My beloved readers know that I frequently try to explain what Lefty is about. It should have disappeared with all the Lefty revolutions of the USSR, China, North Korea, Pol Pot, Cuba and India.
I owe it to Tod Lindberg in an article he wrote in the final issue of his Hoover Institution publication, Policy Review, for new insights.
He calls the article Left 3.0. Because he sees the current Left as different from its ancestry. Left 1.0 was the battles until 1966 between the socialists, anarchists and communists. These were battles over unionization and government services from the cradle to the grave. Left 2.0 dealt with antiwar policies, welfare, abortion and the creation of group rights as part of multiculturalism.
Left 3.0 has cleaned out most of those arcane issues. It is ideologically strong and pure based on one simple passion: Equality. In order to have equality (of outcome of course) one must have a powerful government. That is the passion of the Left today. This equality is hard to argue against because it is a core human tribal hormone. We all want our tribe to survive and we all want our tribe to be a family with equal status for every member.
Out of that equality passion rose the need for the creation of tribes. The tribes that the Left created are our gays, women, blacks, greedy white males, Latinos, etc.
For me Lindberg explains the great enigma. Rich people give big dollars to this Lefty 3.0 vision. The reason is that they feel guilty. They want the government to provide for the ‘poor’. They aren’t big on charity themselves and plan to buy whatever they want with their own money including medical care.
I genuinely want to thank Lindberg for his brilliant explication. If you actually read the article you will see that I have condensed some of his descriptions and perspectives... derived from his brilliant insights.