the difference between American liberalism and American leftism.
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to DRASTICALLY oversimplify:
Liberals: The general type of government/economy (Capitalist Market) is good, just not working as intended. We can fix it with better policy. In general, this is the pattern the US has always followed. Time marches leftward, and Liberalism is the idea that we can keep iterating on what exists. Pass social programs to help address poverty. Civil rights to address racial issues. Regulations to stop environmental pollution. Ect. This is the Democrats (at present). Think back to stuff like Roosevelt and the creation of the FDA. That’s liberalism in action. In general, while liberals will be highly progressive on SOCIAL issues (LGBT Rights for example), they will not support massive fundamental change to the structures that a leftist would view as integral to CAUSING these issues.
Leftists: the type of government economy can not properly address the needs of the people and it’s time to start looking to what comes next (Just as capitalism supplanted mercantilism which supplanted feudalism, so to would socialism supplant capitalism, and then communism supplant socialism). To a Leftist, a lot of the flaws aren’t just a bug, they are a feature. Stuff like how Housing is a fundamental need and right and should be provided to all, and the idea that a person should be able to own a bunch of it to profit off that need is immoral.
Please bear in mind that A: this is a HUGE oversimplification, and B: grouping all leftists into one is somewhat futile as there are dozens upon dozens of branches, schools of thoughts, ideas on how to make chance ect. While there are some common points (pretty much every leftist will agree, for example, about the importance of mutual aid, building strong local networks “of the people”, they will often disagree on what the u ltimate goal is, and/or how to get there.
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