The current political climate in America is often stated to be a conflict between the Far Right and the Radical Left. President Trump has even described Vice President Harris as a “Radical Left Lunatic”.

Despite what you may think of them, the Democratic Party is not at all a Leftist political party, let alone a “Radical” Leftist party.

Despite both words starting with the letter “L”, the Left and Liberalism are two disparate and distinct political ideologies.

What is the “Left” anyway?

One does not need to venture much further than Wikipedia to learn this, but the terms “left-wing” and “right-wing” originated from the French revolution.

The terms “left” and “right” first appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the Ancien Régime to the president’s right and supporters of the revolution to his left.

Left-wingers oppose hierarchy in favor of egalitarian and democratic solutions. Socialists, communists, and anarchists tend to occupy the political left, but it’s way more diverse (and far less organized) than the American media would lead you to believe.

Right-wingers support hierarchy and tradition. American conservatism is rooted in the same ideology that remained loyal to the British Crown during the Revolutionary War.

Liberals take a centrist position that promotes a laissez-faire economic policy.

The “Radical Left” would be the intersection of leftist politics that takes a further position from the right-wing stance than a liberal.

Where Liberals seek to solve political problems with free market solutions, Leftists instead would seek alternatives. And, as said previously, leftists aren’t a single cohesive position.

Socialists want to have the market owned my the state and operated to serve the public, without any incentive for shareholders or profits.

Anarchists don’t want there to be a state to begin with, because they view it as inherently oppressive.

There’s a ton of disagreement from leftist ideologies. What they can agree on, however, is that capitalism creates hierarchies, and leftists find hierarchies to be inherently bad.

Liberals don’t hate capitalism, leftists do.

Therefore, actual Leftists are more likely to identify with the DSA party rather than the DNC party. The latter are Democrats. Q.E.D.

Why does this distinction matter?

When someone calls a Liberal a Leftist, they’re doing one of two things:

1. They’re exhibiting profound ignorance of the basics of political science and American civics.
2. They’re deliberately trying to muddy the water in order to prop up an illusion of the “golden mean” being further towards the right-wing position.

Deliberate misinformation is part and parcel for politics in every country, but it’s worth being aware of it when it happens. Especially if it’s being done by your side.

You don’t have to like the other side on any given political issue, but you owe it to yourself to at least describe them correctly when you criticize them.

Otherwise, you risk making everyone a little dumber.