Leftist

Leftist refers to someone on the left side of the political spectrum and examples include: syndicalists, socialist, communist, [anarchist]], etc. A leftist supports collectivism, more public control of the economy, direct worker/employee control over the workplace, lower military spending, secularism, a living constitution, same sex marriages, a more unisex society, transnationalism, abortion, and censorship of Christianity in public places.

Leftist Anarchist thinker Michael Bakunin critiqued prominent theoritician and philosopher Karl Marx in 1873 with these words,

"..if the proletariat is to be the ruling class, over whom is it to rule? ...the peasant "rabble" who, as it is known, does not enjoy the sympathy of the Marxists who consider it to represent a lower level of culture, will probably be ruled by the factory proletariat of the cities. Or, if this problem is to be approached nationalistically, the Slavs will be placed in the same subordinate relationship to the victorious German proletariat in which the latter now stands to the German bourgeoisie."

State Socialism

In the United States men such as Eugene Debs, Maurice Hilquit and Norman Thomas believed they could, by a gradual series of alterations in the structure of society, create a truly democratic world in which all people would enjoy not merely freedom, but prosperity. They believed this could not be achieved under the system of private property and profit. They advocated a gradual acquisition by the State (which would be a participatory democracy comprised of all residents of the nation) of all the great utilities, transportation, communication, and basic industries such as coal, oil, and steel.

The dream of a cooperative commonwealth in which all would share equally in the prosperity created by an economic system owned by the people was the vision of Marxist Socialists. This in theory would end poverty, ignorance and crises. The idea was to nationalize banks, railroads, all means of transport, mines, and a few basic industries, but leave some factories, stores, farms, entertainment industries, etc., in the hands of private owners. The government, owned and controlled directly by the people, would assume responsibility for making the economy work, for the wellbeing of themselves, aka, the citizenry, their protection from the hazards of life, poverty, sickness, and old age. To make the whole economy work continuously without occasional boom-bust cycles, the government would create economic planning boards which would continuously study and observe the functioning of the economic system and make plans covering production, prices, distribution, financing, profits, wages, hours, etc. Thus there would be "Planned Capitalism", with the State responsible for the planning and for ensuring the carrying out of its plans through great government bureaus armed with the necessary powers to enforce compliance.

In the 1920s Mussolini had adopted the Planned Capitalist State, but with a totalitarian twist (instead of it being a direct democracy, it was a dictatorship running the government). And he gave it the name "fascism". Hitler adopted the same idea and called it National Socialism. Mussolini and Hitler both realized that a system which imposes a vast complex of decrees upon a people while subjecting them to confiscatory taxes to support the immense activities of the government cannot be operated except by an absolute government that has the power to enforce compliance. Prior to World War II, this type of system had spread all over Europe.

This system is the direct opposite of classical liberalism. It is the negation of the classical liberal philosophy which for decades has been fighting to emancipate the people from the tyranny of the all powerful State. During the New Deal this doctrine became known in America as "liberalism". Liberals did not admit that it implied the restoration to the State those very powers which had been stripped from the State as the means of giving people freedom. They called it the Planned Economy. But it was and is fascism by whatever name it is known. Incrementally the government must be made stronger, and the rights of the citizens reduced.

Modern "leftists"

Modern leftists in the United States have come under increasing criticism as advocates of "secular propaganda". Author David Limbaugh cites, "Consider the subjects of evolution, global warming, homosexual equality and abstinence education. Consider the mainstream media's arrogant denial of its transparent liberal bias, pronouncing itself to be above politics and inherently objective and its critics somehow skewed....Consider the leftist refrain that red state conservatives do not merely possess a different world view, but are not part of the 'reality-based community.'" Even though the neo-conservatives in the news call liberals leftists, they are not. Instead, they are moderates compared to the big picture of political ideologies. Modern leftists tend to be anti-authoritarian, and against both government and the private sector, seeing them both as interconnected and that connection as detrimental to society. They advocate for "democracy in the economic sector" and are against the free-market principles that America endorses.

External links

• V. I. Lenin, "Left-Wing" Communism, An Infantile Disorder (1920) V. I. Lenin, Selected Works, English edition, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1952, Vol. II, Part 2.
• John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.), THE MOTIVATIONS OF POLITICAL LEFTISTS