What does it mean to be a member of the Leftist political ideology? I'm aware it's hard to come up with an ironclad definition, but I would venture to say that by and large, most Leftists in the U.S. believe in the following:
A secular society governed by the rule of law applied equally to all, where science, empirical evidence, intellectual inquiry, and reason, are the pillars upon which that society rests.
Most of the intellectual foundation of such society is laid out in the U.S. Constitution, which calls for a separation between Church and State, and individual rights, including freedom of speech, protection against unreasonable search and seizure acts by the government, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion, among others.
The great majority of Leftists in the U.S. (I would argue) have a clear and common sense approach to the concepts of a free (properly regulated) market, meritocracy, the social safety net, and generally-accepted economic principles, including supply and demand, income distribution, entrepreneurship, production, labor, sustainability, and environmental protection.
In other words, Leftists and Progressives are sane, common sense people. The Left represents the age of intellectual enlightenment based on thousands of years of human history.
By and large, there is no equivalency between the Right and the Left. I would challenge anybody in the Republican party, or the Tea Party, or any of their lesser parts, including the vile racists, extreme religious fundamentalist nut-jobs, nativists, extreme ultra-nationalists, or jingoists, or exploitative plutocrats animated by extreme greed, to put their arguments forward, and within thirty seconds that argument would be completely destroyed, if the basis for judging the argument is reason, intellect, and true American ideals.
So given this irrefutable reality, why does it seem like the Left is always on the defensive? Why do we seemed to always be reacting to the nut-jobs on the Right?
Let me put it this way: It would be like spending an inordinate amount of time reacting to what a certifiable crazy person says or does, and analyzing it, and putting forward counterarguments to their lunacy, etc.
My contention is that there is a lot of wasted time and effort doing that.
If Liberalism represents the true example of the "Shiny City on The Hill," then the Right represents marauding packs of savages assaulting the city relentlessly, trying to overrun its gates so they can get inside and impose a rein of backwardness, ignorance, base greed, superstition, and misery.
After a while, it's not enough to just protect the gates of the city against the marauding packs of savages. We need to put together an "Army" and launch a full-blown counter-attack, and go on the offensive, mercilessly, with the intent of total destruction of the enemy (metaphorically speaking), so once and for all society is not threatened any longer by the possibility of the imposition of social dictum based on utter ignorance, superstition, and greed.
In order to do that effectively, the Left needs to recognize the magnitude of the threat these marauding savages represent. A good contemporary example is the rash of fascist laws being passed across the entire country focused on oppressing women, suppressing votes, and contaminating governmental functions with non-sense religious dogma. In other words, a group of lunatics want to take over the entire society, and destroy it, for all intents and purposes.
And if that's the case, then a certain amount of hostility needs to be born on the Left, against the Right, from the understanding of what's at stake. You don't argue, or react to their bullshit, or cower in fear, or keep talking about how mean they are, etc. You look down on them; you look at them with ridicule, with disdain. And you go on the offensive.
On the Right, they are doing that. ALEC, and the Koch brothers, and the Heritage Foundation, and the American Enterprise Institute, and CATO, and the Hoover Institution. And Wall Street money, and wholesale ownership of our corrupt-to-the-core government institutions and both political parties; and their wholesale ownership of the mainstream media landscape which is used as a propaganda machine.
They represent the "intellectual" leadership of the marauding mobs of miscreants banging at the gates of the city trying to tear down the rule of reason, and of modernity and enlightenment, and justice and equality for all. And they are banging at it every fucking second of the day, and night. It's non-stop.
So gird yourself for battle (as it were), put on your gear, and let's go on the attack; let's go on the offensive, instead of just being on defensive mode.
The forces of ignorance, superstition, greed, avarice, are always there, present, trying to find any way to tear down modernity, freedom, enlightenment. And as society moves forward towards an inevitable future where man will finally find a way to live in harmony with each other, and with the environment, the forces of darkness, and superstition, and greed, will spasm, shrieking, and flailing its tentacles trying to remain viable.
So intellectual warriors on the Left, it is your duty to make sure to protect freedom, and a society based on the rule of law, intellect, science, and modernity.
Let's keep the momentum, and let's make sure that we first clean house by taking on the tiny group of international plutocratic parasites, and the fascistic organizations here at home.