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The American left encompasses a range of political beliefs and movements, including extreme liberals and mainstream groups. It is associated with the Democratic Party and supports government regulation of business, social reform, and marginalized groups. The American right supports financial conservatism and established social orders. The left has a varied history, including labor rights and civil rights movements. The Democratic Party is considered centrist by some progressives, while anarchists are seen as part of the left but oppose government systems.
The American left is an umbrella term referring to the progressive and liberal segment of the American population and its body politic. Terms like “the left wing” describe a broad range of Americans, encompassing a wide variety of political beliefs and movements. These include extreme liberals such as communists and socialists as well as mainstream groups such as civil rights activists and trade unions. In the two-party system that dominates political affairs in the United States, the American left is associated with the Democratic Party.
The political terms “left” and “right” originated with the National Assembly of pre-revolutionary France in the 18th century. The members of the Assembly who supported the monarchy and the established political system sat on the right hand of the king, while those who supported reform sat on his left. When the French Revolution broke out in 18, the king and many of his right-wing supporters were arrested and executed. The terminology, however, has survived to the present day. The “right” describes conservatives who want to maintain the established order, while the “left” generally supports change and reform.
Individuals and political groups often have beliefs that cannot be easily classified. In general, however, the American left is identified with government regulation of business, social reform, and support for those groups and individuals who are not part of the established power structure. The American right is believed to support financial conservatism, free market capitalism, and established religious and social orders. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, various factors have led to these divisions becoming increasingly contentious and even bitter in social and political discourse.
The American left has had a colorful and uneven history. In 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt made an unsuccessful attempt to return to the White House as part of the Progressive Party, a third party also known as the Bull Moose Party. In the following decades, a broad coalition of liberal activists won many political reforms, including labor rights, women’s voting rights, and government-funded social programs. In the 1950s, Senator Joe McCarthy led a backlash against the American left by exploiting fears of Soviet communism. In the 1960s and 1970s, notoriously leftist activists demonstrated against the Vietnam War and in support of the civil rights of minorities.
Even today there is little agreement on what constitutes the American left. The Democratic Party has been strongly identified with the left since the late 19th century. Many progressives, however, would argue that as an entrenched part of the political power structure, Democrats are more centrist than leftist. At the other end of the scale, anarchists are often seen as part of the left, alongside other radical political factions. However, because they oppose systems of government altogether, anarchists cannot truly be considered part of the established political framework.
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