Guest post

There’s more to politics than ideological labels, and for most people, encapsulating the complexity and nuance of one’s political views with a single term may prove difficult. However, in a country where conservative politicians spout oxymoronic combinations — for example, when Senator Ron Johnson described Joe Biden as a “liberal, progressive, socialist” — clarification is clearly needed.

Though the mainstream media may use these terms interchangeably, this is fundamentally incorrect. Liberals, progressives, and leftists have very different perspectives on current political and economic realities. More importantly, though, is the fact that each group differs in their ideal approach to solving the problems at hand.

Perhaps the best way of illustrating the difference between liberals, progressives, and leftists could be seen by each groups’ reaction to and understanding of Donald Trump’s election in 2016. The shock that accompanied his victory led people across the political spectrum to reconsider their established notions of what it meant to be “electable”. Though he was defeated for reelection, Trump’s legacy remains felt throughout all aspects of political life, especially in the realm of ideology.

The Liberal Worldview

During the Trump presidency, liberals generally saw Trump as an aberration, not a symptom of a fundamentally unsalvageable system. Liberals placed their faith in reinvigorating established institutions to stop Trump in his tracks, ignoring the fact that these same institutions were not enough to stop him to begin with. For liberals, Trump’s victory was not a result of the Democratic Party hemorrhaging its working-class base after failing to provide meaningful change to the people that put them in power. 

Instead, Trump’s victory was seen as a mere fluke, a disaster that wasn’t an indictment of a failed system, but rather a mere exception to a system that was generally working alright. This is why liberals embraced “anti-Trump conservatives” — those Republicans from the Bush years who later went on to become Trump critics. To them, these weren’t people who created the conditions that allowed Trump to win in the first place, but were rather positive relics of a simpler time. 

The Progressive Worldview

Progressives viewed Trump’s victory in a broader context, acknowledging that the same institutions that failed to stop Trump were incapable of holding him accountable. Progressives such as Bernie Sanders correctly identified the fact that the Democratic Party’s failure to provide tangible material benefits to its working-class base cost them a historic election. 

Noticing sharp shifts to the right in working-class, traditional Democratic Party strongholds in the Midwest, progressives understood Trump as a conman who preyed on the anxieties of the vulnerable. For progressives, this means that Democrats should, going forward, commit to policies that would benefit workers, such as universal healthcare, stronger labor protections, and a living wage for all. Adriel Hampton’s write-in campaign for Carlsbad Mayor is a progressive electoral effort.

The Leftist Worldview

Leftists viewed Trump’s victory in an even broader context, identifying it as not just a condemnation of existing institutions within a capitalist framework, but the very system of capitalism itself. In other words, leftists during the Trump era understood that capitalism is the disease, Trump is the symptom, and that socialism is the cure. 

While leftists certainly support progressive goals such as universal healthcare in the short term, in the long term they seek a total reorganization of economic society. This means that, while progressive policies will provide short-term relief for workers and will therefore temporarily thwart demagogues like Trump from arising, securing a better future will take much more than just increased funding for social services. 

This means creating an economic system rooted in people, not profit. This means decommodification of essentials for human life such as food and healthcare, not just increasing funds to provide them in the short-term. As long as the world exists under a regime of white supremacist, patriarchal, colonial capitalism, demagogues like Trump will take advantage of people’s fears and channel them into something sinister.