Ok. This is not a thesis but a question. What sort of "Left" are you?

[JanMichael]

Are you "Left" of the DLC? Or "Left" of the DNC. Or "Left" of the RNC? Or "Left" of the Black Caucus?

What sort of "Left" are you?

The soft Socialist "Left"?

The hard Socialist "Left"?

The anarchistic Communist "Left"?

The libertarian socialist "Left"?

The hard core environmentalist "Left"?

The totalitarian communist "Left"?

Separation of Church and State "Left"?

The temporary totalitarian Socialist "Left"?

The super soft suburban theorhetical "Left"?

The social super soft issue orientated "Left"?

The union "Left"?

The hard core union/socialist "Left"?

The syndicalist (sp) "Left"?

The Marxist "Left"?

The Trotskyist "Left"?

The anarchistic "Left"?

The labor "Left"?

The vegetarian "Left"?

The feminist "Left"?

The economic "Left"?

The "Left" because you hate the "Right"?

The other types of "Left"?

Just curious because it seems to me that we're a tad scattered:-)

PS~ It's late so I KNOW I've missed some labels:-)

EDIT: One can be none to all of these.

[beyurslf]

1. Any of those are better than "Left Behind"

[Buck Laser]

2. Whattaya got? n/t

[proud patriot]

3. The evironment "left", The union "Left" and The feminist "Left"

represent me

[nonconformist]

4. Populist left, for the most part nt

[nonconformist]

27. Economic Left/Right: -7.63, Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.49

My political compass score:

http://www.politicalcompass.org/

[Lars39]

5. Vilified.

:D

[saltpoint]

6. I'm to the left of Republicans generally and Dubya particularly.

To the left of Reagan, to the left of Poppy, left of THE CAT BUTCHER, left of the GOP agenda, left of Wolf Blitzer, left of Katie Couric, and left of Joe Lieberman, Evan Bayh, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

I'll vote blue in 2006, a midterm election for which I'm already volunteering time and cash.

I would prefer a world where Mario Cuomo or Bill Moyers would be electable figures and despair that neither is in 2006 or 2008 America.

Would prefer an interactive media left, a non-profit imperative for economics left, and a MUCH more liberalized public education system with extremely strict adherence to separation of Church and State.

[crappyjazz]

7. I've never slapped a label on myself

although I would probably be judged as being more liberal than conservative ... having said that though, my friends can sometimes be surprised by my views.

i think that's why i find this board interesting, there's a definite left slant but there's a little bit of everything

[cynatnite]

8. I'm right

I'm right about gay marriage, abortion, war, religion, god, gawd, guns, environment, bible, health care, and any other issue you care to name. :P

[Kutjara]

9. I'm of the...

...treat people decently and with respect, minimise the damage I do to the planet, live free and fight for the rights of others to do the same persuasion.

[Marie26]

10. Pretty much all of them

Depending on the issue. Yes, I am a tad scattered.

[Redstone]

11. I defy labels. And reject them.

Redstone

[saltpoint]

12. Agree that we're a tad scattered and that's one of the great strengths

of the boards on DU. I like a big variety in the crowd. Makes for a better party and a better Party.

This is a very useful post, JanMichael, because it seems to me you're offering others an opportunity to re-evaluate, reconsider, specifiy, and move together as a (perhaps) disparate group of aware people to form alliances of respect and recognition, and in the best case, affirmation.

Not a bad outcome in these dark times, and I say amen to it.

Thank you.

[MercutioATC]

13. The "Me" left.

And the rest of you are wrong.

;)

[JanMichael]

18. Oh! A real live anarchist!

Nice!

[MercutioATC]

19. Shhhhh! I'm masquerading as an unconventional Dem...

I don't think they've caught on yet...


;)

[riderinthestorm]

14. Leftover pizza, a good merlot and some excellent feminist friends

Cheers!

:party:

Everyone's welcome at this par-tay!

[MercutioATC]

20. Well, "I'm not a feminist, but"....

...sorry, couldn't resist.


Maybe if DU had a breathalyser, we wouldn't have this problem...

[leftstreet]

15. Left-handed

:silly:

[MercutioATC]

21. Me too!

Some of the brightest people I've known have been left-handed.

So have some of the biggest idiots.

It seems that we have a lock on extremes.

[leftstreet]

25. Einstein, Beethoven, DaVinci, Newton, Aristotle, Michelangelo

Yep.
Lock on brilliance AND :silly:

[MercutioATC]

28. Jack the Ripper...

George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole (well, he's kind of an involuntary lefty), Ollie North, Fidel Castro...

We DO have some :silly:

[leftstreet]

30. I'll see your Ollie North and raise you a Ronny Raygun

:puke:

(I bet he was originally right-handed but they tied his hand to the chair just to see what would happen.)

[Union Thug]

16. hard core union/labor socialist Left checking in... n/t

[Kutjara]

17. I'm People's Front of Judeah "Left"

[lvx35]

22. Pro union pro civil liberties left here.

Get the government out of our personal lives and cracnk up the heat on those corporations.

[IntravenousDemilo]

23. I'm a Canadian leftist

Which means I will naturally be to the left of most American leftists, since our centre is to the left of yours, and the Liberal party occupies the centre in Canadian politics. But I'm not a liberal. To me, liberals are just progressives who are dragging their feet. And neo-liberals are something to be disdained.

The closest I come to anything on the list would probably be "libertarian socialist", at least according to Political Compass. I have a libertarian friend who thinks this is a contradiction in terms, but as is the case with most people who disagree with me, he is of course wrong.

And I used to be a member in good standing of the Progressive Conservative party of Canada (which was actually to the left of the Liberal party in many ways), so I have no problem wrapping my brain around the concept of "libertarian socialism".

Also, my parents were both agnostic/atheist CCF-NDPers (like their parents before them), and they named me after Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas, the first socialist government leader in North America, who gave us universal Medicare and pointed us towards unemployment insurance, the Canada Pension Plan, and a number of other great things way back in the 1950s, just before I was born. So my left-wingedness is pretty well ingrained.

[JanMichael]

24. me? godless, -9, -9 on that compass test.

pretty far left for just about anyone on du i imagine...

PS! Tommy was a great man. You've been honored to have been given that namesake.

[TNC4DNC]

26. Scattered Left

Hard left on Environmental issues, Urban/racial issues, Educational issues, and Health issues, probably a soft left on everything else. I would probably almost be considered a conservative on some other issues, but I don't consider myself a conservative, and would NEVER vote the REPUG way, so I like to think of myself as left, but am very moderate in some ways.

[newyawker99]

33. Hi TNC4DNC!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Neil Lisst]

29. the one on the left was on the right, and one on the right was

... in the middle, and the one in the middle was on the left, and the guy in the rear was ... a Methodist.

[Zorra]

31. Not quite as far to the left as Jesus.

Can't get much further left than that.

[BreweryYardRat]

32. Moderate Left.

[benEzra]

34. Center-left independent with strong beliefs on civil liberties

including those protected by the First, Second, and Fourth Amendments.

[JHB]

35. Where does the libertarian mixed-economy left come in?

Because that's where I am. But in the twisted terminology of today, what used to be considered a normal mixed economy is called "socialism" or even "communism", so no wonder it's hard to tell.

[Armstead]

36. Radical moderate liberal progressive

I consider myself a moderate liberal with progressive grassroots decentralist tendencies.

Not quite as contradictory as it sounds. I believe in decentralization as much as possible in all institutions, because it's important to keep things diverse and on the human scale. That goes for all institutions both public and private.

However, I also recognize that we need public institutions that are a cheack and balance on private power, and that will provide the unmet needs that "markets" don't or won't provide.

More importantly,. I believe we need a "values shift" that transcends politics and policies. In otehr words, it matters less what the actual structure of the political system is, as what values it is based on. Right now things are fucked up because our institutions reflect the bad values that have been imposed by the Corporate Oligarchs and accepted by we average Americans for too long.

That requires a consciousness change to get politics back to actually reflecting the meaning of all these labels.

[Arkham House]

37. The Radical Left

Resist authority, Tom Paine is my idol, blends into some of the others, especially the anti-Taliban Left...