The Ideological Fuel of a New Left: The People of Everything Leftism

The Ideological Fuel of a New Left (full series)
Three Axes | Everything Leftism’s Rise | Revealed by Hamas
The People of Everything Leftism | Cross-Pressures

The (Corporate) People of Everything Leftism

The average liberal voter—a “latte mom Democrat” counterpart to the “grill dad Republican”—is not necessarily an Everything Leftist. A minority of left-of-center voters probably operate on a “conservative-left” civilization-over-barbarism issue framework to defend the welfare state, much as Britons do in defending their National Health Service. Others focus principally on an issue or set of issues where they align most closely with the Left or support the Left for material reasons (government workers for Big Government, for example). Some align for cultural or historical reasons, perhaps breaking only when the ideological contradictions between Everything Leftist-Democratic policies and their personal views or material needs become insurmountable. (For recent examples, see the political shifts in Appalachian coal country from 2008 to 2016 and shifts now occurring in the Rio Grande Valley.)

Due to social pressure among liberals to profess Everything Leftism, it is impossible to know what proportion of the Democratic voter base is sincerely Everything Leftist. But even if most of the Democratic voter base do not follow the Everything Leftist approach, these more moderate people do not define the policies that Democratic administrations and liberal institutions pursue. Left-of-center Big Philanthropies, especially the more bleeding-edge-radical ones like the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the staff of media outlets like the New York Times, and activist formation cliques like the Democratic Socialists of America and Sunrise Movement pressure the adoption of an Everything Leftist approach.

Part of the reason is simple personal interest. It is a fact of political and activist life that people who do politics, public policy, or related things for a living tend to really care about political things. Most political professionals do not start out in activism or advocacy just to make a buck, although some get there with age. Political professionals tend to be more ideologically coherent than vibing voters, which inclines the professionals and the institutions they control—from the very top down to the interns’ bullpen—toward Everything politics.

But there are also professional interests pushing politicos, even if they might already be inclined to Everything politics, toward a full-spectrum Everything Leftism. The signaling power of left-of-center institutions encourages liberal activists-on-the-make to adopt Everything Leftist slogans and positions to signal loyalty to the ideological tribe. For a classic example of this, consider the case of NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who faced criticism when her public statements professing a long list of radical, Everything Leftist positions were brought to public attention. While rising through the ranks at Wikimedia Foundation and other left-of-center institutions, Maher signaled her loyalty to the liberal-progressive cause with her public statements, which aligned with her work for the liberal institutions. On a smaller scale, liberal professional activists do the same thing daily, on the issues which Everything Leftist institutions have chosen for their focus. The practice of listing one’s chosen pronouns in a professional or social-media biography is an illustrative example.

The Eye of Sauron

In Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the villain Sauron is depicted as a great flaming eyeball that can look upon his evil realm like a spotlight from the top of his tower. Everything Leftism can be analogized to this Eye of Sauron, focusing its energy on a single issue or cause in the public consciousness.

When the Eye of Sauron focuses on an issue, Big Philanthropy and big individual donors pledge hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to address the issue, encouraging left-wing groups to talk about it or focus themselves on it. Younger staff with radical views, often through unionized staff cadres, demand action on the Eye’s priorities.

Liberal citizens propagate a culture of social coercion, using social media and the mainstream press to intimidate skeptics into silence out of fear of social and professional reprisals. Left-wing control of formal institutions such as labor unions, graduate schools, governments, the metropolitan media, and big philanthropies further enhances the strength of the social coercion effects. Cancel culture, which journalist Nellie Bowles has written is “about finding the betrayer in your midst,” is just another phrase for the social coercion practiced in the name of Everything Leftism.

It’s not a perfect analogy. There is no singular “Sauron” behind the Eye, which is more of an emergent phenomenon based on events, media coverage, and organizational and institutional rapid reaction ability. While the ideological proclivities of major left-wing donors like George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Service Employees International Union, the AFL-CIO, and so on can help direct the focus of the Eye and will direct the policy consequences of its focus, no single person or group has enough “market share” in the liberal movement to focus the Eye all by itself.

Successful mobilization campaigns like Black Lives Matter in 2020 turn the Eye of Sauron to issues that divide the Right from the center and unite the Left. When the issue set is favorable to Everything Leftism and the Eye is focused, social coercion ruthlessly directs all who are not explicitly conservative into alignment with Everything Leftism. The results can drag radical leftists into positions of power and authority within the liberal movement or government policy; leaders of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation proved to be explicit “trained Marxists” unafraid to praise Lenin.

But the Eye of Sauron is not all-powerful. It sometimes turns to issues that divide the Left and unite the center and Right. Attempts to propel the Palestinian nationalist cause and opposition to Israel’s existence into a 2024 reprise of Black Lives Matter have as of this writing largely failed. While Palestinian nationalism has strengthened its position in internal left-wing affairs, enough centrists and liberals remain sympathetic to Israel alongside the vast majority of conservatives such that social pressure to affirm anti-Zionism or support for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel is not effective.

In the next installment, Everything Leftism is a powerful force, but it is not all-powerful, and its successes may breed its own defeats.