.

During Trump’s campaign and presidency, Russiagate was a major dividing line between people who would go to the far left or progressive left. Prominent progressive figures, such as Cenk Uygur, believed Russia had significantly influenced Trump’s campaign and Trump himself. Future far left figures, namely Aaron Maté and Katie Halper, did not think the Russians succeeded in influencing the 2016 election in any significant or measurable way.

My belief is that the centrist media focused on Russiagate for four reasons:

1. to excuse Hillary Clinton’s poor candidacy
2. to paint her loss and Trump’s victory as illegitimate
3. to distract from the more important bipartisan anti-populist economic decisions that paved the way for Trump
4. to fearmonger and warmonger in favor of more direct conflict with Russia, to essentially bring back the Cold War

During the 2020 Democratic primary, the left was generally united behind Bernie again. Nonetheless, there were small temporary factions who supported Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Buttigieg, Marianne Williamson and Beto O’Rourke.

After Bernie dropped out and endorsed Biden, there was once again a split along faction lines as to whether we should vote for Biden (the progressive left decision) or withhold our votes through Green Party support or non-voting (the far left decision).

Fierce Pandemic Policy Disagreements, the Squad and #ForceTheVote

The far left opposed pandemic lockdowns and COVID flu shot mandates. Progressives endorsed these policies, or at least accepted them. This conflict solidified that the far left has more libertarian views on civil liberties and bodily freedom.

Meanwhile voters and activists were electing an increasing number of Justice Democrats, grassroots-funded politicians who were supposed to have an adversarial relationship with the centrist, corporate-funded Democrats. Kyle Kulinski and Cenk Uygur, founders of Justice Democrats, wanted their elected officials to emulate the Tea Party’s strategy of gaining policy concessions within their party. Justice Democrats, also called “The Squad,” promised to fight for major populist policies, including Medicare for All and ending our wars.

For a few years, both factions agreed the Justice Democrats strategy was worth trying. We were hopeful.

Once we saw that the elected Justice Democrats lacked the political courage to seriously and consistently challenge the Democratic Party establishment, the far left moved on from people like AOC and consolidated more behind other initiatives. The progressive left acknowledged The Squad’s disappointing impact and weakness to careerism, but progressives continued to support the inside party strategy over other movements.

The issue of whether to support The Squad reached a boiling point during political commentator and comedian Jimmy Dore’s #ForceTheVote campaign. The campaign’s goal was to pressure congress into having a floor vote on Medicare for All. Far left supporters of #ForceTheVote understood that the vote would not succeed. The point was to show the world that our corrupt congress would vote down universal healthcare, even during a pandemic. We wanted a resurgence of the movement toward single-payer healthcare.

Many prominent progressive left figures opposed #ForceTheVote, often because they didn’t like Dore’s personality, opinions and manner of speaking. Commentators in both factions spent dozens of hours — over the course of years afterward — debating the tactic, insulting each other and assessing whether Squad members had betrayed the people who elected them.

Ukraine

This issue is relatively simple. The far left believes the U.S. should never have been militarily involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. We think a peace negotiation could have been achieved early on in the war. The progressive left feels the U.S. has a responsibility to protect Ukraine from Russia, even if we have to get militarily involved in the war. Many progressives doubted that peace negotiations were possible.

Gaza and Kamala

As I like to say, most far leftists are liberals/progressives who hit a breaking point. My breaking point was seeing how similar our country’s problems were between Obama and Trump. For millions of people, the accelerated genocide in Gaza has been their breaking point.

Since Kamala was anointed, a lot of these progressives have reneged on their vow to withhold votes from the Democratic Party. Kamala is the progressive left choice. Jill Stein is the far left choice. The situation feels similar to 2016.

Will You Reach a Breaking Point?

In several articles I’ve written, I’ve acknowledged the likelihood that a plurality of my readers will be — or at least begin as — Vote Blue No Matter Who folks. Our publication is primarily about books, and most avid readers who live in the U.S. are Democratic Party voters. As I explained in my open letter to liberal readers, I’m inviting you to join me and my coalition.

If I’m describing you right now, and if you’re saying no to my invitation, I wonder: Is there a breaking point that would change your mind?

Some of my colleagues believe the answer is no. They argue that, if Nakba 2.0 under a Democrat administration isn’t a breaking point for you, nothing will be.

I’m not so sure. There is much history to be written before our generation dies.

I predict that Trump’s death, most likely through old age, will be a breaking point for millions of self-described liberals and progressives. Even if you think Trump is a Hiterlian supervillain who wants to transform America into Gilead from “The Handmaid’s Tale,” he’s not immortal. That day will inevitably come.

Once he’s gone, will every single one of you still feel like Vote Blue No Matter Who is necessary to resist authoritarianism? The centrist media will surely anoint a new right-wing boogeyman to fearmonger over, but I doubt that person will have Trump’s charisma and overt authoritarian desires. When that time finally arrives, perhaps a portion of you will accept my invitation.

Editorial Note: Feature Image Credit to Getty Images/Pool via Vogue