When people talk about right-wing ideology in America for the past decade, the reality is that so much of it is basically a simple batter of how much you bowed down to Donald Trump. While one could argue that someone like say Ryan Mackenzie is not like more extreme MAGA Republicans, such as say Lauren Boebert or Byron Donalds rhetorically, the reality is that he doesn’t vote any different than Boebert does in Congress, effectively. There are a few Republicans, like say Don Bacon, Brian Fitzpatrick, or Thom Tillis, who voted against Trump on meaningful votes, for the most part they did that because they were leaving Congress anyway. People like Pat Toomey or Mitt Romney that didn’t completely sell Trump their souls, left town. Congressman who are still around, or want to be around, bow to Trump.

What about the American left though? I feel like we don’t give enough credit to whatever the hell the last decade actually was. It would be easy to split Democrats on the left into two basic camps- Biden/Clinton Dems and Bernie Dems. That was essentially the split in the last two Presidential primaries, and it does answer the question of how the “opposition” party in the time of Trump (Yes, I know Biden was President for four years, no I don’t think he was ever the dominant figure in American political life though) ended up as the divided ones in a time when we were facing a united front intent on destroying liberalism in America. I don’t think it truly gets at just *how* divided Democrats actually are though. So I thought I’d take myself a crack at it, and try to break out the movement into pieces. So what are they?

Leftists. These folks have a lot in common with socialists, but the difference is that their ideology is more multi-faceted. They view virtually all things through a colonizer/oppression view point, be they economic, social, or foreign policy. They view countries like Russia, Iran, and Cuba as victims, rather than perpetrators, they excuse terrorist groups like Hamas, and even in some cases al-Qaeda, as freedom fighters. They actually hold much of the rest of the American left in contempt because they *don’t* want to engage in open confrontation over unpopular, politically suicidal positions, with the broader public. They hold “identity” politics in contempt in no small party because they view it as an excuse to “sanitize” non-white/non-male/non-straight politicians who don’t share their radical views. They love slogan politics, with overly simple views of things like “Defund the Police,” “Abolish Ice,” and “Free Palestine.” By and large, they are radical on most politics.

Marxist/Socialists. For the most part, this is actually pretty straight forward. This isn’t really DSA, because they’re actually socialists, and really they haven’t made up any ground in America. Sure, Mamdani is kind of, sort of trying to end private landlords in NYC, but there is no real scale of seizing the means of production though. These are people who actually believe in the teachings of Karl Marx. They’re insignificant in American politics, in no small part because they ignore social issues entirely and only want to talk class struggle. They really aren’t in the Democratic Party today.

Brogressives. A phenomenon that sort of grew out of Bernie’s 2016 campaign (By the way, I don’t quite *actually* put him in this group, himself.), was white guy leftism, for lack of a better way to describe it. These are mostly white men who want Democrats to stop talking about “divisive” things like social issues, but want to be “edgy and cool,” and vaguely sound like European social democrats. John Fetterman is probably the best, if imperfect, example of this in elected office, but despite everyone hating on him inside the party now, you have folks like Chris Murphy, Ruben Gallego, and Sheldon Whitehouse embracing candidates like this in 2026 primaries all over. I would absolutely put Bob Brooks in this category, if we get local, as he has expressed racial animus, intimacy for guns, and disdain for social causes of the Democratic Party. Despite not being white, Abdul El-Sayed’s primary campaign largely fit in here.

Progressives. For the most part, I think this is where the bulk of the 2026 Democratic Party’s primary electorate is, but what’s interesting is their willingness to flirt with the first three groups since 2024. These folks, for the most part, are fairly mainstream left on social, economic, and foreign policy issues. They want abortion legal, they also want rich people taxed. Despite their primary dominance, they are as much an outlier against the American electorate as any of the previously named groups, as they hold a strong ideological view of what they want the country to look like.

Liberals. Liberals in 2026 are interesting, because I think they draw their sort of origin from Hillary’s campaign in 2016, and how much of the left viewed her- economically moderate, socially liberal. A cursory look at Hillary’s actual positions (both pre and post primary) show her to probably be more of a progressive (I would argue the same of Biden), but perception is reality. There is a cadre of left-of-center voter that has no interest in Elizabeth Warren economics, but is heavily motivated by codifying Roe v. Wade, or putting a Black woman in the White House. They’re likely to strongly dislike Bernie Sanders, but idolize their vision of who John Lewis is.

Moderates. Moderates are exactly who you think they are. They are the people closest to traditional American policy medians, that aren’t on the Republican side. This group isn’t super left socially or economically, and really doesn’t identify with “movement” politics. This group has taken in a number of “Never Trump” Republicans in recent years, but one could think of Joe Manchin or the old school “Blue Dog” caucus. Most of their seats in Congress are gone, as the party has simply made it impossible to survive in their form.

Not Ideological. And here is the largest group. They don’t really vote in primaries. They make up the bulk of general election votes. They believe in broadly left of center ideas- a clean environment, good public schools, more access to health care, a fair tax code- but they lack sort of in-depth, concrete policy prescriptions they are demanding from the party or the government. They are the overwhelming majority of voters, the people who don’t give donations, don’t volunteer, aren’t Democratic Committee members, and don’t go to protests. More of them go to church than the rest of the party, especially if they aren’t white. More of them are truly, overwhelmingly “normal” than the bulk of the party. And more of them potentially could bolt on Democrats when they are unhappy. Some are very good, consistent Democratic voters, particularly Black voters and Jewish voters, especially the older ones who make up most of these voters. Some are less good, consistent Democratic voters. Think of the Obama-Trump-Biden-Trump Democratic registrants out there in swing districts across the country. Do they seem politically weird? Yes. Are they? Actually no. But they are taken for granted, because they don’t “fuel the machine” that makes DC run. They matter though.

That’s my breakdown of the American left. Again, I could do something similar with the American right, but it’s essentially “hardline Trump” vs. “Trump adjacent” at this point. It will be interesting to see if 2028 breaks that up a bit, or unites it.