Left-Wing Candidates

IN THE UNITED States, “left-wing” is generally synonymous with “liberal”—the further left belief systems like socialism and communism have never attained a serious toehold at any level of American politics. Even left-wing or leftist is rarely used as a self-identifying label, particularly as the Democratic Party has become more centrist; “leftist” is often associated with radicalism, with the activism of the 1960s and the movements that grew out of it, and to a lesser extent with the communist/socialist movements which were demonized throughout the 20th century. The American left-wing has been predominantly concerned with the needs of the lower-class and the common man, especially when those needs are interfered with by business interests, the upper-class, or government. Civil rights and environmental-ism have overlapped with American leftist concerns. The left-right terminology comes from the French Legislative Assembly of 1791, when the royalists sat to the right of the king and the radicals on his left. In its metaphoric usage, the king represents the ancien regime—the old order, the establishment, though “establishment” in this case means more than simply which leaders and ideologies are in power at the moment (neoconservatives did not become left-wing simply because Bill Clinton was president). The shift of meaning is slower than that, though it is there—the original left-wingers were laissez-faire capitalists, [Page 366]for one thing, who favored economic activity without interference from the monarch. Capitalism soon became a right-wing concern as the meaning was divorced from its literal origins, and when socialism and communism were popularized, they were characteristically left-wing concerns.

Developed in a time of political upheaval in Europe, the left-right distinction was a convenient and accurate way to describe political factions' attitude towards the continent's sweeping changes: for or against. Since then, things have become muddier, and because the United States is generally more conservative than Europe, what is centrist in the United States would be right-wing there, and what is left-wing would be centrist or again, even right-wing. “Left” and “right” do not map well to terms like “democratic” or “populist”—there have been populist movements on both sides of the spectrum, and dictatorial regimes of both inclinations.

American leftists generally support government regulations of business practice and in support of liberal social policies; strong protections of freedom of speech, expression, and religious practice; strong separation of church and state; and government-guaranteed protection from discrimination. National welfare policies providing assistance to those in need are leftist in nature. Leftists tend to support strong federal government over state governments, a conflict that has existed since the formation of the American government. With the centrism of the Democratic Party, the existence of liberal Republicans, and the prevalence in U.S. political history of liberals strongly opposed to communism or in favor of privatization of services, there is some question about how relevant the model continues to be.

In the United States, the Communist left has been generally referred to as the Old Left. The Old Left was of concern to the Stalinist Communists of the first half of the 20th century, during the first Red Scare, and to some degree the Communists of the McCarthy era. The New Left affected the Marxist-Leninists of the student and radical movements of the 1960s. The Old Left had been an ally of labor, and had focused most of its efforts there and on the worldwide communist movement. The New Left was allied with the counterculture, especially its radical elements, and considered Communist China and Cuba as relevant to its concerns as the Soviet Union. Groups associated with the New Left include Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panthers, and the American Indian Movement. Neither the New nor Old Left produced viable candidates for office.

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